Movie Review: Love Me or Leave Me

Stars: 3 out of 5

Pros: Great acting, some good songs…

Cons: …that slow down a story that is hard to watch

The Bottom Line:

Story of singer

Unhealthy relationship

Great performances

“I’ll Make a Deal with You, Barney.  You Don’t Tell Me Your Sad Stories; I Won’t Tell You Mine.”

I always wonder just how close to reality as film is when it is based on a true story.  Or, in the case of Love Me or Leave Me, a “fictionalized account.”  Either way, this movie wasn’t as good as I’d hoped it would be.

The movie was inspired by the story of Ruth Etting (Doris Day).  She’s trying to start a career as a singer in 1920’s Chicago.  While piano player Johnny Alderman (Cameron Mitchell) is willing to give her the lessons that would help her, it is mobster Marty Snyder (James Cagney) who is going out of his way to give Ruth what she wants.  The problem is, his interest in Ruth isn’t necessarily healthy.  Will it be good or bad for Ruth?

I spent much of the movie cringing, wanting to scream to Ruth to get away from Marty.  You just know he’s no good and no good for her.  I rarely enjoy watching characters doing things you know aren’t going to end well, so that made this movie hard to watch.

Meanwhile, there is the fact that this is a musical.  Now, I usually enjoy musicals, but I prefer it when the songs are advancing the story.  Here, most of the songs are Ruth’s performances on the stage.  It’s hard to complain since that means we get to listen to Doris Day sing.  She really was a talented singer.  But the problem was there are enough of them that I got bored long before the end.

It probably didn’t help that I wanted the movie to end so I could find out what happened to the people and the songs were just slowing it down.  If I sat down to watch just the performances, I would probably enjoy them.

None of this is on the actors, who are all phenomenal.  James Cagney got an Oscar nomination, and it’s easy to see why.  Doris Day was expected to be nominated as well, and she would have deserved it; it was too bad she was passed over.  The rest of the cast is just as great.

And it’s not that the movie is horrible.  I was pulled into the story.  I just didn’t find it as entertaining as I had hoped.  I found it more average.  But I can see why others would enjoy Love Me or Leave Me.