Love Me or Leave Me (1955) |
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Love Me or Leave Me Cast |
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On-Screen Couples |
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Doris Day
(as Ruth Etting)
with James Cagney
(as Martin Snyder)
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Movie Highlights |
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Other InformationAwardsBest Written American Musical Writers Guild of America, USA [1956] (Won/Nominated: Won) Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures Directors Guild of America, USA [1956] (Won/Nominated: Nominated) Best Writing, Screenplay Academy Awards [1956] (Won/Nominated: Nominated) Best Sound, Recording Academy Awards [1956] (Won/Nominated: Nominated) Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture Academy Awards [1956] (Won/Nominated: Nominated) Best Music, Original Song Academy Awards [1956] (Won/Nominated: Nominated) Best Actor in a Leading Role Academy Awards [1956] (Won/Nominated: Nominated) Best Writing, Motion Picture Story Academy Awards [1956] (Won/Nominated: Won) Plot SummaryOne of the gutsiest movie musicals of the 1950s, Love Me or Leave Me is the true story of 1930s torch-singer Ruth Etting, here played by Doris Day. While working in a dime-a-dance joint, Ruth is discovered by Chicago racketeer Martin "The Gimp" Snyde... TaglineLife-Inspired Drama From Dance Hall to Ziegfield Follies! YOU`LL LOVE IT - The Musical Masterpiece of the Year! ...The dramatic musical love story of Ruth Etting! You`ll Love it!...The Big Lavish Musical of the Roaring Twenties! DiscographySinglesMy Blue Heaven I Cried For You (What Can I Say) After I Say I`m Sorry? I Miss My Swiss (My Swiss Miss Misses Me) Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue (Has Anybody Seen My Girl?) Love Me or Leave Me At Sundown (Love Is Calling Me Home) Never Look Back I`ll Never Stop Loving You Ten Cents a Dance Shaking the Blues Away Sam, the Old Accordion Man Mean to Me Everybody Loves My Baby (but My Baby Don`t Love Nobody but Me) Stay on the Right Side Sister You Made Me Love You (I Didn`t Want to Do It) I`m Sitting On Top of the World |
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Full Cast and Crew |
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Actor CreditsNon Actor Credits |
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Awards |
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Love Me or Leave Me (1955) was nominated for the following awards:
Academy Awards |
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Fans |
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Trivia |
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Trivia and QuotesTrivia After this film was released, Doris Day was deluged with mail from fans attacking her, a Christian Scientist, for playing a lewd woman who smoked, drank, and wore scant costumes in the nightclub scenes. Day cared about everyone who was disturbed by her characterization, and she answered every piece of mail, explaining the necessity for realism, and that it was essential to separate actress Doris Day from character Ruth Etting. She felt that as a performer, she had the same responsibility to the public that a politician has to the electorate. Of the sixty-two films he made, James Cagney wrote that he rated this among his top five. 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. 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. "The Oscar-nominated ballad, "I`ll Never Stop Loving You" (music by Nicholas Brodszky, lyrics by Sammy Cahn), was sung delicately by Doris Day to just a piano accompaniment in the film. For release on a single, Columbia Records provided Doris with the backing of Percy Faith and His Orchestra. The disc peaked at number 15 among "Billboard"`s top-selling singles. 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). There was some discussion of starring Jane Powell in this movie, but the studio had a hard time seeing Powell as a nightclub performer and in a serious role. Before Ruth Etting died, she told an interviewer she wished Powell was given the role. Doris Day had originally aspired to be a professional dancer, but that proved impossible after she was a passenger in a car that was hit by a train. Her injuries required a very long convalescence, at which point she took up singing. MGM wanted Ava Gardner to play Ruth Etting but she turned down the role because she didn`t want to be dubbed again as in Show Boat (1951). Jane Russell turned down the opportunity to play Ruth Etting in hopes of landing the role of Lillian Roth in I`ll Cry Tomorrow (1955). That role ended up going to Susan Hayward, leaving Russell with neither part. 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. 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. 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". It was James Cagney who suggested to producer Joe Pasternak that he cast Doris Day in the role of Ruth Etting. They had worked together previously in The West Point Story (1950). | ||
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