They Had to See Paris

First impression is this is just going to be one of those historical curios. Just interesting as an example of an early talkie. After a while however you forget you're watching someone's first attempt at making a talking picture and get sucked into the story. Even more surprising is that the story has a message, not only that but a message which is just as relevant today as in 1929.

Will Rogers might not be well-remembered these days but in the 1920s and 30s, he was one of the most famous people in America. In theatre, silent cinema, newspapers and radio he'd carved out a role as being Mr Rural America. He was the down to earth, plain-speaking philosopher. He told his amusing stories, he made jokes and gave his upbeat, cheerful, optimistic opinion on everything from the state of the today's youth to the state of the union. This was his first talkie and therefore a massive, massive box office hit. The film was created as a vehicle for Mr Rogers but since none of us today have grown up hanging onto his every word in his radio shows, a film like this doesn't quite hit every mark anymore. Being a prestigious production however, it was given a big budget by Fox, the studio which aimed at speaking to and speaking for blue collar, rural America. It had brought top director Frank Borzage on board and used a story by Owen Davis who was renown for creating intelligent and thought-provoking works...and Eddie Cantor's Whoopee.

There is a bit of a "this is our first talkie so forgive us we're not perfect" feel about this but although it's far from perfection, it is a million times better than most of what was made in 1929. Obviously is not one of Borzage's best but eventually you are pulled into the story as you eventually start to relate to the main characters. The story is that old WIZARD OF OZ theme that there's no place like home. Rogers and his Oklahoma family find themselves becoming extremely rich - and yes, that changes his family for the worse. They then decide they need to visit Paris for a bit of culture since his family is starting to become a little ashamed of their roots. There, away from the good ole' USA, they find that everyone is false, scheming, morally loose and after their dollars. (Unlike America, the rest of the world wasn't roaring in the 20s, post-war US high interest loans and tariffs were crippling European economies, making them unable to pay back the huge loans the US banks had given them causing the banks to fail and causing The Great Depression...but I digress...) When this was made in 1929, everything (for America anyway) seemed like never ending summertime! It's a pleasant, optimistic and uplifting film.

Although it's technically lacking, the quality of direction is well below what Frank Borgaze was capable of and some of the acting from the supporting cast is absolutely dreadful, you can still enjoy this as an entertaining movie and not just as something of historical interest. Although his accent is a little hard to understand at times, Will Rogers's performance is natural, likeable and believable. His daughter is played by the impossibly beautiful Margueritte Churchill - she'd already made a talkie before - an excellent film called THE VALIANT with Paul Muni in which she was fantastic. She's not fantastic in this - she isn't really asked to do much other than look pretty - this is a 100% Will Rogers picture.

There were many popular films during the period when this film was made that stressed the warmth and honesty of the average American, that in spite of European culture being championed for its rich social and artistic culture, the ordinary, plain-speaking American was, if not superior, just as good, and small town life, grounded in the traditions of family and decency was just as admirable as anything one might find in the ancient cultures of Europe, of Paris in particular, the city of high life and fine culture. And what plain-speaking American could better represent the best of the small town ethos would be better than man-of-the-people and celebrating philosophical comic, Will Rogers, appearing here in his first American talkie, and in contrast to all his family co-stars, so down-home and folksy, he exemplifies the wise, loveable man of the street worthy of everyone's emulation. There are some incredibly rich early renderings of small-town Oklahoma life outside and inside Will's Garage business, capturing the essence of the high regard given him by his friends and family and local children, and there is a remarkable series of scenes as a parade of cars drive out to see a gusher erupt, as as folks line up at the bottom of the hill, hundreds of gallons rush down to the watchers and engulf their shows in black oil. This film can be slow by today's fast-paced sense of sit-com humor, but there is much to enjoy as the transplanted family attempts to ingratiate themselves with the aristocratic French--except for Will, who always holds out for commonsense and cannot understand why his wife rents him a manservant to help him put on his trousers. The sound quality in the film gets a bit muddled now and then due to age, but there are subtitles, and even without them, the plot moves nicely along. It's lesser Borzage and lesser Rogers, but still fascinating to fans of early sound films.

This film features Will Rogers in his first talkie. It's an OK effort, but the camera is stodgy and most of the characters are two-dimensional. Great exteriors, good oil-strike scene, followed by the usual "Innocents Abroad" situations. Marguerite Churchill is a knock-out as Will's daughter.

I have just seen this delightful satirical film for the first time. It is one of the earliest sound films, having been made in the first year of full sound. It contains numerous excellent scenes shot in Paris by a second unit, which are carefully intercut by director Frank Borzage with the studio-based material. It is interesting, for instance, to see the American Express Building on the Rue de Rivoli in Paris where all the American expatriates went to receive their remittances from home, collect their mail, and do their banking in the 1920s. So people seeking twenties Paris shots should look not only through newsreels and documentaries but in such feature films as this, where the quality and relevance are often superior. There is a very good shot of the corner of the Café de la Paix, for instance. This film is based on a novel of the same title published in 1926 by Homer Croy (I have the copy which he signed to his editor). I met Homer when I was 16 because I wrote to him after reading his book STARMAKER about D. W. Griffith, whom he had known well. Homer invited me to come and see him, and I did so several times. He and his wife Mae Bell (I thought it was 'Maybell') lived on Pinehurst Avenue, opposite the small Bennett Park, in the northwest Bronx. It was a quiet and tranquil area where they had lived for decades. There was little crime, but they said it had been much nicer and more genteel before the War. He and 'Maybell' had been married since 1915. They knew all the old-timers of the cinema, and frequently had tea with Lillian and Dorothy Gish at the Elysee Hotel in Manhattan. Homer knew Stan Laurel very well and got him to sign a book for me. Homer wanted to introduce me to all of them, because he was so thrilled that there was a teenager who knew and cared about D. W. Griffith. (Although I did not meet her through him, Anita Loos nearly fell over when the next year I told her I admired D. W. Griffith. She said: 'There's hope for the young yet! I could never imagine that a teenaged boy of these days would speak to me about D.W.') The Croys were very charming, countrified (he was a Missouri farm boy and liked to boast about it), and old-fashioned. Homer talked constantly about Will Rogers, the star of this film, for whom he wrote many scripts, and whom he idolized as a person. Homer was a real eccentric. He wrote to me a lot and always put foreign postage stamps on the envelopes, with crazy comments on the backs of the envelopes, and the stationery and envelopes were from strange hotels all over the world, which he had obviously collected on his travels. I still have these. But back to the film. Will Rogers plays Pike Peters, who has a garage in Claremore, Oklahoma (Rogers was himself from Oklahoma, by the way). He owns some land on which a trial oil well is drilled, and it comes a gusher. Suddenly from poverty he becomes rich and, as Rogers says in the film: 'I can't get used to earning $1000 a day.' His wife (played by Irene Rich), newly emboldened by riches, turns into an insufferable snob and speaks constantly of the need to 'meet the right people'. Rogers has no interest in 'the right people' but decides that he must humour his wife and indulge her high-fallutin' whims. She insists that they must go to Paris, where all 'the right people' are, and with any luck, a 'right person' suitable for their unmarried daughter Opal (played by Marguerite Churchill) to marry, preferably acquiring a title in the process. This is of course a dig by Homer at the Americans who had already done this, such as Winaretta Singer, who had managed to marry a French aristocrat and thus at a stroke become the Princesse de Polignac, one of France's oldest and most distinguished titles. The Croys had visited Paris in the 1920s, and are occasionally mentioned in memoirs of the period. They thus had first-hand experience of the setting of this story. (Anita Loos made a much greater hit when she went to Paris because she had become so controversial as a result of GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES.) The family duly make their way to Paris and ensconce themselves in one of those huge suites which rich Americans and South Americans used on their trips to Paris in those days. Rogers is often left behind as his wife goes social-climbing because she finds him too embarrassing. They meet a marquis who says he wants to marry Opal and is in love with her. But when he demands a huge dowry, Rogers refuses to pay it and infuriates his wife. But Opal realizes the man may be a gold-digger, which of course he is. However, before this he had encouraged them to rent a gigantic château and to hold a reception for over a hundred people. Rogers gets a shock when he realizes that all the guests are being paid to attend, with an exiled Russian grand duke getting 1000 francs for the evening. When he complains to his wife that she is buying a reception's worth of guests she is furious and bans him from the reception, so he has to wait upstairs. But he creeps out and peeks down the grand stairway and ends up meeting and befriending the grand duke. They both escape the horrible reception and have drinks and then go to sleep in the same bed for the night. The wife is astounded that her hick husband has bonded with her grandest and most expensive guest. The film is very amusing and satirical, and Rogers is his usual softly-spoken and self-effacing country-boy self. The film is highly recommended.

Frank Borzage's movies often took place in Europa:"Street Angel" was located in Italy,"little man what now?" "three comrades " and "mortal storm" in Germany and the sublime "Seventh Heaven" in France,like this one.There are more examples.

"They had to see Paris" is a very minor work,compared to such masterworks .We are used to greatness when we deal with such a genius as Borzage.However,this little comedy shows that Borzage knew what he was talking about.

The Nouveaux Riches' desire to enter the aristocracy was a subject the Pre-Nouvelle Vague French cinema often treated.To name but two ,there was Gance's "Le Maitre De Forges" and Jean Dreville's "Les Affaires Sont Les Affaires".Borzage's approach was not that different from theirs except that they generally favored melodrama whereas he opted for comedy.

A comedy which is not always really funny :the armor gag is rather ponderous.But the father repeating his son's lines ("I've made up my mind....") is good fun.Borzage displays his love for French folk songs by making the nightclub singer teach the Yankee the perennial "La Madelon" -which was incidentally THE song of the Poilus in WW1-

Of course there are clichés ,but coming from an American director ,it's forgivable!For instance whereas the girl is dreaming of marrying a marquis her brother opts for a bohemian life .

These American people cannot understand why they have to PAY to marry their daughter to an aristocrat! The dowry was something sacred in France in those times ,and it should be given ,not only in the aristocracy.

Coming after "Lucky star" ,"they had to see Paris" is necessarily a let- down.Consider it Borzage's holiday homework.