Paree, Paree

You can find this on the DVD of "Silk Stockings" to which it is much superior. Apparently, this is a quickie film of part of a successful show. The songs are inventive and have much more energy than Porter's later work. The musical numbers are pretty standard fare for the time, which means pretty good.

Two things worked for me: the story was complete enough to support the songs but simple enough to grasp in a few moments. When the thing was over, I wanted more which is how it should be.

The other thing: in such projects, at least one number has to grab me, really grab me for the thing to work. In this one, there's a scene where Bob spends time with the girl he has bet he can marry. He "sweeps her off her feet." The song is forgettable, but the languid energy of her dance really was impressive: no fancy choreography, in fact it looks as if she just made it up that morning. But it came across as natural, almost real.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

Netflix should mention this short feature on the info for Silk Stockings. Superior in every way to that over-produced fluff. This had much better Cole Porter songs and lots more energy. Silk Stockings turned out to be a big disappointment. Fred was getting too old for this sort of thing, though the dances and Cyd are lovely. I will be on the watch for the Garbo--Melvyn Douglas version of Ninotchka. Was Peter Lorre ill during the making of Silk Stockings--he seems to be very passive in the more active numbers and with less lines? Very glad that I ran across Paree--Paree by pure accident. Made the whole experience a lot more enjoyable. Bob Hope, as a simple "song and dance man' is pure joy.

I would not say that Bob Hope was a major star on Broadway, that eluded him until he got into films, but he was a prominent Broadway performer during the Thirties before he went to Hollywood for The Big Broadcast of 1938. This short was made in New York probably between his run in Roberta and Say When.

What Paree, Paree is is a condensed version of the Cole Porter Broadway show Fifty Million Frenchmen. The soundtrack includes You Do Something To Me, Find me a Primitive Man, You've Got That Thing, and the title song all from the stage production of Fifty Million Frenchmen.

This short while it lacks a lot of production values is a marvelous opportunity to see something of a photographed Broadway show of the time. In that it's like The Marx Brothers Cocoanuts or Animal Crackers.

Bob Hope was not in the original Broadway cast of Fifty Million Frenchmen, but Cole Porter would provide him with a great duet with Ethel Merman in Hope's last Broadway appearance a few years later in Red, Hot, and Blue. He introduced It's Delovely with her from that show which did lead to his Hollywood contract.

Now that would be great if someone preserved them on film singing It's Delovely.

Rich American playboy Peter Forbes (Bob Hope) is in Paris doing girl-watching with his friends. He pursues Lulu Carroll (Dorothy Stone). His friends had bet him to get the girl without revealing his wealth.

This is a remake of the 1931 version which had cut out the Cole Porter songs from his 1929 hit Broadway musical. There are quite a few dance numbers. The story almost doesn't matter in this one. Bob Hope singing the iconic "You Do Something to Me" may be a bit of a waste, but at least, it's out in the world. I don't rate this high for the comedic story. I didn't actually laugh. It's really for the song and dance.

A delight mini movie, a musical short based on three of Cole Porter's Broadway smash songs. Bob Hope's first credited film is a delight! He plays an American playboy millionaire on vacation in Paris. The film opens with him sitting at a table of an out door café telling his friends about this beauty that takes his breath away. Suddenly he spots her a few yards away. he is so over come his friends tease him and suggest "just show her your bank book." But Hope claims he can win her in less than 30 days with "no" money! They bet polo ponies over the issue and take all his cash and ID's. Hope follows her and when they are alone gushes out a proposal she does not believe he is sincere until he sings to her, "You Do Something to Me" by Cole Porter. But she must leave and he tries to earn money as a tour guide so he can pursue her. But when she sees him showing another girl around town, disillusioned she wants to drop him. He continues to chase her and catches up to her and her family at a race track where he bets his meager earnings on the last race hoping to win enough to impress her. Through a series of events and large synchronized dance numbers he loses the winning ticket and she decides to marry him rich or poor. So he wins the girl, the race and the bet and sings two more songs!