Love Me or Leave Me (1955), starring Doris Day, James Cagney, Cameron Mitchell, Robert Keith, Tom Tully
Synopsis of Love Me or Leave Me
Love Me or Leave Me is a fictionalized account of the career of jazz singer Ruth Etting and her tempestuous marriage to gangster Marty Snyder, who helped propel her to stardom.
Ruth Etting: [singing] Sometimes I think, I found my hero, But it’s a queer romance…
Editorial review of Love Me or Leave Me courtesy of Amazon.com
Academy Award winner James Cagney stars with Doris Day in a rare, hard-edged dramatic musical based on the life of singer Ruth Etting—Love Me or Leave Me. Jazz Age singer Ruth Etting (Day) had looks, ambition and a haunting, smoky voice. But it took more than talent to make her a star–it took gangster Marty ‘The Gimp’ Snyder (Cagney), who discovers Etting singing in a sleazy dive. Etting uses the love-struck gangster and his money to promote her career and catapult her to stardom. When Snyder discovers Etting in the arms of another man, Snyder shoots the opportunistic Etting’s lover and goes to prison, as Etting continues to climb the ladder of fame and fortune.
Cast of characters
- Doris Day (My Dream is Yours) … Ruth Etting
- James Cagney (The Time of Your Life) … Martin Snyder
- Cameron Mitchell (Man on a Tightrope) … Johnny Alderman
- Robert Keith (Guys and Dolls) … Bernard V. Loomis
- Tom Tully (The Wackiest Ship in the Army) … Frobisher
- Harry Bellaver (Another Thin Man) … Georgie
- Richard Gaines (Double Indemnity) … Paul Hunter
- Peter Leeds (The Atomic Kid) … Fred Taylor
- Claude Stroud … Eddie Fulton
- Audrey Young … Jingle Girl
- John Harding … Greg Trent
Songs
- I’m Sitting on Top of the World
- Music by Ray Henderson
- Lyrics by Sam Lewis and Joe Young
- Sung by Claude Stroud
- It All Depends On You
- Music by Ray Henderson
- Lyrics by Buddy G. DeSylva and Lew Brown
- Sung by Doris Day
- You Made Me Love You (I Didn’t Want to Do It)
- Music by James V. Monaco
- Lyrics by Joseph McCarthy
- Sung by Doris Day
- Stay On the Right Side, Sister
- Music by Rube Bloom
- Lyrics by Ted Koehler
- Sung by Doris Day
- Everybody Loves My Baby (but My Baby Don’t Love Nobody but Me)
- Music by Spencer Williams
- Lyrics by Jack Palmer
- Sung by Doris Day
- Mean to Me
- Music by Fred E. Ahlert
- Lyrics by Roy Turk
- Sung by Doris Day
- Sam, the Old Accordion Man
- Written by Walter Donaldson
- Sung by Doris Day
- Shaking the Blues Away
- Written by Irving Berlin
- Sung by Doris Day
- Ten Cents a Dance
- Music by Richard Rodgers
- Lyrics by Lorenz Hart
- Sung by Doris Day
- I’ll Never Stop Loving You
- Music by Nicholas Brodszky
- Lyrics by Sammy Cahn
- Sung by Doris Day
- Never Look Back
- Music & Lyrics by Chilton Price
- Sung by Doris Day
- At Sundown (Love Is Calling Me Home)
- Written by Walter Donaldson
- Sung by Doris Day
- Love Me or Leave Me
- Music by Walter Donaldson
- Lyrics by Gus Kahn
- Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue (Has Anybody Seen My Girl?)
- Music by Ray Henderson
- I Miss My Swiss (My Swiss Miss Misses Me)
- Music by Abel Baer
- Lyrics by L. Wolfe Gilbert
- (What Can I Say) After I Say I’m Sorry?
- Written by Walter Donaldson and Abe Lyman
- Sung by Doris Day
- I Cried for You
- Written by Arthur Freed, Gus Arnheim and Abe Lyman
- Sung by Doris Day
- My Blue Heaven
- Music by Walter Donaldson
- Lyrics by George Whiting
- Sung by Doris Day
Trivia
- Of the 62 films he made, James Cagney wrote that he rated this among his top five.
- In her 1975 memoir, Doris Day names this film as her best performance.
- This was the only time, after becoming a star in the 1930s, that James Cagney 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“.
- 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.
- While this film was widely expected to garner Doris Day a Best Actress Oscar nomination, James Cagney got his third Best Actor nomination, and Day was completely overlooked. She later would be a Best Actress contender for Pillow Talk, the only time she was ever up for an Academy Award.
- Ruth Etting and Martin Synder were both dissatisfied with the movie’s portrayals of themselves.
- James Cagney had been impressed with Doris Day’s vocal talents and dramatic chops when they worked together while both were under contract to Warner Brothers. He often expressed his personal disappointment when he became an Oscar nominee for this film, but the Academy overlooked Day. It is generally conceded that this was Day’s finest dramatic performance, and among those who agreed was Alfred Hitchcock. Based on this film, Hitchcock cast Day opposite James Stewart as the female lead in The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956).