Du Barry Did All Right

A Vitaphone Broadway Brevity.

When her American husband neglects her, a French wife remembers that DU BARRY DID ALL RIGHT financially after acquiring a powerful lover...

Corsican stage star Irene Boldoni (1895-1953), in a rare film appearance, is pert & spunky in the leading role in this fast-moving short subject. Novelty dancers Eddie Noll & Marian Nolan prove they are limber to an amazing degree. Waiter Charles Carrer does some eye-popping juggling tricks with wine glasses & bottles. Movie mavens should spot an uncredited Percy Helton as a hotel desk clerk.

After appearing in a handful of silent films - he's best remembered as Abraham Lincoln in D. W. Griffith's THE BIRTH OF A NATION (1915) - Joseph Henabery (1888-1976) moved behind the camera. During the next 25 years he would direct 83 films, of which this was one.

Operettas were idea subject matter for early talky two-reelers. They were swiftly paced, colorful (even in black & white) and rather cheap to produce, utilizing as they did the sets & costumes of feature films. Their brief length negated any need for character exposition and the stories were easy to follow, even when sung by heavily accented voices. Best of all, they were full of Sound, and that was still enough of a novelty to keep most audiences from becoming overly critical or expectant of anything smacking of real art.

In Paris, socialite Irene Wainwright (Irène Bordoni) is hosting her society party, but her husband is missing. He would rather play cards with his friends. She has had enough and leaves for New York City with her friend.

First thing I notice are the party dresses. There is plenty of sparkle but I don't like all the prints. They look like window drapes. I can't see that as high fashion. It looks matron-like and old and definitely not French. The outfits in New York are a little better. I don't necessarily care about these rich old ladies. This is fine as a short. There is a fun juggler in there and some fine dancing. That's it.

Irene Bordoni warbles a song, but there's no love in Paris, so she heads off to exotic New York City, where she sings another song or two between waiters doing tricks with plates and cutlery.

Miss Bordoni wowed 'em on Broadway, but attempts to bring her magic to Hollywood was met with blase reactions, even when, as in PARIS, she recreated her stage role; perhaps it was the fact that they cut the musical numbers that did it. She returned to the movies rarely, but kept in the public gaze by frequent lawsuits, and had a late success when she took over the role of Bloody Mary in SOUTH PACIFIC. She died in 1953 at the age of 58.