Paris in Spring

Paris IN SPRING is a frothy delight, a story about two squabbling pairs of lovers who end up with the wrong partners thru a series of misunderstandings. The plot is not a new one but the actors have fun with it. Film starts out with Tullio Carminati threatening to jump from the Eiffel Tower if Simone (Mary Ellis) won't marry him. She dares him to jump and even hands him his overcoat so he won't get a chill high up on the tower. A younger couple is also squabbling and Carminati stops the girl (Ida Lupino) from taking a plunge while her boyfriend (James Blakeley) searches for her. They all end up at a swank nightclub where Simone is the sensational singing star. With rather spectacular sets as a backdrop, she sings "Paris in the Spring" and "Jealousy" to great effect. Later on they all end up, mistakenly assumed to be married, at a villa in Dijon where the aged countess (Jessie Ralph) eventually straightens everyone out.

Mary Ellis is just terrific in this film, shimmering in sequined outfits as she sings. In the "Jealousy" number, she's slowly lifted on a section of floor staging that is supported by a bunch of chorus girls. The sets are equally impressive at the villa where circular staircases seem to litter the place, almost looking like something out of Escher. Carminati is charming, Lupino is very pretty and blonde, Blakeley makes for a pleasing goof, and Ralph is good as always as the gruff granny. Lynne Overman plays a cop, and Akim Tamiroff runs the nightclub. A trifle to be sure, but a delightful one.

It's hard to understand why Mary Ellis wasn't a hit in pictures.

There are lots of problems with this movie that pull it down.

The biggest, for me, is that it is, in part, a musical, but the songs are all instantly forgettable and very simplistic. It's a shame, because Mary Ellis had a good voice, and was a beautiful woman. If she had been given the sort of material Grace Moore or Jeannette MacDonald or even Lily Pons were being given then at other studios, she could have done some memorable work.

The strongest performer here, as in many of the movies in which she appeared, is the character actress Jesse Ralph. She makes her character come alive in a way none of the others does.

Ida Lupino, as a blonde, does not stand out here. Tulio Caraminati wasn't a good actor, and without good material, as is the case here, he makes no impression.

The plot is obvious, and you can see everything coming a mile away.

I enjoyed watching Ellis and Ralph. The rest was pretty much a wash for me.

Mary Ellis calls off her engagement to Tullio Carminati, so he goes up to the top of the Eiffel Tower to hurl himself off it. Meanwhile, Ida Lupino calls off her engagement to James Blakeley and she goes up to the top of the Eiffel Tower to do the same. There she meets Carminati, and decide to make their ex-lovers jealous. Down on the ground, Blakeley and Miss Ellis do likewise. But when Miss Lupino takes Carminati home, her deaf grandmother Jessie Ralph thinks they are married.

Lewis Milestone directs this bloodless sex farce competently, and there are some Harry Revel-Mack Gordon songs that are song operatically by Miss Ellis, with Carminati in duet in one. Miss Ellis had debuted with the Metropolitan Opera in 1918. She sang with Caruso in his last public appearance. Then she decided she wanted to conquer the legitimate stage, and signed with Belasco and then with Hammerstein. She decided to break her contract with Hammerstein, which barred her from singing on stage for a while, and appeared with her third husband, Basil Sidney, on Broadway in Shakespeare. Then it was over to England for Strange Interlude, Ivor Novello shows, and back to the US to star in a couple of pictures like this one. She did not impress, so it was back to England, and the stage, with occasional appearances through 1986. She died in 2003 at the age of 105.

Miss Ellis is quite lovely, and her voice is excellent, but the songs seem dropped into the movie and slow the pace. As usual, Miss Ralph steals the show.