Cavadoras em Paris

The comedy here is supplied by Hugh Herbert, Edward Brophy, Allen Jenkins, Fritz Feld, Curt Bois and a sextet called the Schnickelfritz Band. I never could fully understand the appeal of Hugh Herbert, or any of the comedians who use stupidity for laughs. (Marie Wilson and Gomer Pyle come to mind.) Here, Herbert gets a wire telling him he's hired the wrong group to come to Paris for a dance exposition and is about to call out the riot squad when the bogus pair he hired convinces him, through a talking dog (via ventriloquism by Mabel Todd) that they are the right group. Now, some may think that's funny, but I prefer the savviness of Brophy, who always knows what's going on and whose comedy comes from his reactions and situations he's placed in. Here, he's a gangster patron of ballet, who cries at its beauty but has no hesitation in eliminating the enemies of his friends. He's dispatched to do just that in Paris and befriends Allen Jenkins, unaware that Jenkins the one he's looking for. Now that's funny. Brophy also has the face and demeanor which makes me laugh just by looking at him, a reaction I also get with Woody Allen. Bridging the musical and comedy aspects of this film is the Schnickelfritz band, a precursor of Spike Jones, doing some funny numbers while in funny positions. There's even a washboard in their musical instrument collection. Busby Berkeley creates and directs all the numbers in the movie. Although it's not his best work, it is mostly due to his constant battle with Warner Bros. to get bigger budgets for his numbers, something of which he complained about often. Still, they're fun to watch. A giant Navy hat engulfs the two dozen gorgeous chorus girls in what is the most spectacular musical sequence in the movie. "I Wanna Go Back to Bali" number was also extensively staged and equally as good. Rudy Vallee was top-billed and sings four of the songs in the movie and Rosemary Lane was the love interest, singing a couple of songs too. The plot is routine, with an on-again, off-again romance and a suspenseful ending which has the group about to be deported before they even perform in the contest.

The end of a musical era was marked with Gold Diggers In Paris. Shortly after this film, Busby Berkeley took his considerable choreographing talents over to MGM and no more films with Gold Diggers in the title would be coming from the Brothers Warner.

Before this film was made Dick Powell who was looking to say farewell to musicals altogether said he would not do another film with Gold Diggers in the title. So Rudy Vallee made yet another attempt to have the movie-going public accept him as a musical leading man.

The film's a good one, but it didn't work for Vallee once again. He would only gain acceptance as film star when Preston Sturges correctly utilized his acerbic personality in character roles.

Harry Warren and Al Dubin once again wrote some nice songs for Gold Diggers and Busby Berkeley weaved his usual choreographic fantasy. His numbers are the main attraction for Gold Diggers In Paris, especially the last song The Latin Quarter.

The plot was later reworked some in the later Doris Day film April In Paris where Doris as showgirl gets a visa by mistake to go to Paris as as a visiting artist. Here it's bumbling Hugh Herbert's mistake who instead of going to a ballet company goes to the Club Balle which is losing money and is the white elephant on owner Rudy Vallee's hands. This offer of an all expense paid trip to Paris is a lifesaver for Vallee and his troupe and if they have to learn ballet, they'll hire Fritz Feld as ballet master and so be it.

Vallee's love interest is Rosemary Lane of the Lane sisters and he also has Gloria Dickson an ex-wife whom he owes a lot of back alimony to. She's hanging around to protect her interest and then actually proves to be the smartest one in the cast. She gives the most memorable performance as well.

Gold Diggers In Paris is great musical entertainment with good songs and routines in delivering them, courtesy of a premier dance master, Busby Berkeley.

Crooner rudy vallee, along with rosemary lane. Funny guys hugh herbert, ed brophy, and allan jenkins along for comedy. A later chapter in the gold digger films, which had begun back in the 1920s. With dance bits by busby berkeley, so we know the song and dance thangs will be big and fancy. The cast and crew from club ballé get a lucky break and accidentally enter the international competition in paris. It's all just an excuse for a bunch of vaudeville routines, with some large ensemble numbers, and a paper thin plot holding it together. Some of the comedy bits work, some don't. Singing by vallee. He even does a parody of maurice chevalier. Herbert never really does zero in on his terrible fake french accent. It's just all over the place. There's a love story. Even a divorce and alimony story. It's entertaining. Not a shakespear by any means, but light and fluffy, just before WW II. At this time, danzig was already under control of germany, but they hadn't started their large war marches yet. In may of 1940, germany would begin its large scale attack on france. Of course, this cast never left the hollywood studio. Directed by ray enright. Started directing just as the silents were becoming talkies.

My least favorite of the Gold Diggers series, largely because most of the humor and gags fall flat. And there's also the sentient tree trunk (Rudy Vallee) which happens to have a rather mellifluous singing voice. Dick Powell he is not. And really, hardly anyone stands out in the cast. Allen Jenkins probably the most, and Hugh Herbert also, although he isn't in it as much as I would have liked. The only chorus girl who made an impression was Mabel Todd, who reminded me heavily of Kristin Chenoweth (sans Southern accent). As for Busby Berkeley, there was only one large production number at the end, which was good, but not nearly as much as most of the ones that preceded in this series and Berkeley's other work. Overall, I didn't hate it; I just rolled my eyes a lot.

This is certainly not as good as the best-known Gold Diggers movies, no doubt for a variety of reasons. While it is a Busby Berkeley movie, there is only one big dance number in it, the finale, a reprise of "I want to go back to Bali" - sung, believe it or not, on a set made up as the streets of Paris, which makes NO sense whatsoever. (The first time that number is sung, in a nightclub in New York City, the women are made up as Balinese, and the set, what there is of it, is supposed to represent Bali.) Most of the songs are instantly forgettable. Still, in an almost childish way, the movie is full of a lot of innocent energy and it never drags. Rudy Vallee sings well, and the character parts - Hugh Herbert and Melville Cooper, playing the same parts they always played - are humorous. I was never bored, which is more than I can say for a lot of movies that pretend to far more than this.

I wouldn't go out of my way to see this, but neither would I suggest avoiding it.