Starring Jackie Oakie, Richard "Skeets" Gallagher, Leon Erroll, Maurice Chevalier, and others
Directed by Edmund Goulding, Ernst Lubistch, Dorothy Arzner, Victor, Schertzinger, and others
Music and Lyrics by various
This week, we're going to do something entirely different and investigate three different versions of a musical genre that doesn't often turn up in films after 1930. Revues have been a part of musical theater going back centuries. These collections of songs, skits, and lavish showgirl parades were wildly popular on Broadway in the 1910's and 20's. After the success of Ziegfeld's Follies, every producer in town created their own lavish spectacles, filled with gags, girls, and specialty numbers from star comics. When sound came in, the studios sought to continue this tradition with their own versions. Paramount, the most sophisticated studio in 1930, may also have the most fascinating of the revues. How does Paramount's parade stand out from the pack? Let's head to the theater just as the curtain is rising and see...
The Story: This is a revue, so there isn't one. Comics Jack Oakie, Skeets Gallagher, and Leon Erroll introduce a vast array of Paramount stars of the time in numbers and sketches suited to their unique talents.
The Song and Dance: And actually, one of the places this stands out is in the sequences where there's no song involved at all. If you're a fan of vintage mysteries, you'll love "Murder Will Out," which spoofs popular detectives right in the very start. If you ever wanted to see Sherlock Holmes (Clive Brook), Philo Vance (William Powell), and Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) solve a mystery together, here's your chance...and it's hilarious. George Bancroft tossing shade at his own bad guy reputation in "Impulses," as we see what party guests really want to say to each other, is pretty funny too. Some of the musical numbers that survive are among the most enjoyable of the era - Maurice Chevalier, Clara Bow, Nancy Carroll, and Jack Oakie and Zelma O'Neal are among those who make the biggest impressions musically.
The Numbers: Alas, the movie's Technicolor opening number "Showgirls On Parade" is totally lost except the sound, so our first number defaults to our MC's. "We're the Masters of Ceremony," say Gallagher, Erroll, and Oakie. They're clearly enjoying it, and tend to be far looser MCs than the ones on other early revues that try too hard or not enough. With "Showgirls" missing, our first chorus number we can actually see in current prints is "Anytime Is the Time to Fall In Love." Buddy Rogers and Lillian Roth woo each other on a giant clock while other young people dance under it. It's cutesy, but the song is fun and Roth and Rodgers are adorable.
Following "Murder Will Out," we have Maurice Chevalier and tough-lady character actress Evelyn Brent introducing the "Origin of the Apache" in a satire of the famous passionate French dance, directed by none other than Ernest Lubistch. The next number in the surviving print brings in another tough-love couple. Jack Oakie and Zelma O'Neal spar in more than one way at a gym, insisting "I'm In Training for You." The dancing here almost matches their hilarious performance - the snappy chorus routine is surprisingly good for the early talkie era. Ruth Chatterton, as a French tart among doughboys (including a very young Fredric March) sort-of sings "My Marine." Chevalier gives us a far more pleasant French interlude as a randy gendarme who admits "All I Need Is One Girl." Mitzi Green comes off as a lot less annoying than she generally did in movies of this era doing impressions of him.
Helen Kane is probably the least-likely teacher you can imagine, which is likely how her "What Did Cleopatra Say?" history lesson turns into her teaching the kids to boop-oop-a-doop. Nancy Carroll's "Dancing to Save Your Sole" starts out with her and Abe Lyman's band being pulled from a shoe box, but Carroll's sexy swinging and the catchy song makes this one of the film's best numbers. The fleet's in, and rowdy Clara Bow wants her pick of the cadets, claiming "I'm True to the Navy Now." Chevalier return for the Busby Berkeley-esque finale, with chorus girls doing overhead formations as he plays a French chimney sweep leaping among rooftops, "Sweeping the Clouds Away."
Trivia: Alas, more than a quarter of the film remains missing from even the longest copies currently on YouTube, including all but one of its original Technicolor numbers. Of the missing footage, only sound has turned up for the opening "Showgirls" chorus parade. "Dream Girl," with Gary Cooper, Richard Arlen, Fay Wray, and Jean Arthur singing "Drink to the Girl of Your Dreams," and Dennis King singing "Nichavo!" have Techincolor footage existing, but no sound. "Come Back to Sorrento" with Nino Martini and "I'm Isodore the Torredor" with Harry Green and Kay Francis have picture and sound, but have yet to turn up online.
The Marx Brothers and Jeanette MacDonald supposedly had short sequences in this, but their parts were either cut or only turned up in international versions.
Paramount On Parade filmed Dutch, German, Romanian, Spanish, French, and Scandinavian versions.
The "Sweeping the Clouds Away" finale was originally in color, but survives in black and white.
What I Don't Like: First of all, note everything that's mentioned as missing in the Trivia section. In the copy I watched on YouTube, "Dream Girl" is introduced but not seen, and they don't even mention "Nichavo!" or "Come Back to Sorrento." "Isdore" and "Showgirls" have sound but not picture. The black and white footage doesn't look so hot, either. Universal really needs to take a very big swing at restoring this.
Second, not everything lands. Errol's hospital sketch is annoying, Ruth Chatterton's "My Marine" is too dark for this light-hearted film, and the "Anytime" dance routine can come off as a bit too sweet. Not to mention, if you're not a fan of this era in general or Chevalier in particular, this movie probably won't change your mind. You really need to be a fan of Chevalier and/or understand what was going on in Hollywood and the world in 1930 to get a lot of what's going on.
The Big Finale: There's enough remaining here that's good to put this in the "recommended for fans of Maurice Chevalier, old-time mysteries, or the early talkie era musicals" column.
Home Media: To my knowledge, only on YouTube in copies of varying length and quality - this is the longest length I could find. (It includes two numbers from the mostly-lost Scandinavian version, one only with sound.)
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