Lyricist Lorenz Hart would be a spry 117 years old today, if he’d managed to stick around. He died far too young, at the tender age of 48 in 1943, and the loss was truly ours, for he had already penned words to accompany an astonishing array of classic melodies written by his partner in standards, Richard Rodgers—“Blue Moon,” “The Lady Is a Tramp,” “Manhattan,” “Where or When,” “Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered,” “Falling in Love with Love,” “My Funny Valentine,” “I Could Write a Book,” “This Can’t Be Love,” “With a Song in My Heart,” “It Never Entered My Mind”—and who knows what additional musical magic he might have created, had he been given the chance?

One of our favorites, “Isn’t It Romantic?”, was written for the delightful 1932 musical, Love Me Tonight (1932), which was directed by Rouben Mamoulian and starred Maurice Chevalier and Jeannette MacDonald. Enjoy the following clip, which presents the song as it first appears in the picture.