La coqueluche de Paris

A decent enough screwball comedy, Rage owes more than a little to The Awful Truth. Danielle Darieux wants a modeling job and accidentally winds up stripping for businessman Douglas Fairbanks Jr (thinking he's a photographer; he's not). She then gets involved in a complex ploy to marry rich Canadian Louis Hayward, in the process helping head waiter Mischa Auer get his own restaurant. Turns out that Hayward and Fairbanks are friends and Fairbanks thinks she's a cheap trollop and so tries to stop it all from happening with decent enough comic results. A few decent French jokes but terrible last minute romance between Darrieux and Fairbanks leaves a bad taste in the mouth of the discerning viewer. Helen Broderick's role as Darrieux's protector comes off as endearing at first but eventually feels pathetic, as she remains uncoupled at the end of this comic work, never a particularly fortunate place to be.

Danielle Darrieux plays a French woman called Nicole who is desperately looking for a job to get some cash.Without any luck. But she finds a better way to get rich.Nicole gets a rich man called Bill Duncan (Louis Hayward).Bill's friend Jim Trevor (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) knows Nicole's nasty little plan and tries to stop it.The Rage of Paris from 1938 is nice comedy with good actors.Beautiful Danielle Darrieux is perfect in her role.Same thing with Douglas Fairbanks Jr.Mr. Fairbanks died last May at the age of 90.If you want to see a good old Hollywood comedy this is a movie for you to see.The movie has a happy ending and I'm a nuts for happy endings.

This is basically a formulaic romcom with predictable beats, but sparkles from the start with Darrieux's unforced sexy comic energy. Her accidental strip-tease is both credible and hilarious; her slight embarrassment at the hustle she finds herself promoting makes her subsequent attempts to pull it off all the more endearing. She shares the screen here with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. but it's pretty much her film. Sweet and fun.

Although it is rarely cited by critics, The Rage of Paris is one of the breeziest and most charming of all of Hollywood's screwball comedies. It stars the lovely French superstar Danielle Darrieux in her greatest American role and second-generation Hollywood legend Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. Screwball films are famous for their attempts to push the censors to the limit. And The Rage of Paris does this amazingly. This type of comedy came about as a result of the Production Code, and the screenwriters and directors tried to go as far towards risqué as possible in them.

This picture begins with a young wanna-be model, Nicole (Darrieux). She is given an assignment to pose for a photographer, but she objects to the clothing (actually the lack of clothing) she is being asked to pose with. So the boss asks another model to come into his office to offer her the job. Nicole overhears the salary the model is going to get, and she changes her mind. While the boss and the new model discuss the job, Nicole sneaks over to the boss' desk and grabs what she thinks is the address of the photographer. But, she grabs the wrong address. Instead, she winds up at the office of Mr. Trevor (Fairbanks). Told by his secretary to "make herself comfortable" until Mr. Trevor arrives, she misconstrues and is in the process of undressing when he enters. It is perhaps the finest "meet-cute" in film history. When she finally realizes she got the wrong address, she leaves the office and returns to her dump-of-a boarding house, where her best friend Gloria lives.

Both desperate for money, Gloria and Nicole enlist the help of a head-waiter, Mike, to help them out. He has been saving some money to open his own restaurant, and he has $3,000 in the bank. Gloria proposes a scheme: use that money to buy Nicole some nice clothes, put her up in the hotel, and try to set her up with a rich husband; then, if they succeed, they will return his $3,000 and throw in the extra $2,000 he needs to open his restaurant. Reluctantly, Mike goes along with it.

The man they decide to "catch" with their beautiful bait is Bill Duncan, who "has ten million dollars and owns half of Canada." In a hilarious meeting, Nicole "accidentally" mistakes Bill for her old next-door neighbor. She runs up to him, kisses him, and talks excitedly in French. He tells her she is mistaken, and, embarrassed, she drops a glove and runs back to her room. Bill picks up the glove and begins to follow Nicole...the scheme has worked, and the next thing they know, Bill takes Nicole to the opera. It looks as though everything is going according to plan.

At the opera, Bill sees his best friend whom he hasn't met in a long time. He brings him back to his box, anxious to introduce him to his French aristocratic girlfriend. But it just so happens that his best friend is James Trevor, the same man Nicole was accidentally stripping for three weeks earlier. Instead of revealing her secret to his friend, James decides to see how the situation plays out.

Eventually, he tries to tell Bill about Nicole, but Bill believes James is lying and only wants the beauty for himself. In haste, Bill agrees to marry the girl. At their engagement-announcement dinner, however, James 'kidnaps' her. He takes her to his secluded country home, and the two fall in love.

She hitch-hikes back to the city, where Bill has found out the truth about her. And since he will no longer marry her, the door is open for James!

The story is typical of the times. Once Nicole is disrobed in front of Mr. Trevor, the audience knows they will fall in love. It's inevitable. But it is also so much fun watching it happen!

Furthermore, the entire cast is sensational. In fact, it is one of the most perfectly cast films of all time. Towering above all is the delectable Danielle Darrieux! She is absolutely ideal, using her continental French personality to drive men mad. The way she dictates to Gloria what she wants to eat for breakfast is lovely. It is such a simple moment, yet the actress manages to turn it into one of the most memorable parts of the film. Still, the highlight is her pouty foibles at the home of James Trevor. Her facial expressions when she sees the two-sided photograph and her experience with the troublesome window are totally captivating.

Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. is the quintessential debonair leading man. His performance here is one of his finest. His concern for his friend, as well as his slow albeit sure fall into Nicole's charms, make the character quite memorable. As Gloria, Helen Broderick is the cynical sidekick par excellence. And Mischa Auer suits the role of the headwaiter, Mike, so well, that it's hard to imagine another actor doing the part. Louis Hayward, playing Bill Trevor, gives one of the film's finest performances. And Harry Davenport has a part in the funniest portion of the movie, as the eccentric caretaker of James' country house.

The sets are art deco dreams, particularly the hotel rooms and the hotel room doors. Darrieux's magnificent wardrobe accents the star's unbelievable figure, too. Quite honestly, Danielle Darrieux might be the most beautiful woman who has ever lived, and this film, made when she was a young and glorious twenty years old, captures her joie de vivre for all time. The direction is swift and deft, but it's the script that really provides the basis for the film's charm. The writing and scenario are both perfect, and at about 78 minutes, the film is fast and fun.

Go to the ends of the earth to find this film. Buy it, watch it over and over again, and pass it on to everyone you know. It is the one film that will turn just about anybody on to classic films, and it ranks up top with Bringing Up Baby, The Awful Truth, It Happened One Night, and The Lady Eve as one of the five greatest screwball comedies of all time.

The title of this film, "The Rage of Paris," may seem to most viewers at first not to fit the plot. But with a premise that pops up occasionally in the movie, it soon dawns on one (this viewer, finally) that it refers to a theme of the film that a woman's drive in gay Paris should be to snag herself a wealthy husband. OK! So, that out of the way, we have here a very enjoyable comedy with some good early film stars. The plot is fun, the acting is very good, and the direction and sets are good.

Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., and Louis Hayward are very good in their respective roles as Jim Trevor and Bill Duncan. Most moviegoers know about Fairbanks, but few people today probably remember the name Louis Hayward. He did have a short leading period in Hollywood and later moved to television, but his star never rose very high. Hayward was born in South Africa and educated in England. He came to the U. S. in 1935 for a Broadway play, and soon moved to Hollywood.

This is also one of the few American-produced films that stars Danielle Darrieux. This demure and versatile star of stage and screen was the leading actress in France for much of the eight decades during which she acted. Darrieux flew to Hollywood to make "The Rage of Paris" in 1938, and returned to France after it was released. She stayed there during the war and made three films through 1942, but nothing after the Nazi occupation. All were comedies. She resumed work in 1946, and has played starring roles in drama, suspense-thrillers, romance and comedies.

She appeared is some other notable English films - made in Great Britain or on the continent, so Americans and others may have seen her in some of these. "Five Fingers" was a great 20th Century Fox espionage thriller filmed around Europe. In 2002, at age 85, she won honors for her role in "8 Women," a musical comedy produced in French and English. Darrieux continued acting until 2010, at age 93.

One aspect of this film that stands out and is most enjoyable is the acting of the support cast. Mischa Auer played Mike, the head waiter. He was a Russian-born actor who had a distinguished film career, mostly in Europe, but with some films in the U. S. His English was quite good, and his accent was a natural for the many different supporting and leading roles he played as a man of various nationalities. He did mostly comedy films, but was equally good in serious roles.

Helen Broderick played Gloria Patterson. This long-time comedienne acted with some top stars over the years. She was best as the wisecracking sidekick of the lead female star - as in this film. Broderick was married to another vaudeville and stage performer, Lester Crawford. They were the parents of Oscar-winning actor Broderick Crawford (her last name and her husband's last name), who was born in 1911.

Here are the best comedy lines from this film.

Nicole de Cortillion, " Why are you always so good to me?" Gloria Patterson, "Oh, I suppose you have to be good for something, and my dog died a week before you moved in here."

Mike - The Head Waiter, "Uh, Uh, young lady in your party forgot her wrap." Jim Trevor, "It wasn't my party, and she's not a lady." Mike, "Oh, I'm sorry, sir. But I'm sure you know your friends better than I do."

Nicole, "He meant I was dishonest." Gloria, "Darling, all women are dishonest. If they weren't, the world would be divided into two classes of people - old maids and bachelors."

Mike, "I started out to get a restaurant and I'll be lucky if I wind up with a ham sandwich."

Jim Trevor, "Did you hear that, Rigley?" Rigley, "Did you want me to, sir?" Trevor, "I do." Rigley, "I did." Trevor, "Good."

Jim Trevor, "Rigley!" Rigley, "Yes, sir?" Trevor, "If this young lady is not here when I get back, you're fired." Rigley, "Thank you, sir."

Trevor, "Now, you do as you're told. You're on borrowed time anyway. I should have fired you last Tuesday." Rigley, "Well, why don't you fire me now, sir?" Trevor, "Well, if you do a good job tonight, perhaps I will." Rigley, "Oh, thank you very much, sir."