Friday, May 10, 2013

Gold Diggers in Paris (1938)

Warner Bros. 
Directed by Ray Enright and Busby Berkeley
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Warner Bros.)

A bankrupt nightclub owner in NYC takes his show to Paris on false pretenses. The girls are taught ballet for an international exhibition, although their talents obviously lie elsewhere. The real ballet troupe is not happy and tries to get them deported. Rudy Vallee falls in love with a ballerina while his ex-wife tries to milk him for alimony. The day of the big show finally arrives, and the girls abandon ballet and put on a pathetic number filled with French caricatures and a giant sailor's hat. The Busby Berkeley numbers suffer from a lack of budget, they pale in comparison to previous films in the series. Instead, we get The Schnickelfritz Band, a novelty jazz act that makes funny faces and wears dumb costumes while playing frantic music in the style of Spike Jones.

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