After starring in Early Talkies & increasingly sophisticated musicals @ Paramount, M-G-M and 20th Century Pictures, plus a one-off in Britain, Maurice Chevalier finally made a sound film in France.* Something of belated debut as he was pushing 50, not that he looked it, this pleasant little comedy from Maurice Tourneur (of all directors) tosses a few songs in the mix, but you’d hardly call it a musical. Chevalier’s a carefree flâneur, getting by on charm, bluff and a winning smile. Short of cash when he meets a pretty girl, he quickly raises some to join her for lunch by returning a lost dog for the reward. Mind you, first he has to steal the dog. He’s that sort of fellow, it’s that sort of storyline. And it’s onward & upward after that, eventually earning a spot directing top Paris music revues until his luck runs out. But he’ll soon be back in the game, girl in tow, from his new perch on the Riviera. Breezy, with nice momentum from Tourneur, using simple shot choices, the film misses proper musical numbers for Chevalier, only a few casual songs and one showcase number for him to sing in a variety of styles. The sole production number for chorus & dance girls at the revue. The film nails the attitude, but comes up short on content.
DOUBLE-BILL: Chevalier was careful choosing his post-Hollywood directors (Tourneur, Julien Duvivier, René Clair, Robert Siodmak), but only returned to form in the ‘50s in Billy Wilder’s LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON/’57 and Vincente Minnelli’s GIGI/’58. From this middle period, try Clair’s MAN ABOUT TOWN/’47 (in its French cut as LE SILENCE EST D’OR), with a plot Alan Jay Lerner largely lifted for AN AMERICAN IN PARIS/’51 which he wrote with Chevalier in mind as the older man uncomfortably engaged to emotionally indebted Leslie Caron.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *Before subtitles & dubbing came into common practice, Chevalier often made alternate French-language versions of his films, just not in France.
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