Innocents of Paris

Innocents of Paris was a delight with Maurice Chevalier in his first talking film and his first in English. He comes on stage at first and explains that he is doing this film in English because of the trouble that he has caused before when he has spoken French to an American girl. He asked her if a guy she waved at was her father and in reply she kissed him. Phonetically what he said sounded in English to be "Come on and kiss your papa"!".

What follows is a rather predictable melodrama with Chevalier as a junk man who rescues a boy from the Seine, but cannot manage to rescue his mother. A suicide note she left behind tells her father that he was right about the man she married, that he deserted them, and suicide was the only way out. When Chevalier delivers the note and the boy to the grandfather's home he discovers the boy and his interest in his other daughter Louise are unwanted because he is "just a junkman". Maurice takes the boy home with him and decides to pursue a career as a singer to win the approval of Louise's father.

Of course he is a success, and of course he attracts the interest of the wife of the owner of the bistro in which he works. Louise misunderstands that the attraction is not reciprocated. Louise's father misunderstands Maurice's intentions and plans to shoot him. Paramount can't let a Maurice Chevalier film end in tragedy! So how does this all work out? Watch and find out. And while you are watching and finding out, see just how charming and likable Maurice Chevalier's screen presence was. He sings quite a few songs in the film, but his humor, smile, and charm serve him well beyond the musical acts. I'd really recommend this one.