"The Night is Young" from 1935 is Ramon Novarro's last film at MGM. His costar was a very popular British performer into her nineties, Evelyn Laye. Una Merkel, Rosalind Russell, and Edward Everett Horton costarred -- you'll recognize the whole cast.Novarro plays an Archduke whose marriage has been arranged to one Princess Matilda; however, he loves another -- Countess Rafay (Russell), but his uncle hates her family.Gustl, as he's called, can sow the wild oats before marrying, but Emperor Franz Josef has to approve and she has to be someone not in the royal circle.Gustl claims love for a ballerina, Lisl Gluck (Laye). She's in love with the ballet company's piano accompanist (Donald Cook),so when she finds out she's just to be a blind, she's fine with it. In return, he will produce her boyfriend's ballet. Well, we all know what happens.Unlike someone else on this board, I wasn't knocked out by the music or, frankly, the singing. Novarro is very charming and dashing, and Laye delightful. There is good acting all around. I'm just not crazy about some of these earlier musicals, even if this music is by Romberg. Perhaps if I liked the singing more...oh, well. This may be just the ticket for you. It's a very sweet story.

I had never heard of this film until I saw it recently on Turner Classic Movies as part or a Ramon Novarro salute. What a charming story! It's quite similar to THE STUDENT PRINCE, but with different songs. "The Night Is Young" and "When I Grow Too Old To Dream" are the two standouts in the musical score, and they are delivered charmingly - several times - by Novarro and his leading lady, the beautiful Evelyn Laye.Before viewing this film, I had just seen Jeannette MacDonald opposite Novarro in THE CAT AND THE FIDDLE. Next to the more famous American soprano, Miss Laye is a breath of fresh air - much less affected and more spontaneous in her acting, with an equally beautifully soprano voice. Perhaps because she is British, her enunciation is far superior to MacDonald's, and the voice is far less shrill in its upper register. Her chemistry with Novarro is wonderfully natural.I don't mean to slight Ramon Novarro. He is, by turns, romantic, playful, wistful, and noble as the situation requires. He has a pleasant singing voice, and he acquits himself quite well in this bittersweet operetta.When one adds in some of the excellent MGM supporting players - Una Merkel, Edward Everett Horton, Henry Stephenson, and Herman Bing - and a relatively thankless role for an as yet still supporting Rosalind Russell, it's a winning formula for passing close to an hour and a half.The story is pure fluff, but what delightful fluff! I would really love to find this on DVD to add to my collection.

Thank heavens for TCM! I stumbled on this movie half way through and was instantly captivated. I immediately recognized Ramon Novarro but I was completely mystified as to who the fantastic lead was. Couldn't break away to google the movie until now and have learned that the beautiful and talented lead was played by Evelyn Laye. She puts Ginger and Jeannette to shame- a lovely voice and such a natural actress on screen. Apparently she left the movies after this role to return to the London stage- Hollywood's loss. Ramon is handsome as ever- probably his best role ever. The sets and music are wonderful and with the excellent cast, rise above the silly (but typical 1930's) plot. The ending was rather sad and actually not the typical poor girl gets rich boy in the end. Don't miss this gem- one of the best operettas out of pre- WWII Hollywood.

Ramon Novarro (in his last MGM movie) stars as a prince who falls in love with someone beneath his station--the lovely Lisl (Evelyn Laye). Meanwhile he's being forced into marriage with a horrid woman (Rosalind Russell!!!). What will he do?Lavish musical comedy romance shot in beautiful black and white. By the time this was made, Novarro knew his career at MGM was over. He was a gay man who refused to marry so MGM did not renew his contract when it expired. What's surprising is they went all out to give and gave him a really great film as a sendoff.The budget was obviously huge--some of the sets are really impressive. The script is very good with some truly beautiful songs interwoven (I loved it when people just slipped from talking to singing). The whole cast is good-there's not one bad performance. Evelyn Laye is beautiful and has a wonderful voice--one hell of an actress too. Edward Everett Horton as a prissy palace official is quite funny--just his facial looks had me chuckling. And a very young Rosalind Russell is interesting. Best of all is Novarro--Incredibly handsome with a beautiful smile and voice and also a very good actor. It's really a shame that homophobia ruined his career.The picture has a very romantic feel to it and Laye and Novarro had some serious sexual chemistry between them. I'm only giving this an 8 because of the ending. It's realistic but I didn't like it--it threw the whole film off kilter. Still, this is a real treat worth seeing.This was a HUGE box office bomb when it came out and has disappeared over the years (even Leonard Maltin doesn't have it in his book). Now that TCM is showing it let's hope it gets the recognition it deserves.