Gold Diggers in Paris

Why do I think that this project -- scripted by a small legion of writers and storysmiths -- wasn't originally conceived as a Gold Diggers project. But the glittering title had been dormant for a while and maybe it could con a few more moviegoers into plunking down their silver. At least it had Busby Berkeley's choreography. Despite the fact that Rudy Vallee is no Dick Powell, Rosemary Lane is no Joan Blondell and the story has enough holes to drive a double-decker tour bus through, it's surprisingly entertaining. And Berkeley's high-stepping Parisian finale, while not as heady as "My Forgotten Man" or "Lullaby of Broadway" is a synchronized marvel. There's also a surprising pleasure -- the Schnickelfritz Band, a wonderfully lunatic musical aggregation who combine dixieland jazz and slapstick. It's almost worth watching just for these musical maulers who preceded and may well have inspired Spike Jones.

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.

The comedy here is supplied by Hugh Herbert, Edward Brophy, Allen Jenkins, Fritz Feld, Curt Bois and a sextet called the Schnickelfritz Band. I never could fully understand the appeal of Hugh Herbert, or any of the comedians who use stupidity for laughs. (Marie Wilson and Gomer Pyle come to mind.) Here, Herbert gets a wire telling him he's hired the wrong group to come to Paris for a dance exposition and is about to call out the riot squad when the bogus pair he hired convinces him, through a talking dog (via ventriloquism by Mabel Todd) that they are the right group. Now, some may think that's funny, but I prefer the savviness of Brophy, who always knows what's going on and whose comedy comes from his reactions and situations he's placed in. Here, he's a gangster patron of ballet, who cries at its beauty but has no hesitation in eliminating the enemies of his friends. He's dispatched to do just that in Paris and befriends Allen Jenkins, unaware that Jenkins the one he's looking for. Now that's funny. Brophy also has the face and demeanor which makes me laugh just by looking at him, a reaction I also get with Woody Allen. Bridging the musical and comedy aspects of this film is the Schnickelfritz band, a precursor of Spike Jones, doing some funny numbers while in funny positions. There's even a washboard in their musical instrument collection. Busby Berkeley creates and directs all the numbers in the movie. Although it's not his best work, it is mostly due to his constant battle with Warner Bros. to get bigger budgets for his numbers, something of which he complained about often. Still, they're fun to watch. A giant Navy hat engulfs the two dozen gorgeous chorus girls in what is the most spectacular musical sequence in the movie. "I Wanna Go Back to Bali" number was also extensively staged and equally as good. Rudy Vallee was top-billed and sings four of the songs in the movie and Rosemary Lane was the love interest, singing a couple of songs too. The plot is routine, with an on-again, off-again romance and a suspenseful ending which has the group about to be deported before they even perform in the contest.

My least favorite of the Gold Diggers series, largely because most of the humor and gags fall flat. And there's also the sentient tree trunk (Rudy Vallee) which happens to have a rather mellifluous singing voice. Dick Powell he is not. And really, hardly anyone stands out in the cast. Allen Jenkins probably the most, and Hugh Herbert also, although he isn't in it as much as I would have liked. The only chorus girl who made an impression was Mabel Todd, who reminded me heavily of Kristin Chenoweth (sans Southern accent). As for Busby Berkeley, there was only one large production number at the end, which was good, but not nearly as much as most of the ones that preceded in this series and Berkeley's other work. Overall, I didn't hate it; I just rolled my eyes a lot.

The least known of the Gold Diggers movies and perhaps understandably so since it's not really a Gold Diggers movie at all but while it may be no classic, (the mostly terrible gags let it down), it does have a song score by Harry Warren and Al Dubin, (and a good one), and Busby Berkeley is credited with the spectacular finale. The 'main' director is Ray Eright, a jack of all trades and a master of none and his work here is workmanlike at best. The male lead is the underrated Rudy Vallee who was a much better crooner than he was given credit for and the cast also includes Hugh Herbert, Allen Jenkins and Melville Cooper. The female lead is Rosemary Lane, sister of Priscilla and one of the Lane Sisters. Also known as "The Gay Imposters", a title not much used these days.