Maurice Chevalier was headed back to France after a half-decade in Hollywood and German director Curtis Bernhardt was jobbing his way toward Hollywood when they crossed paths in London for this modest charmer. It’s third time ‘round for William Locke’s story about rising architect Chevalier forsaking upper-crust London fiancée Betty Stockfeld (he's secretly saving her embezzling father from prison by giving her up) and hitting the road to Paree with a pair of tagalong pals: young master Desmond Tester (immediately before Alfred Hitchcock blew him up in SABOTAGE/’36), his sketches thru this pic a delight, and pennyless performer Margaret Lockwood (two years before Hitchcock’s THE LADY VANISHES/’38 gave her an international rep). Together, they make up a surrogate family singalong act at taverns on the way. But when old love Stockfeld, now free of deadbeat Dad & arranged groom, comes back in the picture, it threatens everything, including Chevalier’s growing feelings toward young Lockwood. Very young, she’s almost thirty years younger than Chevalier; his growing awareness that this kid is now a woman might be out of GIGI/’58. Bitty fare, but Lockwood must have been a revelation at the time.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *Like many Chevalier projects, this was simultaneously shot in French. Largely recast, too; that's the French lad in our poster. For France, Lockwood & Tester OUT; Chevalier & Stockfeld IN. Fortunately, tech’s the same which means ace Continental cinematographer Franz Planer & classical composer Darius Milhaud worked on both. Apparently, the French version (not seen here) runs three-reels longer than the British cut. Whatever could it contain? Does it play more smoothly or does the film still wobble badly before Lockwood shows up? (Except, in the French cut, it’s not Lockwood, but a certain Hélène Robert, who seems to have been a classically-trained singer.)
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