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Love Me or Leave Me Overview:

Love Me or Leave Me (1955) was a Biographical - Drama Film directed by Charles Vidor and produced by Joe Pasternak.

Academy Awards 1955 --- Ceremony Number 28 (source: AMPAS)

AwardRecipientResult
Best ActorJames CagneyNominated
Best Music - ScoringPercy Faith, George StollNominated
Best Music - SongMusic by Nicholas Brodszky; Lyrics by Sammy CahnNominated
Best WritingDaniel FuchsWon
Best WritingDaniel Fuchs, Isobel LennartNominated
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Love Me or Leave Me BlogHub Articles:

Love Me or Leave Me (1955) - A Bad Romance

By FlickChick on Sep 29, 2021 From A Person in the Dark

This is my entry in The Biopic Blogathon, hosted by Hometowns to Hollywood. Click here for more favorite biopics. They’re all true, right?My heart explodes with love for this film. It has everything that enchants me about the movies. It may never make the list of the greatest films ever made,... Read full article

Musical Monday: Love Me or Leave Me (1955)

on May 20, 2019 From Comet Over Hollywood

It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals. In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals. This week’s musical: Love Me or Leave Me – ... Read full article

Tempting to shake the blues away: Doris Day in Love Me or Leave Me (Charles Vidor, 1956)

By Virginie Pronovost on Apr 3, 2019 From The Wonderful World of Cinema

In 1955, Doris Day was already a well-established actress and music entertainer. She was making films since 1948 (Romance on the High Seas) and had quickly conquered our hearts with her enchanting voice, her smile and her sense of fun. In 1955, she also delivered what is considered to be one of the ... Read full article

Warner Archive--Doris Day and James Cagney on Blu-ray in Love Me or Leave Me (1955)

By KC on Oct 6, 2016 From Classic Movies

So much of the joy of Love Me or Leave Me is in the luxurious MGM-style polish of the production. There's the beautiful sets, the too gorgeous to be real costumes and the beauty of the luscious color photography. This glossy fictionalization of the rise of chanteuse Ruth Etting and her relationships... Read full article

Love Me or Leave Me (1955)

on Jul 21, 2016 From Journeys in Classic Film

Doris Day tested her image’s bounds as Ms. Wholesome when she took on the role of torch singer Ruth Etting in Love Me or Leave Me. We’ll never know for certain, but Day’s break from convention could explain why she wasn’t nominated for an Academy Award as this is Day’... Read full article

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Love Me or Leave Me Quotes:

Martin Snyder: [to reporters about Ruth] The girl can sing... About that I was never wrong.
Martin Snyder: [to Ruth Etting when she visits him in jail] Tell 'em you seen me in the pokey and I looked great! Tell 'em I like it! Makes me feel like a kid again!
Martin Snyder: [Indignantly to Ruth] Now look here, you stupid liyyle broad, do you know who I am? Do you think I let dames talk to me that way?
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Love Me or Leave Me Facts
A phenomenal success for Doris Day, the Columbia Records soundtrack album maintained the number-one spot among "Billboard"'s popular albums for an impressive 17 weeks. The CD released by Sony in 1993 presented the score in true stereo sound. The disc also contained previously unreleased versions (in mono) of the title song (music by Walter Donaldson, lyrics by Gus Kahn) and "Ten Cents a Dance" (music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Lorenz Hart).
Doris Day wrote in her autobiography that she hesitated before accepting the lead in this film. Ruth Etting was a kept woman who clawed her way up from seamy Chicago nightclubs to the Ziegfeld Follies. It would require her to drink, wear scant, sexy costumes and to string along a man she didn't love in order to further her career. There was also a certain vulgarity about Ruth Etting that she didn't want to play. Producer Joe Pasternak convinced Day to accept the role because she would give the part some dignity that would play away from the vulgarity.
Jane Russell turned down the opportunity to play Ruth Etting in hopes of landing the role of Lillian Roth in I'll Cry Tomorrow. That role ended up going to Susan Hayward, leaving Russell with neither part.
According to Doris Day, most of the scene of a violent confrontation between James Cagney (Marty Snyder) and her did not appear in the final film because it would not pass the censors. After Etting is a triumph at the Ziegfeld Follies, Snyder comes to her hotel room to see her, and she tells him to get out of her life. As originally filmed, Cagney slammed her against a wall, savagely tore off her dress, and after a tempestuous struggle, he threw her onto a bed and raped her.
Of the sixty-two films he made, James Cagney wrote that he rated this among his top five.
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