Pre-Code
Pre-Code Hollywood was the brief era in the American film industry between the widespread adoption of sound in film in 1929LaSalle (2002), p. 1. and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship guidelines, popularly known ...
musical operetta film filmed entirely in
Technicolor
Technicolor is a series of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades.
Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films ...
. It was originally released in the United States as ''Toast of the Legion'' late in 1930, but was quickly withdrawn when Warner Bros. realized that the public had grown weary of musicals. The Warner Bros. believed that this attitude would only last for a few months, but, when the public proved obstinate, they reluctantly re-released the film early in 1931 after making a few cuts to the film.
Like the 1926 silent First National film '' Mademoiselle Modiste'', ''Kiss Me Again'' is based on a popular 1905 operetta on Broadway, ''
Mlle. Modiste
''Mlle. Modiste'' is an operetta in two acts composed by Victor Herbert with a libretto by Henry Blossom. It concerns hat shop girl Fifi, who longs to be an opera singer, but who is such a good hat seller that her employer, Mme. Cecil, discourages ...
'', by
Victor Herbert
Victor August Herbert (February 1, 1859 – May 26, 1924) was an American composer, cellist and conductor of English and Irish ancestry and German training. Although Herbert enjoyed important careers as a cello soloist and conductor, he is bes ...
A French shopgirl (Bernice Claire) obeys her parents by leaving her lover to become an opera star.
Cast
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Bernice Claire
Bernice Claire (born Bernice Jahnigen; January 27, 1906 – January 17, 2003)Edward Everett Horton as Rene
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Walter Pidgeon
Walter Davis Pidgeon (September 23, 1897 – September 25, 1984) was a Canadian-American actor. He earned two Academy Award for Best Actor nominations for his roles in '' Mrs. Miniver'' (1942) and ''Madame Curie'' (1943). Pidgeon also starred in ...
as Paul de St. Cyr
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June Collyer
June Collyer (born Dorothea Heermance, August 19, 1906 – March 16, 1968) was an American film actress of the 1920s and 1930s.
Early life
Born in New York City, Collyer chose to use her mother's maiden name when she decided to pursue acti ...
as Marie
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Frank McHugh
Francis Curry McHugh (May 23, 1898 – September 11, 1981) was an American stage, radio, film and television actor.
Early years
Born in Homestead, Pennsylvania, of Irish descent, McHugh came from a theatrical family. His parents, Edward A ...
as Francois
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Claude Gillingwater
Claude Benton Gillingwater (August 2, 1870 – November 1, 1939) was an American stage and screen actor. He first appeared on the stage then in more than 90 films between 1918 and 1939, including the Academy Award-nominated ''A Tale of Two ...
as Count de St. Cyr
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Judith Vosselli
Judith Vosselli (June 25, 1895 – September 18, 1966) was a Spanish-born actress who appeared on the American stage and screen during the 1920s and 1930s.
Biography
Born in Barcelona, Vosselli made her American acting debut in the successful Bro ...
as Mademoiselle Cecile
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Albert Gran
Albert Gran (August 4, 1862 – December 16, 1932) was a Norwegian-born American stage and film actor. He is most associated with his appearance in drama and light comedy films.
Biography
Albert Gran was born in Bergen, Norway. He was the s ...
as General de Villafranche
Music
When the film was re-released in 1931, most of
Walter Pidgeon
Walter Davis Pidgeon (September 23, 1897 – September 25, 1984) was a Canadian-American actor. He earned two Academy Award for Best Actor nominations for his roles in '' Mrs. Miniver'' (1942) and ''Madame Curie'' (1943). Pidgeon also starred in ...
's songs were cut from the film. Only a small abbreviated version of one of his songs is heard on the existing print.
Songs
* Ah! But in Dreams So Fair
* Alas! To Part, How Great the Sorrow
* I Want What I Want When I Want It
* If I Were On the Stage
* Kiss Me Again
* The Mascot of the Troop
* Clothes Parade
* A Make Believe Ladies Man
* Pan Americana
* Ballet Medley
* Air de Ballet
* The Time, the Place and the Girl
Preservation
Only a black-and-white copy of the cut print released in 1931 in the United States seems to have survived. The complete film was released intact in countries outside the United States under the title of ''Toast of the Legion'' where a backlash against musicals never occurred. It is unknown whether a copy of this full version still exists.
See also
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List of early color feature films
This is a list of early feature-length color films (including primarily black-and-white films that have one or more color sequences) made up to about 1936, when the Technicolor three-strip process firmly established itself as the major-studio fa ...