Playboy of Paris

In his few years with Paramount, from 1929-1934, Maurice Chevalier made some remarkable movies, usually with Jeannette MacDonald, directed by Ernst Lubitsch or Rouben Mamoulian. They include masterpieces like "The Love Parade," "The Smiling Lieutenant," "One Hour with You," and "Love Me Tonight," remarkable examples of clever dialog delivered with great cleverness and some great tunes. This was made at the same time, at the same studio, but it's a bomb.

The script is uninteresting and certainly not funny. Chevalier, a waiter in a restaurant, comes in to a fortune but gets tricked by his boss at the restaurant such that, if he stops waiting tables, he will owe his boss 400,000 francs. So Chevalier keeps waiting tables during the day, but doing a poor job of it. That's good for only a lame joke or two.

He is also seeing a wealthy society woman, from whom he wants to hide his waiter background. She's mildly attractive but very disagreeable, so it's hard to understand why he would go to the bother.

There is little music, and what there is is unmemorable.

My advice: skip it.

"Playboy in Paris" is a Paramount movie that debuted in American theaters in October 1930; and was remade and retitled for release in France after a New York premier on Jan. 20, 1931. The French language version was called, "Le Petite Café." The film I watched had the title covered over with the English title, "The Little Café." This was the American edition with the credits and cast of the original film.

Only one member of the cast is the same in the two releases. Maurice Chevalier plays the waiter, Albert Loriflan, in both films. The most familiar other actors in the original film are Eugene Pallette as the cook, Pierre Bourdin, and Stuart Erwin as Paul Michel, the kitchen helper. One wonders why the film was completely shot a second time with mostly French actors in that version. Because, it too, was filmed on location at Paramount studios in Hollywood.

Frances Dee plays the part of Yvonne Phillbert in this version. She's the daughter of the café owner, and Phillbert is played by O.P. Heggie. One wonders why the Yvonne role wasn't played by Yvonne Vallee in both films, because she was Chevalier's wife at the time. The couple had been married since 1927, and she moved to Hollywood with Chevalier when he went there to break into American films. She was Chevalier's only wife and they divorced in 1935. The American film's Yvonne is played by Frances Dee, who would marry Joel McCrea within three years. Her part seems overblown at times.

The film is a comedy that's also billed as a musical for the couple of tunes that Chevalier sings. The plot is interesting and exploits themes of greed, gold-digging, dreaming of wealth, and the loss of virtues associated with these - envy, pride, arrogance, cheating, lying and more. But, the comedy is just so-so, and there's nothing outstanding about the movie.

The funniest scene is when Albert takes Phillbert off to the side in a fancy restaurant to stop him from divulging his background to his date, Mademoiselle Berengere (played by Dorothy Christy). Albert describes the different types and results of a punch in the nose, when Phillbert finally gets the message. One of the strangest (maybe intended as funny) scenes is early when Albert recommends for breakfast, radishes, ham and bread.

Here are a couple of the funnier lines from the movie.

Mademoiselle Berengere, "Albert, you must calm yourself. Waiter?" Albert, "Yes, madam?" Berengere, "Oh no, dear, I was calling the waiter."

Pierre Bourdin," Albert, Albert, I just learned from the general that the banker is not the man that I thought he was." Albert, "You mean Gastonet is afraid?" Pierre, "Afraid? I should say not. Before he settled down in the banking business, he was an officer in the 22nd ...And this will make his sixth duel."

Pierre, "You must forget everything I told you yesterday. Your only chance is to shoot first. You can't afford to lose a second." (Pierre is his second second.)

Albert (Maurice Chevalier) is a waiter who comes into a fortune. Unfortunately, he has just been persuaded by his boss Philibert (OP Heggie) to sign a binding contract which does not allow him to leave his place of employment unless he pays the owner £400,000. Well, Albert is obviously not very happy about this and he tries to get the sack on a daily basis - this apparently will break the contract - but he doesn't succeed. At the same time he is living the highlife at Paris nightclubs. As a womanizer, Albert has a few sticky situations with a couple of women but love manages to win out in the end.

There are a few rare moments of actual funny comedy in this film - Chevalier throwing water onto Frances Dee who plays "Yvonne" and the scene where he tries to get the sack by making all the customers wait for ages before taking their orders, and then promptly sitting down at a spare table to play cards by himself. That's it. Nothing else is funny. In fact, the film is pretty tedious with a boring duel scene at the end. The story just peters out and ends with an extremely improbable conclusion. The women aren't particularly attractive considering that the film is meant to take place amongst the chic set of Paris. I would have thought that Chevalier could have chosen a more attractive bunch to hang out with! And the attraction that Frances Dee has for Chevalier appears out of NOWHERE - it is very phony stuff. The music is crap in this film but Chevalier is OK in his role. Unlike stupid Stuart Erwin who plays "Paul". This is a forgettable film.

In 1929, Maurice Chevaliar was one of the "Innocents of Paris", but a year later he became the Playboy of Paris. He is a bad waiter who inherits a million francs. Before he is told, law clerk Tyler Brooks tells Chevalier's boss, O.P. Heggie, with a scheme to mulct him: Heggie and Chevalier will sign a new contract, and should Chevalier quit, he will pay a fine of 400,000 francs. Heggie and Brooks will split the sum, and Tyler will marry Frances Dee, Heggie's daughter. Just before he quits, Chevalier figures out their scheme. He decides to become a waiter by day and a playboy by night, with Dorothy Christy happy to help him spend his money.

Ludwig Berger directs this movie competently, but it's a bit mechanical in its ramblings, with not much in the way of laughs. There are some songs for the cast to sing, written by Richard Whiting and Newell Chase. Only "My Ideal" is noteworthy, although Chevalier performs them with his customary elan.

The ranks of comedians in this film are rounded out with Stu Erwin and Eugene Palette, but they add little to the fun. The movie is carried on Chevalier's usual charm, but, alas, without the direction of Lubitsch and the writing that surrounded him in his better Paramount movies, this one is good but not great.

This movie was a treat from start to finish- lots of fun. The entire cast was in great form.

A waiter (Maurice Chevalier) receives a vast inheritance and becomes a club-hopping playboy by night (with Stu Irwin as side-kick) and working in a café by day. Stuart Irwin and Eugene Palette also work in the restaurant (in the kitchen). O.P. Heggie is entertaining as the scheming proprietor of the café with Frances Dee as his daughter. Not much as a musical, enjoyable primarily as a chaotic 1930's style comedy.

Maurice Chevalier and Stuart Erwin are terrific as usual. Fans of either of these two exceptional talents will not want to miss.