It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The acting in this movie is really good.

It's impossible to pick just one Doris Day to movie to watch in your life, but if you have to choose only three, I insist you watch Romance on the High Seas, The Man Who Knew Too Much, and Love Me or Leave Me. Even though she neither looks nor sounds anything like Ruth Etting, Doris Day gives an incredible performance in this biopic of the famous 1920s singer. Ruth started out in a dance hall, as described in one of her most famous songs "Ten Cents a Dance" before she was discovered by powerful mobster Marty Snyder, played in the film by James Cagney. I've seen this film many times, and while I had one impression of it at first, I've since learned to appreciate the other levels of the story and performances. The first time I watched it, my heart went out to my beloved James Cagney, and I started crying every time Doris Day would reject his advances and hurt his feelings. As I got older and watched it again and again, I absorbed the complex and cunning relationship between the two main characters-but it still makes me cry! Doris plays a conniving wannabe star, stringing Jimmy along with empty promises of her affections just so he'll help her career. I didn't pick up on her intentional meanness the first time through; I thought she was just being an idiot by not falling for him. Every word out of her mouth is intentional, and she knows the power she holds over him. Doris is so fantastic in this untrustworthy role that if you've never seen one of her movies, I wouldn't recommend watching this one first. You might forever after see her as a bad girl and never trust her again!On the other hand, Jimmy Cagney's character isn't as golden as I once thought he was. He notices Doris's body in her skintight dress and nothing more. He promises her stardom, but when she holds out her end of the bargain, his attraction grows. Although at first he's only interested in a one-night stand, Doris becomes his obsession and his reason to live, and he gives an incredibly heartbreaking performance. James Cagney's performance in Love Me or Leave Me is one of the greats I often reference in my disillusionment with the Academy Awards. He, Frank Sinatra, James Dean, and an un-nominated Robert Mitchum were all passed over in favor of Ernest Borgnine in Marty, one of the most ridiculous awards in Oscar history. When you watch Love Me or Leave Me and you finish drying your tears, you'll probably lose respect for the Oscars, too. Cameron Mitchell is supposed to play the antithesis of James Cagney's character: kind-hearted, honest, and easy to love. I don't think he's any of those qualities, so his scenes with Doris were easily the weakest in my opinion. I am admittedly biased; I don't know if anyone would have been easier to love than James Cagney in this film. On the upside, Robert Keith and Harry Bellaver are very likable and sweet in their supporting roles, so it's relatively easy to drown Cameron out and pretend he's not in the movie.Love Me or Leave Me is a fantastic movie, an essential for James Cagney, Doris Day, or musical fans. You'll probably want to familiarize yourself with their other films first, though. To make sure you can appreciate Doris's new dramatic talent, watch Pillow Talk or Romance on the High Seas first, and to make sure you're on James Cagney's side, watch Angels with Dirty Faces and The Strawberry Blonde first.

If there ever was a movie musical that cried to be taken onto the stage, it is "Love Me or Leave Me". The sultry Ruth Etting has survived the test of time thanks to vintage footage of her performing in a variety of musical shorts and feature films, but for years, all most people knew about her was what they had seen in this movie. Five years after co-starring in the light-hearted "West Point Story", Doris Day and James Cagney were reunited for this, and there is no comparison. They exude fire in their performances as a dime a dance girl (a la "Sweet Charity" circa 1927) and a racketeer hiding behind a laundry business. Cagney encounters Day while on the job, tells her he can move her into stardom after she is fired, and at first thinking he is only a masher, she finally relents and allows him to assist her. But Cagney isn't doing this for nothing; His price is high, and his emotions won't allow her to say no. After taking her from Chicago nightclubs to the Ziegfeld Follies, their violent fights result in marriage, but predictably, happiness is not forthcoming. He is jealous of her success as well as a pianist (Cameron Mitchell) who loves her from afar, and the trapped Day feels like a fly in his web. Everything explodes when they go to Hollywood to make a movie, and real-life scandal prevails.This movie heats up like a depression era speak easy the moment it stars. You know you are not dealing with Warner Brothers Doris Day anymore; This is MGM's Doris, and much like the same year's "I'll Cry Tomorrow" (Susan Hayward as Lillian Roth), it gives a gritty, realistic view of what life was like for a real-life entertainer during this era. Whether crooning "Ten Cents a Dance" ("Come on Big Boy!", she sings with a very subtle shoulder shrug) or dancing to "Shakin' the Blues Away", Day is far from the world of those Gordon MacRae musicals and even the feisty Calamnity Jane. She is solid as a rock here with her acting, and Cagney returns to the kind of role he was doing 20 years before, only grittier and with a nasty sneer overshadowing every crack he makes at her. This is not a man to be messed with.Mitchell's nice guy pianist isn't at all a one dimensional character. He stands up to Cagney, giving him all he's got without fear. Robert Keith, Tom Tully and Harry Bellaver are also memorable as the men who surround Etting and Marty "the Gimp" Snyder. Every detail of this musical is perfect from the costumes, hairstyles and set design, not to mention all the vintage songs that Day sings. With nostalgia all the rage on Broadway again, a musical of this could work very well with the right stars, director and production team behind it.

As a performer, Doris Day had it all from the start. Beautiful, sexy, and gifted with one of the loveliest voices ever to grace the silver screen, she also had an enormous gift for light comedy that made her a superstar at Warner Bros in a series of lighter-than-air musicals as good as anything MGM and the Freed unit ever produced. And later on, her talent for comedy would make her a legend in three unforgettable, hilarious films co-starring her pal Rock Hudson; the first of these, PILLOW TALK, would garner Day her only Oscar nomination.Now a talent for comedy is not to be despised; in fact, any actor will tell you that in many ways comedy is harder to do than drama. But it seemed to come so easily to Day that when she made the 1955 biopic of 1920's singer Ruth Etting, LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME, some of her fans were shocked. For while LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME has plenty of music in it, sung only as Day could sing, it was a far cry from the lightweight stuff people associated with her.LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME is a slightly fictionalized biography of Ruth Etting, who was quite a big singing star in the 1920s and who actually made a couple of film appearances in the early sound era. And it marked a huge departure for Day, playing a broad on the make with questionable morals who gets mixed up with Chicago gangster Martin "The Gimp" Snyder, played with his customary intensity by the legendary James Cagney.Day does not pull any punches in this film. Etting is no innocent girl from the country. She is an ambitious singer who wants to go places and is not too scrupulous about allowing Snyder to help her career along. That he does so because he is smitten with her she is fully aware of but she tries to pretend she doesn't notice. But Snyder, though a thug, is not a fool, and he is most definitely not accustomed to being denied what he wants. So when Ruth finally gets her big break in the Ziegfeld Follies, and Marty is barred from backstage, he throws a huge fit, breaks her contract with Ziegfeld, and rapes Ruth in a shockingly obvious scene for a 1950s film. Next thing we know, she has married him.Ruth is a woman who is great on the stage but cannot stop making bad choices in life. Marrying Snyder out of a sense of obligation, she does not love him and it isn't long before she is in utter misery, particularly when she goes to Hollywood and reunites with old flame Johnny Alderman (Cameron Mitchell), who she still carries a torch for but does not dare to get close to for fear of what her insanely jealous husband will do.This is by far the hardest-hitting film Doris Day ever made, and pitted against the immortal Cagney, she reveals a set of acting chops as sharp and as hungry as his. She matches him scene for scene and moment for moment, and their scenes together grow in intensity until the final confrontation when she demands a divorce, which devastates her husband and drives him to seek revenge.It would be unfair to reveal too much more. This is without a doubt my very favorite of all of Doris Day's movies, an unflinching look at a woman who isn't always sympathetic, and Day has no problems showing Etting's true nature, warts and all. And when she is working with Cagney the screen threatens to catch fire.Brilliant, intense, disturbing, and with gorgeous music. What a package.

Out of MGM, Love Me or Leave Me is directed by Charles Vidor and stars Doris Day, James Cagney & Cameron Mitchell. Written by Daniel Fuchs and Isobel Lennart, the film is loosely based on the true story of legendary 20s torch singer Ruth Etting (Day) and her rise to fame propelled by Chicago gangster Marty "The Gimp" Snyder (Cagney). It's shot in CinemaScope/Eastmancolor and features a number of Etting standards along with a couple of new tunes written especially for the film.Vidor's movie was a box office success that earned six Oscar nominations, one of which was for Cagney in the Best Actor category. Most surprising on the nominations list is the absence of one for Day. Surprising since as good as Cagney is here (all snarly, bossy and maniacal gangster like), this most assuredly is Day's movie as she turns in arguably a career best performance. Etting herself wanted Jane Powell to play her in the movie, whilst Ava Gardner was courted, and courted back, for the role. But Cagney was sure that Day was right for the part, how right he turned out to be.That Day would be able to carry off the tunes was a given, that she could immerse herself successfully in a character calling for a strong dramatic bent, still carried a question mark. Thankfully she delivers, even if her fluffy girl next door persona remains in tact. This comes down to much of the hard edge of the story from the source being absent or skirted over (Etting's battle with alcohol, pre-marital sex & infidelity), but Day and Cagney really manage to make the real life odd coupling come alive on the screen; and thus the dark aspects loom in the air just about enough to make us aware. She shows a naive, vulnerable, yet fame hungry streak, while he shows up to be a driven bully who literally will do what it takes to protect his "possession".However, the blend of a musical, gangster basis and biography never fully works. In fact, even tho the songs are a joy (particularly a sultry Day warbling Ten Cents a Dance), there's too many numbers used. Many times when the film threatens to really break out into bold territory, a number is inserted and the dramatic ark hits the buffers. This also gives off a feeling of repetition as time and again Cagney goes ape about something, Doris sighs and then she sings, and on it goes. All told the film is an odd fusion of intents, as odd as the central relationship of the piece in fact. In lesser hands it could have been a misfire (credit to good performances from Mitchell & Robert Keith too), but even tho it has faults, and suffers from the absence of daring, the lead actors make it a hugely enjoyable movie regardless. 7/10