Les surprises de la TSF

"So This is Paris" is nothing short of perfection, an absolute joy from start to finish. I saw it for the first time very recently and I was overawed by it. Without a doubt, it ranks as one of the great Lubitsch's finest silent films, up there with "Die Puppe", "The Oyster Princess", "Rosita", "The Marriage Circle", "Lady Winderemere's Fan" "The Student Prince In Old Heidelberg" and "Eternal Love". All the familiar Lubitsch touches and themes are here: gaiety, enchantment, naughtiness, cynicism, extramarital affairs, manage a trois, etc. The standout moment is the Charleston sequence at a Parisian ball, where people are dancing and jumping. Lubitsch uses multiple camera angles and superimposition to create a feeling of joy and excitement.

A delightful jazz-age bon-bon.

Lots of fun and frollick, with some lovely "art titles" and simple but effective camera tricks, keep this from being a run of the mill romantic triangle comedy.

Keep your eyes peeled for a quick-as-a-wink appearance by Myrna Loy as the maid of the Lalle household.

Nice little comedy from Ernst Lubitsch about two Paris couples who get involved in a bizarre mixup of identities and lies.

Monte Blue (hugely underrated silent star) is dull Dr. Giraud, whose antsy wife (Patsy Ruth Miller) pines for a sheik. One day she spies across the way a sheik in a window. She fantasizes about the sheik (Andre Beranger) who is really just the mousy husband of Lilyan Tashman in a dance act. When the doctor goes across the street to confront the sheik all manner of mistaken ideas take place, culminating in a fabulous montage of a Parisienne jazz club.

Blue and Tashman are quite fabulous here and really get into the spirit of the farce. Miller is stuck with the "wife" part but looks great. Beranger is also quite good as the mousy sheik.

Myrna Loy plays the maid!

Ernst Lubitsch cannot be over-praised. One of his classics is a silent version of "Lady Windermere's Fan," by that iconic wordsmith, Oscar Wilde.

Lubitsch knew how to use a camera to tell a story, and "So This Is Paris" illustrates -- if you'll pardon the expression -- that facet of his talent perfectly.

But he also had four of the most expressive actors available, especially Lilyan Tashman, who certainly should be better known now, even if nearly a hundred years later.

She was lovely, yes, but what a talented actress, so animated and full of facial and bodily gestures to get her point across.

She lit up the screen, but her character's husband, played by George Beranger, listed here as Andre Beranger, who had a long and busy career, including as director, was not totally in her shadow.

Beranger needed to stand up straighter and hold his shoulders back, but he was obviously in good shape, and even looked as if he lifted weights. It's nice to know he kept busy for so many years since he was talented as well as good looking.

Another good-looking actor was Monte Blue, who eventually accumulated nearly 300 credits, working nearly to the last years of his life, to the credit of Hollywood, which -- sad to say -- so often forgot its pioneers.

The fourth star, and star she was, is Patsy Ruth Miller. Probably her most famous film is "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," with Lon Chaney, but she went on to play in about four score movies, making a praised appearance in her last role as the title character in "Mother," 1978.

When "So This Is Paris" was presented on Turner Classic Movies, 9 May 2021, it was a surprise to me, being totally unfamiliar with it. Apparently it is a refurbished film with a new score, and I hope it plays often, so you can see it.

The script, by the way, steals quite a bit from Strauss's "Die Fledermaus," and I don't know how many others, including critics and reviewers of 1926 as well as audience members of today, realize the source.

Never mind, even if it is plagiarized, "So This Is Paris" is so beautifully performed and directed, we will overlook the theft and just enjoy.

... but other than the names of the characters, I see nothing about this film that would indicate anything particularly Parisian about it.

A doctor's wife, Suzanne Giraud (Patsy Ruth Miller) , laps up romance novels about sheiks. Across the way, the apartment of the Lalles, who are professional dancers who dress in Middle Eastern attire, is visible via the window. Through a misunderstanding, Suzanne thinks the man living there has exposed himself to her, and demands her husband (Monte Blue as Dr. Girard) go over there and "get satisfaction" by caning him. It turns out the man's wife is an old flame of Dr. Giraud, Georgette (Lilyan Tashman), and the two begin an emotional affair. Meanwhile, Mr. Lalle, who never even encounters Dr. Giraud, goes to the Giraud apartment to return the doctor's cane, and becomes enamored of Suzanne. She does not return the sentiment only because Mr. Lalle is not her idea of a romantic sheik.

Suzanne is the only one not cheating or attempting to cheat on anybody, but she does have the knowledge - eventually - of the behavior of everybody else. And if Mr. Lalle had been more Valentino and less librarian, she probably would have been having a rendezvous too.

This is just a very light enjoyable film that is a great showcase for the fashions and dance styles of the time. The best scene in the movie is the Artists' Ball with a rowdy band and a rowdier Charleston. It was highlighted in the documentary series "Silent Hollywood" as an example of silent film not having any problems with musical numbers. Warner Brothers recently restored it, and it looks terrific, but I think the music that was used, particularly at the Artists' Ball, was not nearly as good as what was used in Silent Hollywood.

I'd recommend it as a good example of that Lubitsch touch in the silent era. It also showcases Lilyan Tashman as being as good in silents as she was in sound films, her natural mischief coming through.