50 Million Frenchmen

"Fifty Million Frenchmen" was a musical comedy play that Warner Brothers backed with the plan of turning it into a film. But by the time that it came for filming in 1930, musical films were landing with a thud as far as movie going audiences were concerned. So plans were made to strip out all of the songs and just add more Olsen and Johnson where the music had been. It was still filmed in Technicolor though, which has been lost. All that's left are the black and white copies, which explains its blurry appearance.

The basic thread of the story is not a bad one. A rich ne'er do well American playboy in Paris, Jack Forbes (William Gaxton) well financed by his industrialist father to stay as far away from the family business as possible, sees Lu Lu Carroll (Claudia Dell) and falls instantly in love. Michael Cummins (John Halliday) says that he is also interested in her. He bets Forbes that he cannot win the girl's heart without any of his money as a means to impress her and take her places. If Forbes wins, Cummins will pay him 50 thousand dollars. If Cummins wins the bet, Forbes will pay him 50 thousand dollars. In the meantime, Forbes must make his living any way that he can, starting with no money or letters of credit in his pocket.

Warner Brothers, in just another year or two with better performers, could have made this work as a pretty decent precode. The main problem is the large part that Olsen and Johnson have in this film. Their part is that Cummins hires them to make sure that Forbes doesn't cheat and borrow money off of anyone. They're just not funny and Johnson's incessant hyena-like laughter gets old in a hurry. Show me you're funny, don't TELL me you're funny! Make this about Forbes and his creative attempts to survive and impress the girl given that he has no money and no contacts in a country that is foreign to him, and this could have been interesting. Instead the focus is Olsen and Johnson and their juvenile and archaic attempts at humor.

The few interesting spots include Helen Broderick as someone who hires Forbes as a guide and Bela Lugosi as a mystic.