One Night of Love
- Grace Moore: Mary Barrett
- Tullio Carminati: Giulio Monteverdi
- Lyle Talbot: Bill Houston
- Mona Barrie: Lally
The illuminated target ( Original title: One Night of Love ) is an American musical film with opera singer Grace Moore in the lead role, directed by Victor Schertzinger from the 1934 Columbia Pictures. Grace Moore was on the Academy Awards 1935 Oscar nomination for Best Actress, the film beyond five other nominations. The premiere took place in Germany in Bremen on May 3, 1935.
Action
The young singer Mary Barrett opened her astonished parents that she would leave New York City to study music and singing in Milan. Just arrived in Milan, Mary meets Giulio Monteverdi, who hears her singing and recognizes their talent. Both agree to lead a strictly professional relationship. Soon, Mary is touring through some opera houses in the province. After some time, it is the young woman who has become a well-known celebrity, sorry that her entire life is controlled by Giulio. With a guest appearance in Vienna, they meet Lally, who was Giulio student a few years ago and tried in vain to seduce him. All sorts of misunderstandings lead Mary to believe Lally had more success this time. From jealousy packed, Mary meets with Bill Houston, a loyal admirer and accepts his marriage proposal. In the evening gala at the Opera House of Vienna. Mary is a sensation and her brilliant interpretation of the aria La Barrett from Georges Bizet's Carmen brings you the long-awaited engagement at the Metropolitan Opera. Giulio warns Mary that she was not yet ripe for such an appearance. Both argue and to make matters worse also solves even Bill the engagement. On the opening night at the Met as Cio-Cio San in Madame Butterfly Mary is so nervous that she almost faints. Just when she wants to cancel the presentation, they discovered Giulio and summarizes new courage. The evening will be a rousing success, and Mary is at the end of happiness in Giulio 's arms.
Background
Grace Moore was already a household name in the world of opera. However, their fame was based more on its extraordinary beauty as on her, something just in the heights uncertain, soprano. With the advent of the talkies she was offered a contract to Hollywood. MGM put it in 1930 in two successful productions a Jenny Lind about the famous Swedish soprano and New Moon, the screen adaptation of the operetta by Sigmund Romberg on the side of tenor Lawrence Tibbett one. Your contract has already been solved by the end of the year. In addition to the declining interest of the audience on operettas matters further, Moore developed a serious face problem. The applied Diva left the city in anger and managed over the next three years, a brilliant comeback in New York City, where she appeared in the American premiere of Carl Millöcker / Theo Mack Eben OperetteDie Dubarry 1932.
Harry Cohn, president of Columbia Pictures Moore had seen in the premiere and when the singer a few months later gave a guest appearance in Los Angeles, he offered her a film contract with a salary of $ 25,000 per film. Moore was at the time still in negotiations with MGM as a partner of Maurice Chevalier in the Ernst Lubitsch adaptation of The Merry Widow. In the end, however, the two actors could not agree who should be first announced by them in the opening credits and the role went to Jeanette MacDonald. Moore signed instead with Columbia and the problems started from day one. First, the two sides could not agree on a suitable script. In addition, there was great uncertainty as to whether a film with classical music would ever find its audience. As an attempt failed to terminate the agreement with Moore, Harry Cohn ordered finally find Everett Riskin script. Then there were regular outbreaks of temper Moore, who do not always simply designed the shooting. The music for the film contained arias from Carmen and the famous Un Bel Di from Madame Butterfly. In addition, Moore sang for the first time the folk -tinged title Ciri Biri Bin, who was to become the theme song for the rest of their career.
The cost of production amounted to 200,000 at the end of the U.S. dollar and despite initial concerns, One Night of Love was an unqualified financial success for the studio. The first film by Columbia at all the film from the Loews cinema chain was taken in the first window. Loews took only prestigious A- movies in the marketing and oriented its program more to the taste of the audience in the large cities of the country. The decision meant a considerable image boost for Columbia, which so far had the reputation of being second choice among film studios. Grace Moore turned after a few more successful musicals, whose success helped to make classical music popular in movies.
Criticism
In the New York Times a glowing review was to read:
" Grace Moore presents itself not only as a successful prima donna who sings some opera arias, but also as quite skilled comedienne. The film [ ... ] is lightweight entertainment and charm and talent of actress appropriate. "
Awards
The film went with six nominations at the Academy Awards in 1935 and won two trophies and a special prize.
Won:
- Best Original Score - Louis Silvers (Columbia Studio Music Department)
- Best Sound - John Livadary (Columbia Studio Sound Department)
The film also received the
- Award for Technical Merits: Columbia Pictures Corporation ( 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 )
Nominations:
- Best Film of 1934
- Best Actress - Grace Moore
- Best Director - Victor Schertzinger
- Best Editing - Gene Milford