Once the highest paid star in Hollywood silent film Queen, Gloria Swanson looks uncomfortable and sounds a little like Gracie Allen in her shaky transition to sound in this solidly made racy comedy. Not her first or last sound picture during that era but a clear indicator her style of acting had become anachronistic overnight with new kids on the block like Joan Crawford and Jean Harlow preparing to take the heat up a notch and send Ms. Swanson packing, only to rise Phoenix like years later in Sunset Boulevard; along with Benji the canine (Petticoat Junction) the greatest comeback in Hollywood history.Talented opera singer Nella Vaga (Swanson) has the tools but not the passion to take her place among the big names in the business. After a solid performance (sans passion) in Venice, American, Jim Fletcher, (Melvyn Douglas) is enthralled and stalks Vaga. A man of nebulous means Nella is intrigued, conflicted and makes a clumsy pass. Fletcher toys with her in a lengthy seduction that cures her stage reticence. Turns out she simply needed to get laid. Her Budapest performance is gang busters and the Met calls on as she finds love and success. Tonight or Never is filled with ambiguous innuendo and dialogue giving it a rye subversive flavor as it keeps the audience in the dark along the way to do so. Directed by Mervyn LeRoy, a Wellman like director, I could have been easily persuaded it was a Lubitsch work with it's theme, tart insinuations, use of doors, "Touch" regular Melvyn Douglas and a large ethnic caricature supporting cast with Fernand Gottschalk, Allison Skipworth and Robert Grieg (who has the most touching moment in the film with Swanson) all contributing key moments all of quirky non- stereotype. . J. Carol Naish, uncredited, offers up a tiny gem while Karloff in his Frankenstein year is weirdly perverse as a waiter.This is Melvyn Douglas first major role and he brings the same self assured sophisticated suavity that would carry him through the next dozen or so years when he would loosen up Garbo this time in Lubisch's Ninotchka just before the black list and his own stunning comeback in later years as a multi award winning actor. Swanson looks lovely dressed in Chanel, lounging about lush interiors photographed by the iconic Greg Toland but her performance is inconsistent at best her with comic timing off whether going up against Douglas or the supporting cast. There remain moments however when it becomes crystal clear why Ms. Swanson was a silent superstar, especially in close-ups without dialogue in which LeRoy goes retro silent to capture the star in her halcyon past, only for a moment but with maximum impact.

Being a sucker for classic comedies, i really wanted to like this. But it's never a good sign when you start watching the clock instead of the movie. Isn't a comedy supposed to have jokes in it? Do we really need that much time to set up the plot? Ah yes the plot: opera diva can only become truly great after she has found Love. So thinking a night with a handsome gigolo will do the trick and get her booked at the Met, she gives in to her passions. And by golly it works! But then guilt creeps in... I'l stop here so as not to spoil the plot for those who are not discouraged by my review. (It's your own time to waste) Being mercifully short at 82 minutes, it really felt like it lasted quite a bit longer. It has period charm, Swanson and Douglas make a nice enough couple, but the material is too slight to make this into an enjoyable movie.

Tonight or Never (Mervyn LeRoy, 1931) was the early talkie that brought stage and screen legend Melvyn Douglas from Broadway to Hollywood. Viewed through the prism of history, it's also a chance to see Sunset Blvd. titan Gloria Swanson as a conventional leading lady, blessed with talent, charm and an impressive modernity. Though her character in the Wilder classic is a silent star who was thrown on the scrapheap when the movies learned to talk, the real-life Swanson actually made the transition more easily than most, winning the Best Actress Oscar for The Trespasser in 1929. It was age, rather than sound, that ultimately derailed her career. Here Swanson plays an opera singer whose performances are technically proficient but ultimately cold, leaving her way short of international success. The problem, her coach tells her, is that she's never been in love. So she concocts an affair with admirer and possible gigolo Douglas, hoping it will spark her into life. The film is less escapist and more challenging than later variations on the subject, with a script that's sometimes witty and sporadically insightful, though it does betray its stage origins in the simplistic structure and largely internal settings.The main draw here, along with the pre-Code shenanigans, is the acting. Swanson is invigoratingly natural as she shrugs, winces and flirts her way through the movie, matched by Douglas, whose familiar man-about-town persona is undercut by a danger and brusqueness that's completely new. Support is provided by Alison Skipworth (who played the Sidney Greenstreet role in the screwball version of The Maltese Falcon, Satan Met a Lady), along with Broadway cast members Ferdinand Gottschalk, eternal butler Robert Greig, Greta Meyer and Warburton Gamble. Boris Karloff appears as a hotel employee who slyly warns Douglas of Swanson's imminent arrival in his room, while the radio announcer is an uncredited J. Carroll Naish! A further boon for classic film buffs is the photography from Citizen Kane cinematographer and Samuel Goldwyn alumnus Gregg Toland. Though he's not working at full pelt here, his silver-tinged, superbly-contrasted images give a little taster of just what Toland was capable of. And just to show that there's something for everyone here (except perhaps football supporters and Ted Danson afficionados), fans of vintage fashion should get a kick out of the striking costumes, designed by Coco Chanel.Tonight or Never was passed with cuts before the Hays Code clampdown of 1934, then subsequently refused for re-release in 1935 and 1937. Lamar Trotti, later a Fox executive and a superb screenwriter on films including John Ford's Judge Priest and Young Mr Lincoln, was at that time working for the Hays Office and said censors had found the key seduction sequence particularly offensive. And you can see why. It wasn't until the gradual lifting of restrictions in the early '50s that a woman could waltz into a man's flat, accuse him of being a gigolo and then insist he have sex with her - albeit in elliptical terms. And even if the symbolism and language appear very dated today, the subject matter is the sort that would be off-limit for most of the next 20 years, so it's fascinating to see it peddled by a leading man so associated with simple, romantic Golden Era fare as Douglas. An earlier scene, sadly truncated by the censors, depicts Swanson lying on her bed, listening crossly to the honeymooners next door. Apparently the original cut had her writhing around excitedly as they set about consummating their marriage. There's a scene as bold as that in the Hungarian film Extase, featuring a young, decidedly naked Hedi Lamarr, but I can't think of one in contemporary American film.Tonight or Never isn't a Pre-Code classic to rank with say, Little Caesar or Counsellor-at-Law, but it's a very watchable film and intriguing for both its sensuality - check out the leads' first kiss or Swanson's nightwear - and the meeting of two great stars heading in opposite directions.

This film is truly a classic, directed by Mervyn LeRoy. Nella Vago(Gloria Swanson), a young singer, performs an operatic debut in Venice but discovers her reception disappointing. She is critized by her instructor (Ferdinand Gottschalk) claiming her voice lacks warmth and feeling. A mysterious young man stalks her everywhere, (Melvyn Douglas) who is really a talent scout for the Met. The cast with Gloria Swanson("Sunset Blvd." with Wm. Holden) and Melvyn Douglas and Boris Karloff who had gained famed as being the Frankenstein Monster made this film a great success during the early 1930's. Karloff gave a very good performance as a high classed waiter with no horror expressions on his face. It was a great picture during that period of time and is worth viewing.