As I write this, TCM has a Ruth Etting 1930's short film playing (Think of short music 1930's films as the grand daddy of music videos). (Singer Ruth Etting and her small time gangster husband/promoter Marty Snyder were real life people. This film is said to be a partly fictional view of their marriage and breakup.)

Doris Day plays Ruth Etting well. She's a bit beat up by life (and Snyder) and in the end, she's left him for a kinder man, but she squares accounts with him (for past promo work that made her a star) and sings in his club to large crowds. Tho Cagney is accused of attempted murder, you still feel sorry for him, and glad that Day will sing to promote his new night club. It seems modern that she has risen past his abusive ways to stand on her own, to forgive him and even help him in a manner that will not seem like charity.

As Snyder himself says of his ex-wife's performance in his club "She's fulfilling a contractual obligation...Business is business."

But here's where Hollywood (and maybe better 1950's recording technology) does better than real life.

Day ***outsings*** Etting!

Day sing the title song "Love Me or Leave Me" and "Ten Cents a Dance" and it still sounds modern today. Etting's 1930's recordings in early movie sound technology are tinny and too full of vibrato for modern tastes.

If you doubt that Doris Day could play deeper dramatic roles, this film (along with films like "The Man Who Knew Too Much") should convince you otherwise...(We already know to expect a great performance from Cagney.)

The original theatrical trailer calls James Cagney's portrayal of Marty 'The Gimp' Snyder an 'aggressive characterization'. However it's one thing to see Cagney as a gritty mobster in films like "Public Enemy" and "White Heat" where his aggression is expressed as an enemy of society. Here he seems an even more threatening presence in a one on one situation with his protégé Ruth Etting (Doris Day), a torch singer who got her start in 1920's era Chicago. It's such an effective performance that for once, I almost began to dislike him as an actor, which probably goes a long way to explain just how amazing he actually was.

The film also keeps you a bit off balance, as the drama and personal turmoil between Ruth and Marty is offset by a whole host of musical numbers during Etting's rise to stardom. Acting as her mentor and personal manager, Snyder gets it almost right when he states "Why just have half of Chicago when she can have all of New York", as he lands Etting a gig with the Ziegfield Follies. Leaving Chicago however is the beginning of the end for the couple, as Snyder's power and influence mean nothing outside his home territory. Rebuffed by business managers and show people, Marty's comeuppance spells disaster, ultimately leading to the movie's title song finale to a packed house. In one last recognition of the impact Marty had on her career, Ruth repays the favor by headlining his new club, allowing him at least one more turn in the spotlight.

It's unusual to see Doris Day in the role of Ruth Etting, one associates her with lighter and more whimsical screen characters, but she's effective here nonetheless. Her song numbers reflect the progress of Etting's career and her relationship with Marty with titles like 'Ten Cents a Dance', 'Mean To Me', 'I'll Never Stop Loving You', and in the wind up, 'Love Me Or Leave Me'. It's not your typical 'feel good' story by the time it's all over, nor does it try to be. One thing is certain though, and that's the sentiment expressed to Marty Snyder just before the curtain falls - "You gotta give her credit, the girl can sing..."

I am NOT a fan of Doris Day - there is just something about her that annoys me. But in this movie she acted very different from the usual Doris Day movie. And the way she sang those ballads breaks your heart. But the acting job that truly amazes - and has through the years made me a fan - is that of James Cagney. One wonders if he had a parent that was abusive or an Uncle or someone he had intimately observed. Because from somewhere that man understood something about an abusive relationship and put it in his performance. It was positively beyond extraordinary. He deserved an Academy Nomination at the very least. While he was cruel, vile, despicable, certainly repulsive and yet you felt at the same time he was pitiful, sad, pathetic. It was an extremely complex performance. When I saw "Love Me Or Leave Me" as a teenager I didn't appreciate the subtlety of his acting. It wasn't until I saw it many, many years later and had gone through a lot of living that I comprehended the true magnitude of his performance.