An MGM musical remarkably free of sentimentality, Love Me or Leave Me (1955) features top-billed Doris Day as 1920s and 30s blues singer Ruth Etting and James Cagney as her sadistic gangster husband Martin "The Gimp" Snyder. A more bitter than sweet view of Etting's real life rise to fame and her twisted relationship with Snyder, screenwriters Daniel Fuchs and Isobel Lennart and director Charles Vidor present Etting and Snyder as equally ruthless in their professional and personal lives. Even as his adoration of Etting may humanize him, Cagney's Snyder is also psychotically violent; Day matches Cagney's intensity as the tortured yet emotionally cruel Etting. Punctuated by Day's performances of Etting hits like Shaking the Blues Away, and the new composition I'll Never Stop Loving You, Love Me or Leave Me became a box office hit, despite fan objections to Day's uncharacteristically licentious onscreen presence. Even though critics agreed that Day could hold her own dramatically opposite Cagney, only Cagney received an Oscar nomination for his fascinating performance as a most unsavory man. Also nominated for several other Oscars including Best Song and Score, Love Me or Leave Me won the Oscar for Fuchs's story.