Tonight or Never

Tonight or Never (1931)

A Woman Who Turned from Ice to Fire!

A young opera singer finds her career stalled because of her cold and passionless performances, until she finds romance with a handsome admirer.

Date of release
1931-01-04
TMDB
6.2 / 10 (10)
Runtime
1h 20m
Genres
Comedy, Romance
Director
Mervyn LeRoy

Casting

Interesting facts

Tonight or Never is a 1931 American pre-Code comedy film directed by Mervyn LeRoy and starring Gloria Swanson, Melvyn Douglas and Boris Karloff. The film is inspired by the Hungarian play of the same name, written by Lili Hatvany and performed on Broadway between November 1930 and June 1931. The title is derived from the name of a perfume by Offenthal, released in 1927.

Production

The film is based on the Hungarian play of the same name, written by Lili Hatvany, which was performed on Broadway between November 18, 1930 and June 1931. In the film, Melvyn Douglas, Ferdinand Gottschalk, Robert Greig, Greta Meyer and Warburton Gamble re-created their stage roles. In June 1931, Adela Rogers St. Johns was assigned to write the screenplay. A month later, she was replaced with Sheridan Gibney, who was eventually replaced as well.

Joseph Schenck cast Gloria Swanson to play the lead role, believing it would help her recover from a career slump. The film was the only one of Swanson's early sound films in which she did not sing, despite playing an opera singer. The film marked Douglas' screen debut.

The Hays Office strongly objected to the film and demanded several cuts. The scene thought to be the most vulgar was the love scene between Nella and Jim. A staff member commented: "This scene was one of the most offensive, if not the most offensive—in my recollection." The film was permitted a release in 1931, but as enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code commenced in 1934, requests for re-releases in 1935 and 1937 were rejected.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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