Kiss Me Again is a 1931 American pre-Code musical operetta film filmed entirely in Technicolor. It was originally released in the United States as Toast of the Legion late in 1930, but was quickly withdrawn when Warner Bros. Pictures 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.The American Film Institute Catalog Feature Films: 1931-40 by The American Film Institute, c. 1993The AFI Catalog of Feature Films 1893-1993:Kiss Me Again
Like the 1926 silent First National film Mademoiselle Modiste, Kiss Me Again is based on a popular 1905 operetta on Broadway, Mlle. Modiste, by Victor Herbert and Henry Martyn Blossom.Brennan, Sandra. "Kiss Me Again (1931), AllMovie, accessed November 8, 2015Mlle. Modiste, on Broadway, Internet Broadway Database, accessed November 8, 2015Traubner, Richard. Operetta: A Theatrical History, p. 351. Psychology Press, 2003
Plot
A French shopgirl obeys her parents by leaving her lover to become an opera star.
Cast Bernice Claire as Mademoiselle Fifi Edward Everett Horton as Rene Walter Pidgeon as Paul de St. Cyr June Collyer as Marie Frank McHugh as Francois Claude Gillingwater as Count de St. Cyr Judith Vosselli as Mademoiselle Cecile Albert Gran as General de Villafranche
Music When the film was re-released in 1931, most of Walter Pidgeon'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 List of early color feature films
References
External links
Synopsis (to 1926 version), allmovie.com; accessed July 22, 2015.