Gold Diggers in Paris

Another Busby Berkeley spectacle, this one boasts the benign Rudy Vallee as a club owner caught up in a screwball mistunderstanding that sends his chorus girls to Paris (though the magic of cinema, since the cast never left the lot) by mistake. The most curious aspect of the film is the disproportionate about of screen time given to the goofy Schnickelfritz Band. --Musicals on the Silver Screen, American Library Association, 2013

Crooner rudy vallee, along with rosemary lane. Funny guys hugh herbert, ed brophy, and allan jenkins along for comedy. A later chapter in the gold digger films, which had begun back in the 1920s. With dance bits by busby berkeley, so we know the song and dance thangs will be big and fancy. The cast and crew from club ballé get a lucky break and accidentally enter the international competition in paris. It's all just an excuse for a bunch of vaudeville routines, with some large ensemble numbers, and a paper thin plot holding it together. Some of the comedy bits work, some don't. Singing by vallee. He even does a parody of maurice chevalier. Herbert never really does zero in on his terrible fake french accent. It's just all over the place. There's a love story. Even a divorce and alimony story. It's entertaining. Not a shakespear by any means, but light and fluffy, just before WW II. At this time, danzig was already under control of germany, but they hadn't started their large war marches yet. In may of 1940, germany would begin its large scale attack on france. Of course, this cast never left the hollywood studio. Directed by ray enright. Started directing just as the silents were becoming talkies.

The end of a musical era was marked with Gold Diggers In Paris. Shortly after this film, Busby Berkeley took his considerable choreographing talents over to MGM and no more films with Gold Diggers in the title would be coming from the Brothers Warner.

Before this film was made Dick Powell who was looking to say farewell to musicals altogether said he would not do another film with Gold Diggers in the title. So Rudy Vallee made yet another attempt to have the movie-going public accept him as a musical leading man.

The film's a good one, but it didn't work for Vallee once again. He would only gain acceptance as film star when Preston Sturges correctly utilized his acerbic personality in character roles.

Harry Warren and Al Dubin once again wrote some nice songs for Gold Diggers and Busby Berkeley weaved his usual choreographic fantasy. His numbers are the main attraction for Gold Diggers In Paris, especially the last song The Latin Quarter.

The plot was later reworked some in the later Doris Day film April In Paris where Doris as showgirl gets a visa by mistake to go to Paris as as a visiting artist. Here it's bumbling Hugh Herbert's mistake who instead of going to a ballet company goes to the Club Balle which is losing money and is the white elephant on owner Rudy Vallee's hands. This offer of an all expense paid trip to Paris is a lifesaver for Vallee and his troupe and if they have to learn ballet, they'll hire Fritz Feld as ballet master and so be it.

Vallee's love interest is Rosemary Lane of the Lane sisters and he also has Gloria Dickson an ex-wife whom he owes a lot of back alimony to. She's hanging around to protect her interest and then actually proves to be the smartest one in the cast. She gives the most memorable performance as well.

Gold Diggers In Paris is great musical entertainment with good songs and routines in delivering them, courtesy of a premier dance master, Busby Berkeley.

"Gold Diggers in Paris" (Warner Brothers, 1938), directed by Ray Enright, the last in the annual musical series, is the least known and discussed of all the "Gold Diggers" musicals of the 1930s that usually featured Dick Powell with choreography by Busby Berkeley. It's been long unavailable until resurrected on cable's Turner Network Television in 1989, and later on Turner Classic Movies where it played every so often since TCM's premiere in 1994. In spite of its latter-day rediscovery to a newer audience, it's still virtually overlooked and forgotten mainly because it doesn't hold up to its predecessors. Much of it strains for laughs and musical interludes weak, with the possible exception of the finale.

As for the plot, which opens in Paris, Pierre LeBrac (Melville Cooper) is holding a board meeting where he's selecting several members to go to various countries to bring back the greatest dance groups from all over the world to appear in their upcoming Paris Exposition. Maurice Giraud (Hugh Herbert), afraid to come to America in fear of facing the savage Indians(!), is chosen to go there anyway and bring back the American Ballet Company. While in New York City, Giraud comes to the Club Balle' where Terry Moore (Rudy Vallee), singer and proprietor, is entertaining. Giraud, who mistakes Terry's club for a ballet company, invites Moore's troupe to accompany him back to Paris where they are to appear in the annual dance expedition for $10,000 plus expenses paid to the company. Because his night club isn't making any profits anyway, Terry, along with his partner, Duke Dennis (Allen Jenkins) accept. Before they go, Terry and Duke go to find the best ballet master to train the girls who can only dance to modern swing music. They choose Professor Luis Leoni (Fritz Feld) from the directory, and find Kay Morrow (Rosemary Lane), a ballet dancer and his only pupil. Rounding out the girls, Terry and company board the ship to Paris where he becomes interested in Kay. Also on board is Terry's ex-wife, Mona (Gloria Dickson), who becomes Kay's cabin roommate. While in Paris, situations arise as the real American Ballet Company turns up, having Terry's troupe exposed as impostors.

With music and lyrics by Harry Warren and Al Dubin, the musical program includes: "I Wanna Go Back to Bali" (sung by Rudy Vallee and chorus); "Day Dreaming All Night Long" (sung by Vallee and Rosemary Lane/ lyrics by Johnny Mercer); "A Stranger in Paree" (sung by Vallee imitating Maurice Chevalier; Rosemary Lane, Mabel Todd, Allen Jenkins, Gloria Dickson and the Schnickelfritz Band); "The Latin Quarter" (sung by Lane, Vallee/chorus); and "I Wanna Go Back to Bali" (sung by Vallee, Mabel Todd, Allen Jenkins and chorus). While "My Adventure" is listed among the songs in the movie, it's not presented in the final print.

In between Vallee's crooning comes newcomers to the screen, The Schnickelfritz Band, taking the spotlight to themselves with "Listen to the Mockingbird," "Who's That Man? It's Colonel Corn," and performing an instrumental number at the Paris banquet. Though wild and goofy band-players, they's somewhat predecessors towards the more famous Spike Jones and his City Slickers Band of the 1940s. The Schnickelfritz Band faded to obscurity as quickly as they appeared.

With the exception of Gloria Dickson trying to obtain her alimony from her ex-hubby (Vallee), with few scenes involving a couple of chorus girls playing up to middle-aged well-to-do Frenchmen, the movie itself contains limited "gold digging" antics to offer promise from the title. Most of all, what weakens the plot most is the ventriloquism scenes involving Mabel Todd (the blonde with the buck teeth and odd-ball laugh) as she throws her voice to a great dane to the confused Maurice (Herbert), making him believe he's encountered a "talking dog." Even Hugh Herbert, supporting a mustache and beret, is not too convincing playing a Frenchman.

It's been mentioned by host Robert Osborne in one of the showings of "Gold Diggers in Paris" that Dick Powell, the original choice, turned down the role that went to Rudy Vallee, making his first screen appearance since SWEET MUSIC (Warners, 1935). Aside from Vallee's Maurice Chevalier imitation, he also impersonates the then current US President, Franklin D. Roosevelt. Busby Berkeley's choreography is the best he could do with this edition, mainly due to limited funds for a lavish show-stopping production. "The Latin Quarter" is a notable tune, best known as background scoring for the Pepi Le Pew cartoons. For a bit of nostalgia, "Gold Diggers in Paris" features clips from the "Young and Healthy" number from 42nd STREET (1933) and "Spin a Little Web of Dreams" from FASHIONS OF 1934 superimposed in its opening title credits, followed by views of Paris, including the famous landmark of the Eiffel Tower.

"Gold Diggers in Paris," which focuses more on singing and band playing than dancing, has that 1940s musical feel. It also shows the changing of the times along with the decline of the Warners musical. Besides this being the "weakest link" of the series, "Gold Diggers in Paris" still has some good moments to offer. For star searchers, look for Eddie "Rochester" Anderson briefly seen as a doorman, along with future 20th-Fox blonde of the 1940s, Carole Landis, who can be glimpsed as one of the members of gold digging troupe. Never distributed to home video, "Gold Diggers in Paris" became available on the DVD format in 2007. (**1/2)

This is certainly not as good as the best-known Gold Diggers movies, no doubt for a variety of reasons. While it is a Busby Berkeley movie, there is only one big dance number in it, the finale, a reprise of "I want to go back to Bali" - sung, believe it or not, on a set made up as the streets of Paris, which makes NO sense whatsoever. (The first time that number is sung, in a nightclub in New York City, the women are made up as Balinese, and the set, what there is of it, is supposed to represent Bali.) Most of the songs are instantly forgettable. Still, in an almost childish way, the movie is full of a lot of innocent energy and it never drags. Rudy Vallee sings well, and the character parts - Hugh Herbert and Melville Cooper, playing the same parts they always played - are humorous. I was never bored, which is more than I can say for a lot of movies that pretend to far more than this.

I wouldn't go out of my way to see this, but neither would I suggest avoiding it.