The Love Parade

This article is about the 1929 film. For other uses, see Love Parade (disambiguation).

The Love Parade
Film poster
Directed byErnst Lubitsch
Written byGuy Bolton (libretto)
Story byErnest Vajda (film story)
Based onLe Prince Consort
c.1919 novel
by Leon Xanrof
Jules Chancel
Produced byErnst Lubitsch
StarringMaurice Chevalier
Jeanette MacDonald
Lillian Roth
Eugene Pallette
CinematographyVictor Milner
Edited byMerrill G. White
Music byW. Franke Harling
John Leipold
Oscar Potoker
Max Terr
Songs:
Victor Schertzinger (music)
Clifford Grey (lyrics)
Production
company
Distributed byParamount Famous Lasky Corp.
Release dates
  • November 19, 1929 (1929-11-19) (New York City)
  • January 18, 1930 (1930-01-18) (U.S.)[1]
Running time
107 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

The Love Parade is a 1929 American pre-Code musical comedy film, directed by Ernst Lubitsch and starring Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald, involving the marital difficulties of Queen Louise of Sylvania (MacDonald) and her consort, Count Alfred Renard (Chevalier). Despite his love for Louise and his promise to be an obedient husband, Count Alfred finds his role as a figurehead unbearable. The supporting cast features Lupino Lane, Lillian Roth and Eugene Pallette.

The film was directed by Lubitsch from a screenplay by Guy Bolton and Ernest Vajda adapted from the French play Le Prince Consort,[2] written by Jules Chancel and Leon Xanrof. The play had previously been adapted for Broadway in 1905 by William Boosey and Cosmo Gordon Lennox.[3]

The Love Parade is notable for being both the film debut of Jeanette MacDonald and the first "talkie" film made by Ernst Lubitsch. The picture was also released in a French-language version called Parade d'amour.[4] Chevalier had thought that he would never be capable of acting as a Royal courtier, and had to be persuaded by Lubitsch.[5] This huge box-office hit appeared just after the Wall Street crash, and did much to save the fortunes of Paramount.

  1. ^ The Love Parade at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
  2. ^ Film Details, TCM.com; accessed November 29, 2022.
  3. ^ The Prince Consort, ibdb.com; accessed August 6, 2015.
  4. ^ Notes, TCM.com; accessed November 29, 2022.
  5. ^ With Love, the Autobiography of Maurice Chevalier (Cassell, 1960), p. 192[ISBN missing]