Life truly does imitate art as this pretend story about the last years of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was to find a real life counterpart in the United Kingdom a year after The Night Is Young was released. One wonders if Edward VIII and Mrs. Simpson saw this film before plunging their empire into a potentially chaotic situation.
Henry Stephenson playing a most regal Emperor Franz Josef tells his playboy nephew to get those wild oats sowed because he's got to settle down, marry a suitable princess and begat some Hapsburg heirs. Nephew Ramon Novarro has someone in mind he wants to marry, the Emperor wants him to marry Rosalind Russell who is of high rank enough to satisfy royalty requirements.
To throw the Emperor off the scent Novarro says he's been having a fling with dancer Evelyn Laye while both are attending the ballet. Then having to make good on it, he hires Evelyn to play his mistress so he can sow his real oats elsewhere.
I think you can see where all this is going. The Night Is Young is a combination of Novarro's own silent role from The Student Prince and The Merry Widow which MGM did the year before. In fact such cast members as Edward Everett Horton and Herman Bing are in this one as well.
Sigmund Romberg wrote the music with Oscar Hammerstein, II supplying the lyrics and libretto. The film was a flop at the time, but one of Romberg's songs When I Grow Too Old To Dream became one of his most beloved classics.
As we also know the film also is similar in some ways to the real life Hapsburg tragedy at Mayerling. I'm surprised no one ever thought of casting Novarro as Prince Rudolf, he has the proper delicacy in his screen persona to carry that part off, especially on the silent screen.
The Night Is Young is typical Viennese frou-frou which was passing out of public taste at the time. Seen today it's not the best of Sigmund Romberg operettas, but not so terribly bad as people thought back in the day.
Henry Stephenson playing a most regal Emperor Franz Josef tells his playboy nephew to get those wild oats sowed because he's got to settle down, marry a suitable princess and begat some Hapsburg heirs. Nephew Ramon Novarro has someone in mind he wants to marry, the Emperor wants him to marry Rosalind Russell who is of high rank enough to satisfy royalty requirements.
To throw the Emperor off the scent Novarro says he's been having a fling with dancer Evelyn Laye while both are attending the ballet. Then having to make good on it, he hires Evelyn to play his mistress so he can sow his real oats elsewhere.
I think you can see where all this is going. The Night Is Young is a combination of Novarro's own silent role from The Student Prince and The Merry Widow which MGM did the year before. In fact such cast members as Edward Everett Horton and Herman Bing are in this one as well.
Sigmund Romberg wrote the music with Oscar Hammerstein, II supplying the lyrics and libretto. The film was a flop at the time, but one of Romberg's songs When I Grow Too Old To Dream became one of his most beloved classics.
As we also know the film also is similar in some ways to the real life Hapsburg tragedy at Mayerling. I'm surprised no one ever thought of casting Novarro as Prince Rudolf, he has the proper delicacy in his screen persona to carry that part off, especially on the silent screen.
The Night Is Young is typical Viennese frou-frou which was passing out of public taste at the time. Seen today it's not the best of Sigmund Romberg operettas, but not so terribly bad as people thought back in the day.