Tonight or Never is a 1931 American pre-Code comedy film directed by Mervyn LeRoy and starring Gloria Swanson, Melvyn Douglas (in his screen debut) and Boris Karloff.

Although she is praised by the audience, her music teacher Rudig feels that she cannot be the greatest opera singer in history until she performs in New York City.

She becomes smitten with the man, until Rudig claims that he is a gigolo whose latest client is Marchesa Bianca San Giovanni, a former diva with a notorious past.

Later that night, Nella heads to Budapest, accompanied by Rudig, her butler Conrad, her maid Emma and her fiancé Count Albert von Gronac, whom she does not love.

The next day, Rudig announces that Fletcher, an agent for New York's prestigious Metropolitan Opera, is in town to sign European artists.

[2] In the film, Melvyn Douglas, Ferdinand Gottschalk, Robert Greig, Greta Meyer and Warburton Gamble re-created their stage roles.

[3] According to a January 1931 news article, George Fitzmaurice was initially set to direct, but he was replaced by Mervyn LeRoy, who as a young unknown had appeared uncredited as a newsboy in Swanson's 1923 silent societal drama Prodigal Daughters.