Paree, Paree

"Paree, Paree" is among Bob Hope's earliest films. I can only assume his newness to the medium would explain why it really isn't a comedy--it's really a musical. Sure, he makes a few quips here and there but they aren't all that funny and seem like more of an afterthought.

Peter (Hope) is in Paris and he's smitten with a lady...though he's only seen her and doesn't even know who she is. However, he bets his friends that within 30 days he'll marry her...even though he's broke. What follows is far less romance and more just a whole bunch of musical numbers...one after the other. In other words, plot is pretty much secondary. And, considering it's a short film, it really could have used less singing and more plot. Watchable and pleasant enough but nothing more. It does, however, allow you to hear the nice Cole Porter song, "You Do Something to Me".

I would not say that Bob Hope was a major star on Broadway, that eluded him until he got into films, but he was a prominent Broadway performer during the Thirties before he went to Hollywood for The Big Broadcast of 1938. This short was made in New York probably between his run in Roberta and Say When.

What Paree, Paree is is a condensed version of the Cole Porter Broadway show Fifty Million Frenchmen. The soundtrack includes You Do Something To Me, Find me a Primitive Man, You've Got That Thing, and the title song all from the stage production of Fifty Million Frenchmen.

This short while it lacks a lot of production values is a marvelous opportunity to see something of a photographed Broadway show of the time. In that it's like The Marx Brothers Cocoanuts or Animal Crackers.

Bob Hope was not in the original Broadway cast of Fifty Million Frenchmen, but Cole Porter would provide him with a great duet with Ethel Merman in Hope's last Broadway appearance a few years later in Red, Hot, and Blue. He introduced It's Delovely with her from that show which did lead to his Hollywood contract.

Now that would be great if someone preserved them on film singing It's Delovely.

Dorothy Stone may be top-billed in this mini-version of Cole Porter's FIFTY MILLION FRENCHMEN, but of course, it's Bob Hope you're interested in, not the Busby Berkeley shots or perhaps even the Cole Porter songs -- more fool you. Hope and Miss Stone sing two of Porter's better known songs, "You've Got That Thing" and "You Do Something To Me". Even us old-movie fans sometimes forget that Hope had a long trek on the vaudeville stage and was first noticed in two different Porter shows.

You can't see much of the Hope persona that he established over the first dozen Paramount movies, the wise-cracking, self-derogatory skirt-chaser, but he is in hot pursuit of the high-kicking Miss Stone, ready for an aside to the furnishings.

Rich American playboy Peter Forbes (Bob Hope) is in Paris doing girl-watching with his friends. He pursues Lulu Carroll (Dorothy Stone). His friends had bet him to get the girl without revealing his wealth.

This is a remake of the 1931 version which had cut out the Cole Porter songs from his 1929 hit Broadway musical. There are quite a few dance numbers. The story almost doesn't matter in this one. Bob Hope singing the iconic "You Do Something to Me" may be a bit of a waste, but at least, it's out in the world. I don't rate this high for the comedic story. I didn't actually laugh. It's really for the song and dance.

An American in Paris (a popular spot for Americans before Der Fuerur invited himself in) tries to woo his lady-love in 20 minutes or fewer.

Bob Hope, of course, isn't "Bob Hope" as we know and love him but he clearly has "movie star" potential. So did lots of photogenic actors whose careers went phut. You might guess he had a future in movies but he doesn't have "entertainment powerhouse" written all over him. It's amazing to think of people a century ago unaware they were seeing a figure who would be so dominant.

This is really like an extended music video advertising some Cole Porter's songs.

Leonard Maltin once made the shocking, but probably true, statement, that Astaire introduced more sung "standards" in the movies than anyone. Well, here's Bob Hope doing a creditable job of introducing "You Do Something to Me." Hope would never knock Crosby off the charts but he wasn't a bad warbler.

Whatever happened to Dorothy Stone?