French Follies

The following review is based on Something Weird Video VHS tape # 5196.

This is an actual burlesque show, filmed in 1951. It is not a drama or a documentary, it is what you would have seen if you'd been sitting in the theater. Only two things are different from a regular show; there's no audience, and the length is abbreviated (only 67 minutes, whereas the full show may have run 90 minutes). There is some topless nudity and sexually suggestive dancing, but no full nudity or pornography.

This film is a cousin of the 1951 "Ding Dong." Although made by different companies, both appear to be have been filmed at the same theater, recognizable by a small stage and wide apron with light-colored lip. It's identified in "Ding Dong" as the Moulin Rouge in Oakland, California. The films were also probably made around the same time in 1951, since strippers Jennie Lee, Pat Flannery and Doreen Gray are in both movies.

The big difference is the strip music. "Ding Dong" uses recorded music lifted from other burlesque movies, chiefly the 1950 "Everybody's Girl," forcing the strippers to improvise their dances to unfamiliar tunes. "French Follies" uses the theater pit band, but I can't tell if it's synchronous or pre-recorded; the dancers' bumps and kicks get drum and cymbal emphasis, but Ruby Lee talks all during her act and we don't hear a word. Maybe that's just the microphone setup. Whatever the method, it's a lot more effective. Jennie Lee dances in both movies (also in "Peek-A-Boo"), and only here do you see the sureness and self-confidence of someone doing her own act to her own music.

The video side is fine too. William C. Thompson does his usual journeyman job with one camera and has everything dialed in, no surprises. The film is in good shape and appears to have no extraneous material added, but does get chopped a few times; there's a gap in Jennie Lee's act, and Crystal Starr and Ruby Lee appear to be cut off. The acts:

Jennie Lee does the first strip. In burlesque that's the bottom of the ladder, with the strips building in importance until the show concludes with the star. Jennie would have been higher than that (she was co-feature in "Ding Dong"), so probably the film editor got the acts out of order. Jennie's only wrong move is the costume, too much yardage and a bit gaudy. Once she gets free of the clothes she rocks. Great performance and living proof that big zaftig women can be lithe and athletic. Also a champion tassel-twirler, done deftly and with aplomb. Wherever she was in the lineup, she's the best act in the show.

Subsequent strips didn't grab me. Crystal Starr, very young, is billed here as Joanne Bridges. She became a headliner in the early 1950's. Wonderful mastery of technique but little zest, almost mechanical. Next is Ruby Lee (uncredited), then Dorothy Burke (I think, she's not announced). Pat Flannery is credited as a dancer but her strip isn't in the film, though she's in a comedy routine. Then finally the star, Val De Val. She is introduced as "dynamic" and she is, too much so for me. If you were in a theater audience and seeing her on stage live, it might have been a great act. On film she comes across as pointlessly frenetic.

This film has some comedy routines that are so-so, and two that stand out. For education, watch Bob Carney doing the classic "Crazy House" routine, in which the poor guy gets stuck in an asylum and the whole cast gets to parade by his bed and do outlandish things. This rendition has its moments, but the big draw is its history. Everybody in burlesque did this scene at one time or another. There's a photo of Gypsy Rose Lee in the nurse's role and Joey Faye as the patient. Probably Fannie Brice did it, and we can imagine what W. C. Fields could have made of the wacky-doctor role. Good stuff. The other routine is something unheard of in these films: a fairly funny bit that actually has a socko finish. Call it "The Whiskey Bottle scene." Straight man Don Mathers exits early, leaving Jean Carroll as a not-so-innocent young thing with Walter Owen as a crusty old lecher. Killer ending.

And the rest of the show. No chorus. The strippers and several other women dress as showgirls to form a sort-of ensemble. Charlie Crafts does his usual smooth singing and straight work, Mary Andes contributes a specialty dance and comedy roles. Comic Hermie Rose doesn't get much to work with as far as material, nor do Pat Flannery and Doreen Gray (she doesn't strip in this movie). But in this case the sum is greater than its parts, and you wind up with a likable film that has some great moments. Not a must-buy, but definitely a cut above average.