A Parisian Romance

Lew Cody is a rich Parisian baron with a ring of keys; he asks strangers on the street to pick one, notes "Charming" and goes to the apartment's occupant. One of his amours complains he doesn't love her any more. He replies that he never said he did, that he estimated the affair would cost him at least half a million francs, and writes her a check for the difference. Then he meets Marion Shilling, the naive fiancee of Gilbert Roland. He's a poor painter, and knows the Baron's reputation.

It rates to be a cheap, salacious B PreCode, on its surface. but the actual talent is very good. It's a modernized version of a play by Octave Feuillet, a member of the Academie Francaise who died in 1890. Cody plays his role like John Barrymore, the usually mediocre Miss Shilling is excellent until the denouement, and Gilbert is fine. Even Luis Alberni is a rare, serious (if small role) shows he didn't have to do comedy all the time.

I credit the director, Chester Franklin. He was the brother of better-known Sidney Franklin. Together they directed the Fox Kiddie movies until William Fox split them up. While Sidney became one of MGM's major producer-directors, Chester's success was more muted; his directing career would end a few years later, directing a children's movie for RKO. He would die in 1954, aged 63.

I suspect the patience that Franklin needed in directing small children was used in getting a good performance out of Miss Shilling. As for Mr. Cody, he seems an awfully nice guy for a rake. He's very good opposite 6-year-old Cullen Johnson and a frog.

The Baron is an aging, cynical lady's man. He has a key-chain with about 50 keys to different women' apartments in Paris. He selects one at random to see who he will sleep with at night. His adversary is a young Parisian artist (the next Picasso), Victor. Victor believes in love and he's going to marry his girlfriend Claudette as soon as he sells his first painting. The Baron seduces Claudette, seemingly to teach Victor a lesson. However, as might be predicted, he soon falls in love with Claudette himself.

Lew Cody, who was married to Mabel Normand for three and 1/2 years (1926-1930) plays the Baron. Cody was 48 at the time and soon died two years later at 50. He looks older, which makes the Baron seem more lecherous as he searches for young women to hook up with. What saves him is that he is quite generous with the women he hires to have affairs with. He gives them expensive jewelry. At one point, when a woman wants to break up with him, he opens a book and notes that he has given her 460 thousand francs worth of jewelry. She offers to give them back. He rejects the offer and says that he expected to give her 1/2 million, so he gives her 40 thousand more francs as a going away gift. Cody is quite likable, suave and amusing, although a handsomer actor like Douglas Fairbanks would perhaps have been better.

Gilbert Roland is surprisingly weak as the artist Victor. He plays the film very straight. There is none of the glee that one might expect based on his other roles (for example, the Spanish Ambassador in Greta Garbo's "Queen Christina"). He genuinely seems to detest the Baron.

Marion Shilling is quite sophisticated and charming as Claudette, the object of both their affections. She is very good here. Her career ended four years later at the age of 26, after playing in a bunch of B Westerns.

The movie starts out very witty and naughty. It does a good job of capturing a Parisian atmosphere. It does drag a little bit. It is certainly worth watching for fans of sophisticated comedy and early cinema.

This is a sad pre-code melodrama that depicts an aging wealthy womanizer who never falls in love, just uses his money to basically buy young lovers. He finally meets a young innocent woman who doesn't want his money and is engaged to a poor artist...The wealthy Baron tries to steal her away, but has he finally met his match?

Really scandalous the affairs...the jealousy, the violence and the lies, the references to tarnished reputations. This was interesting just from it's pre-code perspective...but otherwise a bit of a sleeper.

Great quotes from our love-em and leave them Baron:

"Love is an illusion that one woman is different from another."

"There are two things a man shouldn't run after, a bus and a woman because there is always sure to be another one."