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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

Love Me or Leave Me BlogHub Articles:

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

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)

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)

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)

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)

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 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?

Martin Snyder: [to reporters about Ruth] The girl can sing... About that I was never wrong.
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Love Me or Leave Me Facts
This was the only time, after becoming a star in the 1930s, that James Cagney ever accepted second billing for a major role. He thought that Doris Day's character was more central to the film's plot, and so ceded top billing to her.

Of the sixty-two films he made, James Cagney wrote that he rated this among his top five.

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.

According to an interview with Ruth Etting, she never actually worked as a dance hall hostess. This was dramatic fiction, to underscore the song "Ten Cents a Dance".

The character James Cagney played, Martin Snyder (aka "Moe the Gimp"), was portrayed in the film as a small-time hood. Ironically he ended up working in the license department in Chicago's City Hall.

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