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.
