Love Me or Leave Me

Plot synopsis:
After kicking a customer for getting fresh, 1920s Chicago nightclub singer Ruth Etting is in jeopardy of losing her job when Martin Snyder intervenes on her behalf. Snyder, known as "The Gimp" to some because of his game leg, owns a laundry business and runs a protection racket, wielding considerable clout.
Etting and her piano accompanist Johnny Alderman are grateful, but Snyder makes it clear he expects Etting to travel to Miami with him, not for business but for pleasure. Etting declines, but Snyder's interest in her continues. Through an agent, Bernie Loomis, he arranges a radio program to feature Etting, followed by a job with the famed Ziegfeld Follies. His crude behavior and violent temper cause Etting a number of problems along the way.
Johnny is in love with Etting as well, but she marries Snyder out of gratitude. His heavy-handed management continues as her popularity grows. Goaded to get into the entertainment business, Snyder decides to open a nightclub of his own. Upset at sensing a relationship resuming between Etting and Johnny during their filming of a Hollywood movie, Snyder strikes her. He then catches them together, shoots Johnny and is arrested.
Horrified but conflicted because of all Snyder has done for her career, Etting arranges for Loomis to bail him out of jail. At his neglected nightclub, Snyder arrives to find that Etting is performing there herself. At first enraged by what he perceives as an act of charity, Snyder finally realizes this is Etting's way of showing her appreciation, even if she can't be part of his life any longer.

Tags: romantic

Review:
The Marty Snyders never change, and Cagney knows it; he stays the self-deluded small-time hood he started out as, who can't accept that he's driven away a woman he can't believe he loves so much.Day, however, rises to a magnanimity that rings hollow.
But her real acting triumph came with this hard-hitting Ruth Etting biography in which she does an amazing job as the torch singer involved with a gangster boyfriend (James Cagney).
Cagney has never been more impressive as the Chicago hood who manages her career--and Day manages to match him every step of the way with a gutsy, heart-felt performance.Also shown to good advantage is Cameron Mitchell as an admirer with real affection for Day. Their scenes together have a poignant quality because you know how deep the feelings go on both sides.
A highly dramatic musical, it makes you wonder what Day's career might have been like if she remained at Metro for more such films rather than the sugar-and-spice things she did at Warner Bros.
Although Day is effective in the role and looks a treat, the best acting performance in the movie comes from James Cagney as Marty The Gimp' Snyder, Etting's manager and husband.
Cameron Mitchell plays Johnny the loyal piano player who waits for Etting to find her own way, while Robert Keith is good as Barney, close friend to both Snyder and his wife.Good Technicolor and a Cinemascope treatment makes the movie look good, and the arrangements are excellent.
Day is nothing like the real Ruth Etting either in looks or voice, but she does well in one of her last great musical roles..
This film pre-dates & set the standard for films like Barbra Streisand's "Funny Girl" & Diana Ross' "Lady Sings The Blues", two other great films which showcased singers in acting roles playing real-life people.
"Love Me Or Leave Me" was Doris Day's MGM "extravagaza" (after several formula, cookie-cutter musicals at Warner Bros.) playing Ruth Etting a torch singer from the 1920's.
The bio-based storyline plays out like somewhat like a crime drama, while the musical portion rings forth with twelve complete full-bodied numbers.The casting is truly inspired: what a coup getting Doris Day, at the peak of her physical, acting and vocal powers to be cast in a real-life role, while snaring the brilliant, often breathtaking James Cagney--forever at the peak of his powers--as the indestructible "Gimp."  Together they create fireworks, playing off one another's sweet 'n' sour characterizations with great relish.
Doris Day portrays singing great Ruth Etting in "Love Me or Leave Me," a 1955 film costarring James Cagney and Cameron Mitchell.
The film tells the story, somewhat fictionalized, of Etting's rise to fame in the 1920s and her association and marriage to Marty "The Gimp" Snyder, a Chicago gangster.
Doris looks and sounds fantastic, singing a huge amount of music, including "Ten Cents a Dance," the title song, "Chasing the Blues Away" and many others.Cagney gives an extremely powerful performance as Marty, a pushy little man with a huge insecurity and a passion for Ruth.
The music is wonderful too, with the title number and Ten Cents a Dance wonderfully performed by Day. The two leads are great, Doris Day is a knockout complete with a sexy new image and a great understanding to the role she portrays with great warmth and freshness here, while James Cagney in a tough guy role, one of his better later roles is even better.In conclusion, maybe not for those looking for the truth, but for entertainment value and a fun film Love Me or Leave Me is just the ticket.
Though not big on the facts, it is a wonderfully compelling drama with music chronicling the rise of the troubled young torch singer, who, according to this film's screenplay, had a trouble getting her career going until she met a gangster named Jimmy "The Gimp" Snyder (James Cagney), whose dangerous exterior melted in Etting's presence escalating to his Svengali-like grip on her career and her personal life.
Fact-Based Musical Knock Out. During the late 1940s and early 1950s musicals acquired a distinctly noir-ish quality, and the life of singer Ruth Etting was made to order.Born in 1896, Etting was a hardknocks chorus girl when she caught the eye of small-time Chicago hood Martin "Moe the Gimp" Snyder, who married her in 1922 and proceeded to promote her career--occasionally, according to rumor, at gun point.
Her performance in LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME is often considered her high-water mark as a dramatic actress: she gives it everything she's got, and the sparks really fly when she and Cagney square off.The look of the film, which was directed by Charles Vidor and sports art direction by the legendary Cedrick Gibbons, is beautiful, and the film moves at a smart clip; its one failing is that censorship issues of the era left several scenes--including a legendary rape sequence--on the cutting room floor.
Doris Day is superb in this dramatic role that also calls for quite a bit of singing and dancing within the context playing Etting on stage.
Doris Day, star of many light musical comedies, proves that she can REALLY act, as well as SING in this movie.As Ruth Etting, songstress from the 1920's, she meets small-time Chicago hood Marty Snyder (James Cagney) who meets Ruth at a "ten cents a dance" emporium.
We never get enough of seeing movies about fallen stars who left a place in our hearts.This particular movie always interested me, I saw this movie on Turner Classic Movies and fell in love with the singing of Doris Day, I didn't know there was a real Ruth Etting, I didn't know she was really portraying a real life singer, I didn't check out the real Ruth Etting until 2 years ago, I saw her for the first time in "Hips Hips Hooray" on Turner Classic Movies and was kind of shocked the real Ruth wasn't anything like how Doris Day portrayed her.
The two things that Ruth and Doris did have in common was they both sing with great feeling and emotion.The real Ruth Etting seems frail and too sweet, she's adorable, which makes me wonder why she hooked up with a gangster anyway but then again looks can be deceiving, I heard she wasn't the sweet, girl next door type in the first place and she wasn't so naive and a pushover like Doris Day portrayed her.
Out of MGM, Love Me or Leave Me is directed by Charles Vidor and stars Doris Day, James Cagney & Cameron Mitchell.
Written by Daniel Fuchs and Isobel Lennart, the film is loosely based on the true story of legendary 20s torch singer Ruth Etting (Day) and her rise to fame propelled by Chicago gangster Marty "The Gimp" Snyder (Cagney).
It's shot in CinemaScope/Eastmancolor and features a number of Etting standards along with a couple of new tunes written especially for the film.Vidor's movie was a box office success that earned six Oscar nominations, one of which was for Cagney in the Best Actor category.
******** Love Me or Leave Me (5/26/55) Charles Vidor ~ Doris Day, James Cagney, Cameron Mitchell.
And though much is made of Miss Etting's film career--you'd have thought she was a great movie musical star--her Hollywood sojourn was actually brief and unimpressive.
One of the things that struck me was that while Joaquin Phoenix had a much tougher job because Johnny Cash was performing almost up to the end and had a distinctive sound that I didn't think anyone could match, Phoenix did a very good job in capturing him.On the other hand Ruth Etting had not been seen in films for over 20 years, nor had she made a record in that length of time either.
Ain't that a piece of irony itself.Cameron Mitchell as Johnny Alderman (real first name Myrl) does very well as the man who eventually became her second husband as does the rest of the cast.All three of the people that Day, Cagney, and Mitchell portray were still alive at the time that Love Me or Leave me was being filmed.
"Love Me or Leave Me" is the fictionalized but essentially accurate biopic of Ruth Etting (Doris Day), popular vocalist from the 1920s and 30s.
It's a tragic story about an ambitious but principled young woman who attracts the attention of a gangster, Marty Snyder (James Cagney), with an inferiority complex and a need for control.Cagney plays his part with such conviction that the film is not enjoyable to watch.
Doris Day and James Cagney are excellent in this lush Technicolor story that details the career of singer Ruth Etting.
Doris Day is such a fabulous comedienne that to see her being berated constantly by James Cagney, at his most pugilistic playing Chicago gangster Marty "The Gimp" Snyder, is something of a drag.
Day was perhaps too old at this point to be cast as real-life 1920s singer Ruth Etting, a fledgling songbird who rose from dance-hall hostess to nightclub sensation with help from Snyder.
However as her career begins to outshine the one-town criminal muscle, Martin struggles with how unnecessary he has become.I taped this as the combination of two stars like Day and Cagney was enough to make me interested in it - prior to this I had never heard of Ruth Etting, but I don't think that mattered as the film didn't assume pre-knowledge at any point.
I'd never seen Doris Day in a dramatic role, and I was really impressed by her in "Love Me or Leave Me," in which she plays nightclub singer Ruth Etting.
The film follows her tumultuous relationship with small-time gangster Martin Snyder, played in an Oscar-nominated performance by James Cagney.
In addition to Cagney's Oscar nomination, the film won the award for Best Motion Picture Story, while it was also nominated for Best Screenplay, Best Musical Scoring, Best Original Song (for "I'll Never Stop Loving You"), and Best Sound Recording.
It's impossible to pick just one Doris Day to movie to watch in your life, but if you have to choose only three, I insist you watch Romance on the High Seas, The Man Who Knew Too Much, and Love Me or Leave Me. Even though she neither looks nor sounds anything like Ruth Etting, Doris Day gives an incredible performance in this biopic of the famous 1920s singer.
Ruth started out in a dance hall, as described in one of her most famous songs "Ten Cents a Dance" before she was discovered by powerful mobster Marty Snyder, played in the film by James Cagney.
On the upside, Robert Keith and Harry Bellaver are very likable and sweet in their supporting roles, so it's relatively easy to drown Cameron out and pretend he's not in the movie.Love Me or Leave Me is a fantastic movie, an essential for James Cagney, Doris Day, or musical fans.
I Loved it And Would Never Leave It. After a series of silly, fun-loving movies, 1955 was a big year for Doris Day. That year saw her handed the role of singer Ruth Etting, who made it to the top but whose personal life suffered for her success.The film begins with a chance meeting by Etting at a dime-a-dance joint with gangster Martin Snyder, brilliantly played by James Cagney.
In addition to the old Etting favorites, she sings the new song I'll Never Stop Loving You.Cowboy movie actor, Cameron Mitchell, turns in an equally strong performance as piano player, Johnny Alderman, who leaves Etting, out of disgust for the way she is being dominated, only to encounter her years later, when the two of them are working on a movie.
Boring biopic about the relationship between singer Ruth Etting (Doris Day) and gangster Moe Snyder (James Cagney).
Although some of the biographical aspects of Ruth Etting's life and career appear to be glossed over or absent, this film, nevertheless, has so much going for it: A strong (albeit, modified) story; great acting by all; and the best soundtrack of Doris Day's career (the album was #1 on the charts for months).The scenes between Day and Cagney are electrifying and make the tension between them and the inevitable consequences of their fraught relationship totally convincing.
See this film for Doris Day's singing, for a glimpse at the career (even if skewed) of a major but nearly forgotten star of another era (Ruth Etting),and for the dynamic pairing of Day and Cagney..
This film is the story of 20's singer Ruth Etting and her marriage to Marty Snyder.
After seven years and seventeen pictures at Warner Brothers, Doris Day moved to MGM to star in a dramatic musical based on the life of 30s singing star, Ruth Etting.
Shot in CinemaScope and Technicolor, it was a lavish film.Doris Day gave the performance of her career and matched the great James Cagney in the acting department.
The critics were raving loud and clear and rumors of Oscars for Miss Day and Cagney were often discussed.The story concerned a young singing hopeful, Ruth Etting, in 20s Chicago who meets a tough gangster, Martin Snyder, who strong-arms her to fame.
"I'll Never Stop Loving You", which became a big record hit for Miss Day and an Oscar nominee for Best Song, and "Never Look Back", a gorgeous ballad done with a full orchestra.Her big extravagant Follies number, "Shaking the Blues Away" was typical MGM and a far cry from anything she did at Warner Brothers.Cameron Mitchell as Johnny Alderman, the musical director who loves Etting, Harry Bellaver, Robert Keith and Tom Tully were all first rate.
Doris Day (playing wonderfully against type) stars as 1920's chanteuse Ruth Etting (who needs discovery badly); James Cagney is gangster Marty Snyder who comes to her professional rescue, and the amazing thing is that had the film ended on just this oil-and-water partnership alone, it would've been sensational.
But it seemed to come so easily to Day that when she made the 1955 biopic of 1920's singer Ruth Etting, LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME, some of her fans were shocked.
For while LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME has plenty of music in it, sung only as Day could sing, it was a far cry from the lightweight stuff people associated with her.LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME is a slightly fictionalized biography of Ruth Etting, who was quite a big singing star in the 1920s and who actually made a couple of film appearances in the early sound era.
Marrying Snyder out of a sense of obligation, she does not love him and it isn't long before she is in utter misery, particularly when she goes to Hollywood and reunites with old flame Johnny Alderman (Cameron Mitchell), who she still carries a torch for but does not dare to get close to for fear of what her insanely jealous husband will do.This is by far the hardest-hitting film Doris Day ever made, and pitted against the immortal Cagney, she reveals a set of acting chops as sharp and as hungry as his.
(Singer Ruth Etting and her small time gangster husband/promoter Marty Snyder were real life people.
This film is said to be a partly fictional view of their marriage and breakup.)Doris Day plays Ruth Etting well.
If you doubt that Doris Day could play deeper dramatic roles, this film (along with films like "The Man Who Knew Too Much") should convince you otherwise...(We already know to expect a great performance from Cagney.).
However, in 'Love Me Or Leave Me' Day smolders sensuality, proving that her acting chops were sadly underrated during the rest of her career.The film is a musical bio based on the rather sorted life and times of torch singer, Ruth Etting (Day).
It is also a harrowing portrait of an abusive relationship, in this case a fictionalized Ruth Etting and her manager/husband Marty Snyder, played to perfection by Doris Day and James Cagney.Though Day's characterization of Etting is not entirely accurate to the real woman, it is an interesting subversion of her "good girl" image by portraying a character who plays up an innocent image for her own advantage.
The sultry Ruth Etting has survived the test of time thanks to vintage footage of her performing in a variety of musical shorts and feature films, but for years, all most people knew about her was what they had seen in this movie.
In LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME, the MGM studio courageously exposes the underbelly of American "success." Among the DVD extras are two films foisted off on the public back in the day by the gangsters behind the subject of this expose\Biopic, "singer" Ruth Etting.
In 1955, at almost the chronological mid-point of her film career (1948-1968) Doris Day made what are arguably the two finest films in which she ever appeared, Young At Heart and Love Me Or Leave Me. Both are best classified as Musical Drama and in both she played opposite a character whose screen name was Barney.
The two films, however, are quite different in style, `Love Me or Leave Me' being a typical musical, whereas `I'll Cry Tomorrow' is more of an uncompromising study of the decline of the central character.Ruth Etting, as played by Doris Day, and Snyder, as played by Jimmy Cagney, are presented here as being completely different in character.
Ergo, the conclusion is: it's not a musical.FURTHER COMPLICATING THE story is accomplished with the intrusion of a local Gangster (Cagney) into the life of singer-wannabe, Ruth Etting (Doris Day).
Basically one day in a bar that she used to work in, Ruth Etting (Doris Day) met producer Martin Snyder (Oscar nominated James Cagney) who could promise a new and better paid career on stage.
The veteran actor proved his mettle as Martin "Marty" Snyder in "Love Me or Leave Me." Doris Day was an excellent singer and she does a very good job in this film.