The chief reason to watch One Night of Love, nominated for Best Picture of 1934, is to see the performance of Grace Moore. Moore was a star with the Metropolitan Opera who made several films in the 1930s, none of which is particularly memorable today. In this film, Moore plays Mary Barrett, an aspiring singer, who at the beginning of the film is performing the title song as a part of a radio contest. Whoever wins the singing competition gets to study for two years with famed maestro Guilio Monteverdi (played by Tullio Carminati). Mary loses the competition but decides to take her savings and move to Italy to study and live anyway. She refuses to listen to the advice of her mother, played by an uncredited Jane Darwell: "But that place is full of Italians." I suppose they knew what that meant in 1934.
It isn't long, of course, before Mary has spend all of her money while waiting for her big break. She lives in Milan in a building that features performers of every type of musical instrument, and apparently, the only way she can quieten them down is to sing. Her roommate, a painter, has been trying to get her to take a job at the Cafe Roma, but Mary wants to hold out for the world of opera to discover her. Ironically, after she takes the job, which does involve her singing now and then (a rousing version of "Finiculi, Finicula"), she is discovered by Monteverdi himself, who is having lunch with his pianist. He has just dismissed his previous pupil (and lover), Lally (played by Mona Barrie), and he is now ready to take on another student. He promises to make Mary a star if she will only listen to his directions and vow never to fall in love with him. Given that she has a young man who's already in love with her, Bill Houston (Lyle Talbot), and given how much of a bore Monteverdi is, you'd think this would be easy for her.
As I was watching One Night of Love, I realized just how indebted American filmmakers were to the early Soviet directors. Where would the early sound movies be without a montage, like the one here meant to show the various locations throughout Europe where "La Barrett" performs on her way to becoming an opera superstar? Intercutting trains, crowds, fliers, and snippets of performances, the longest montage is quite a marvel, frankly. I know you're probably thinking that I must have been somewhat bored by the plot in order to pay attention to the editing, and you'd be right.
Frankly, you should know where all of this is headed anyway. It's all pretty standard stuff, really. Bill proposes to Mary, and Monteverdi makes his case for her love as well. Lally reappears just at the worst possible time, and there's a misunderstanding between Mary and Monteverdi about Lally. Since this is a movie about opera and performance, you also know that there will be questions along the way of whether or not Mary will be able to overcome her fears that she isn't good enough. I suppose much of this was not a cliche back in 1934, but it has all become cliched by now.
Moore, though, is an engaging actress, and it's worth watching the movie for her performance. She is so bright and cheery, especially when she sings. And she sings beautifully. She does numbers from La Traviata, Carmen, and Madame Butterfly, and even though I am not particularly a fan of opera music, I enjoyed the numbers. This is one of those movies that lets you see the numbers as they would have been performed in practice or on the stage itself rather than having people break into song in a way that is unrelated directly to the plot. There are several significant moments that take place on stage, and watching Moore perform these numbers gives you a real sense of why she was such a star of the Metropolitan Opera and why Hollywood wanted to make her into a movie star as well.
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