Songs: "One Night of Love" (Moore) by Gus Kahn (lyrics) and Victor Schertzinger (music); "Ciri-Biri-Bin" (Moore) by A. Pestalozza and Rudolf Thaler; "One Fine Day" (Moore) by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa (lyrics) and Giacomo Puccini (music); an aria (Moore) from "Carmen", lyrics by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halevy, music by Georges Bizet; an aria (Moore) from "Lucia di Lammermoor", lyrics by Salvatore Cammarano, music by Gaetano Donizetti. Background music: Louis Silvers, Howard Jackson, Alfred Newman. Music director: Dr Pietro Cimini.
Copyright 30 July 1934 by Columbia Pictures Corp. New York opening at the Radio City Music Hall, 6 September 1934 (ran 2 weeks). U.K. release: 19 January 1935. Australian release: 2 January 1935. Sydney opening at the Liberty. 9 reels. 82 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Student trains to be an opera singer.
NOTES: Academy Award, Best Music Score (defeating The Gay Divorcée and The Lost Patrol). Academy Award, Sound Recording (defeating Affairs of Cellini, Cleopatra, Flirtation Walk, The Gay Divorcée, Imitation of Life, Viva Villa). Academy Award, Class III Scientific or Technical Award, to "Columbia Pictures Corp. for their application of the vertical cut disc method (hill and dale recording) to actual studio production, with their recording of the sound on the picture One Night of Love".
Also nominated for Best Picture (It Happened One Night), Best Actress, Grace Moore (Claudette Colbert in It Happened One Night), Directing (Frank Capra for It Happened One Night), Film Editing (Eskimo).
Number 4 in the Film Daily annual poll of U.S. film critics. Australia's number one box-office hit for 1936. (With a staggering 323,696 tickets sold exclusively at its Sydney showcase, the movie was not generally released until 1936. By way of comparison, Australia's number two in popularity for 1936, "Top Hat", sold just less than 219,000 tickets in its Sydney city season). One Night of Love is one of a mere handful of Hollywood movies that earned back not only their original costs but their total worldwide print, distribution and advertising overheads in Australia alone. The movie also proved a sensation in its domestic release, coming in at second position for 1934 to It Happened One Night. This meant that Columbia had captured both the number one and number two spots, a result which propelled the studio firmly into the ranks of the Hollywood majors.
COMMENT: It's impossible to credit that five writers labored on this concoction. Five! The mind boggles. What did they write? Sparking dialogue? No. Cleverly conceived characters? No. An amusing plot? No. An exotic setting? No. Fascinatingly detailed backstage trivia? No.So what did they come up with? A piffling little story about a somewhat plain girl (with no dress sense whatever) who makes the trip from hometown, USA, to an Italian slum where she sings for her supper and thus attracts the attention of a leading teacher who takes her under his wing on the strict understanding that the opera- star-to-be must not fall in love with him. As he's a little fat guy with the imperious manners of a footman and all the personality of a wet dishrag, this would seem not too onerous a bargain, especially as our plain Jane has managed to snare (how, we're not told) a snappy, personable, young millionaire who is positively eager to marry her. If you can't tell how the plot (such as it is) progresses from this point, you haven't seen many pictures.
Hmm. Five writers, count them! Well, the surrounding story in a musical is not supposed to be all that stimulating, so let's overlook the sappy script and turn our attention to the music. Wonderful songs? Well, her first effort, "Sempre Libera" from Verdi's La Traviata (lyrics by Francesco Maria Piave) and her following café number "Ciri-Biri-Bin" are put over with a certain amount of vitality (the first is even introduced with a couple of zoom shots), but they hardly number among our favorites; the title song is a nothing; and the other operatic arias are well-plumbed standards. Maybe they still had a few breaths of freshness back in 1934, but sixty years later, they seem old-hat. Pedestrian staging doesn't help either.
As for Miss Moore's voice? Again, not a soprano I exactly idolize, but passable enough on a sound track that, although it may have been a pace-setter in 1934, still seems a long way short of the standard we expect today.
Other features that negate the film's appeal include Luis Alberni's exaggerated mugging as Carminati's comic-relief assistant. (Incidentally, Carminati plays a character named Giulio Monteverdi, but he is addressed in the movie as Tullio). Plus Miss Moore's ghastly costumes. Plus the general poverty of the production. In short, I found the movie very disappointing.
Copyright 30 July 1934 by Columbia Pictures Corp. New York opening at the Radio City Music Hall, 6 September 1934 (ran 2 weeks). U.K. release: 19 January 1935. Australian release: 2 January 1935. Sydney opening at the Liberty. 9 reels. 82 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Student trains to be an opera singer.
NOTES: Academy Award, Best Music Score (defeating The Gay Divorcée and The Lost Patrol). Academy Award, Sound Recording (defeating Affairs of Cellini, Cleopatra, Flirtation Walk, The Gay Divorcée, Imitation of Life, Viva Villa). Academy Award, Class III Scientific or Technical Award, to "Columbia Pictures Corp. for their application of the vertical cut disc method (hill and dale recording) to actual studio production, with their recording of the sound on the picture One Night of Love".
Also nominated for Best Picture (It Happened One Night), Best Actress, Grace Moore (Claudette Colbert in It Happened One Night), Directing (Frank Capra for It Happened One Night), Film Editing (Eskimo).
Number 4 in the Film Daily annual poll of U.S. film critics. Australia's number one box-office hit for 1936. (With a staggering 323,696 tickets sold exclusively at its Sydney showcase, the movie was not generally released until 1936. By way of comparison, Australia's number two in popularity for 1936, "Top Hat", sold just less than 219,000 tickets in its Sydney city season). One Night of Love is one of a mere handful of Hollywood movies that earned back not only their original costs but their total worldwide print, distribution and advertising overheads in Australia alone. The movie also proved a sensation in its domestic release, coming in at second position for 1934 to It Happened One Night. This meant that Columbia had captured both the number one and number two spots, a result which propelled the studio firmly into the ranks of the Hollywood majors.
COMMENT: It's impossible to credit that five writers labored on this concoction. Five! The mind boggles. What did they write? Sparking dialogue? No. Cleverly conceived characters? No. An amusing plot? No. An exotic setting? No. Fascinatingly detailed backstage trivia? No.So what did they come up with? A piffling little story about a somewhat plain girl (with no dress sense whatever) who makes the trip from hometown, USA, to an Italian slum where she sings for her supper and thus attracts the attention of a leading teacher who takes her under his wing on the strict understanding that the opera- star-to-be must not fall in love with him. As he's a little fat guy with the imperious manners of a footman and all the personality of a wet dishrag, this would seem not too onerous a bargain, especially as our plain Jane has managed to snare (how, we're not told) a snappy, personable, young millionaire who is positively eager to marry her. If you can't tell how the plot (such as it is) progresses from this point, you haven't seen many pictures.
Hmm. Five writers, count them! Well, the surrounding story in a musical is not supposed to be all that stimulating, so let's overlook the sappy script and turn our attention to the music. Wonderful songs? Well, her first effort, "Sempre Libera" from Verdi's La Traviata (lyrics by Francesco Maria Piave) and her following café number "Ciri-Biri-Bin" are put over with a certain amount of vitality (the first is even introduced with a couple of zoom shots), but they hardly number among our favorites; the title song is a nothing; and the other operatic arias are well-plumbed standards. Maybe they still had a few breaths of freshness back in 1934, but sixty years later, they seem old-hat. Pedestrian staging doesn't help either.
As for Miss Moore's voice? Again, not a soprano I exactly idolize, but passable enough on a sound track that, although it may have been a pace-setter in 1934, still seems a long way short of the standard we expect today.
Other features that negate the film's appeal include Luis Alberni's exaggerated mugging as Carminati's comic-relief assistant. (Incidentally, Carminati plays a character named Giulio Monteverdi, but he is addressed in the movie as Tullio). Plus Miss Moore's ghastly costumes. Plus the general poverty of the production. In short, I found the movie very disappointing.