love me or leave me ( 1955 ) be perhaps doris day fine hour a an all around performer . that she be in fair voice be to be expect . but to also find her an accomplished actress of the melodrama be quite astonishing and since day be often know a the fluffy powder puff of feather weight musical tripe and or and the squeaky clean and yet strangely asexual appendage of rock hudson . however and in love me or leave me day smolder sensuality and proving that her act chop be sadly underrated during the rest of her career . the film be a musical bio base on the rather sorted life and time of torch singer and ruth etting ( day ) . ruth initial affiliation with marty the gimp snyder ( james cagney ) elevate her status from taxi dancer to nightclub performer . but marty a small time operator while a hood in the vein cagney well understood and bring memorably to the screen in countless performance throughout his illustrious career . at first proud of his wife success and marty admiration quickly turn to jealousy a he begin to sense a grow affection between ruth and her piano player and johnny alderman ( cameron mitchell ) . that the affection be platonic be a moot point and especially after marty decides to put a couple of slug in what he perceive to be his wife illicit paramour . apart from it tempered moral attitude toward sex and director and charles vidor keep the film narrative pretty darn close to the truth of etting own life . it help and by classical hollywood standard that in real life ruth etting achieve something of reconciliation with her murderous ex while dash off into the sunset with johnny . the score for the film be first rate . day warble to sultry perfection the smoky ten cent a dance and love me or leave me and tear your heart out with never look back and i will never stop loving you and stop the show with her radio debut and sam and the accordion man and the film singular and lavishly stag and production number and shakin the blue away . consider a departure from the usual musical fair of it day and in that the emphasis here almost seem to be more concentrated on the drama rather than the music and love me or leave me be dynamic box office entertainment . it sing and slinks and set the screen on fire with two enigmatic performance from doris day and james cagney . warner dvd have be very nicely render . though some grain and age relate artifact be apparent during transitional dissolve and fade ( a be an inherent flaw of all early cinemascope film ) and the anamorphic widescreen picture exhibit a more than please quality with deep black and velvety navy blue and pronounced red and orange . flesh tone can appear a tad pasty at time and but this be in keep with the limitation of early ansco color and be not a flaw of dvd mastering . the audio have be remastered to 5 . 1 and be surprisingly aggressive during the musical sequence . three vintage short and two feature the real ruth etting and be the only extra we get . it would have be nice to have ms. day do an audio commentary and but ala and no such indulgence for the film buff .