Gold Diggers in Paris (1938)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

Ray Enright

Writers:

Jerry Horwin (story)
Jerry Wald (story) ...

Release Date:

11 June 1938 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Musical | Romance

Tagline:

SONGS YOUR MOTHER NEVER TAUGHT YOU! FOUR - and all sure-fire! - I Wanna Go Back to Bali - A Stranger in Paree - The Latin Quarter - Day Dreaming (All Night Long) BY HARRY WARREN and AL DUBIN.

Plot:

Owners and show girls of the bankrupt Club Ballé are mistaken for the Academy Ballet of America and are off to Paris to compete in an International Dance Exposition.

Plot Keywords:

Ballet | Paris | Bankruptcy | Gangster | Deportation

Cast

Rudy Vallee	...	Terry Moore
Rosemary Lane	...	Kay Morrow
Hugh Herbert	...	Maurice Giraud
Allen Jenkins	...	Duke 'Dukie' Dennis
Gloria Dickson	...	Mona
Melville Cooper	...	Pierre LeBrec
Mabel Todd	...	Leticia
Fritz Feld	...	Luis Leoni
Curt Bois	...	Padrinsky
Edward Brophy	...	Mike Coogan (as Ed Brophy)
Victor Kilian	...	Gendarme
Georges Renavent	...	Gendarme (as George Renevant)
Armand Kaliz	...	Stage Manager
Maurice Cass	...	Mr. Vail
Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson	...	Doorman (as Eddie Anderson)

Also Known As:

Golddiggers in Paris (USA) (alternative spelling)
The Gay Impostors (UK)

Runtime:

97 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | French

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | USA:Approved (PCA #4149)

Filming Locations:

Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Movie Connections:

Follows The Gold Diggers (1923)

Soundtrack:

Is It Possible You're Possessable?

Some good music, numbers staged by Busby Berkeley, and mixed comedy make for passable entertainment.

The comedy here is supplied by Hugh Herbert, Edward Brophy, Allen Jenkins, Fritz Feld, Curt Bois and a sextet called the Schnickelfritz Band. I never could fully understand the appeal of Hugh Herbert, or any of the comedians who use stupidity for laughs. (Marie Wilson and Gomer Pyle come to mind.) Here, Herbert gets a wire telling him he's hired the wrong group to come to Paris for a dance exposition and is about to call out the riot squad when the bogus pair he hired convinces him, through a talking dog (via ventriloquism by Mabel Todd) that they are the right group. Now, some may think that's funny, but I prefer the savviness of Brophy, who always knows what's going on and whose comedy comes from his reactions and situations he's placed in. Here, he's a gangster patron of ballet, who cries at its beauty but has no hesitation in eliminating the enemies of his friends. He's dispatched to do just that in Paris and befriends Allen Jenkins, unaware that Jenkins the one he's looking for. Now that's funny. Brophy also has the face and demeanor which makes me laugh just by looking at him, a reaction I also get with Woody Allen. Bridging the musical and comedy aspects of this film is the Schnickelfritz band, a precursor of Spike Jones, doing some funny numbers while in funny positions. There's even a washboard in their musical instrument collection. Busby Berkeley creates and directs all the numbers in the movie. Although it's not his best work, it is mostly due to his constant battle with Warner Bros. to get bigger budgets for his numbers, something of which he complained about often. Still, they're fun to watch. A giant Navy hat engulfs the two dozen gorgeous chorus girls in what is the most spectacular musical sequence in the movie. "I Wanna Go Back to Bali" number was also extensively staged and equally as good. Rudy Vallee was top-billed and sings four of the songs in the movie and Rosemary Lane was the love interest, singing a couple of songs too. The plot is routine, with an on-again, off-again romance and a suspenseful ending which has the group about to be deported before they even perform in the contest.