The film is an adaptation by Samuel Hoffenstein, George Marion Jr. and Waldemar Young of the play Le Tailleur au château ("The tailor at the castle") by Paul Armont and Léopold Marchand.

These include Vicomte Gilbert de Varèze (Ruggles), who owes Maurice a large amount of money for tailoring work; Gilbert's uncle the Duc d'Artelines (C. Aubrey Smith), the family patriarch; d'Artelines' man-hungry niece Valentine (Loy); and his other 22-year-old niece, Princesse Jeanette (MacDonald), who has been a widow for three years.

Maurice explains that he is redesigning Jeanette's riding outfit, and he proves this by successfully altering it, but in the process he is forced to reveal his true identity.

Working together the director and songwriters "devised a singular method of staging a musical film using a previously underutilized tool: the camera itself,"[8] biographer Todd S. Purdum writes.

Barrios describes the opening in detail: "As a bell tolls on the soundtrack, a series of shots show Paris in the early morning, each edit hitting with a chime.

"[11] Purdum describes the next highlight: A few minutes later, as a brief scene of tailor Chevalier and a customer ends, "he launches into one of Rodgers and Hart’s all-time great ballads, Isn’t It Romantic?

The lyrics—really snatches of rhyming sung dialogue—are so perfectly suited to the action that Hart had to write a more generic alternative for the published sheet music."

[12] In addition to Isn’t It Romantic, the film features the classic Rodgers and Hart songs "Love Me Tonight", "Mimi", and "Lover".

Film historian Tom Milne argues that, on the contrary, Mamoulian “left his masters far behind” inventing “a delicious parody” while Lubitsch’s handling of similar narratives “is merely romantic pastiche.” Milne considers it Mamoulian’s “first flawless masterpiece.”[19][20][21] Film critic Richard Barrios calls Love Me Tonight "magical, rapturous, unique, charming, audacious, unforgettable, and, to beat a warhorse, masterpiece."

It is, after all, quite a provable truth: Love Me Tonight is a great film, and along with Singin' in the Rain and a very few others it resides at the very pinnacle of movie musicals, and at the apex of art.

"[22] In 1990, Love Me Tonight was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Extra features included screenplay excerpts of deleted scenes, audio commentary by Miles Kreuger (Founder and President of the Institute of the American Musical, Inc. and also a good friend of Rouben Mamoulian), production documents, censorship records, and performances from Maurice Chevalier (Louise) and Jeanette MacDonald (Love Me Tonight) from the 1932 short Hollywood on Parade.