A recent NYC concert version of CAN-CAN (w/ a superb Patti LaPone) revealed a reasonably sturdy book (stuck-up judge falls for la vie de bohème) & an underrated late Cole Porter score. Where had it been all these years? Perhaps the vanishing act can be blamed on this inept film version which mangles the plot, throws away two-thirds of the score (even ‘I Love Paris’ goes missing) and has all the French flavor of a Burger King croissant. Louis Jourdan and Maurice Chevalier show up to provide Gallic seasoning (Jourdan does his numbers charmingly and has far more rapport with Shirley MacLaine than his victorious rival, Frank Sinatra, while Chevalier’s intro to ‘Just One of Those Things’ is the best thing in the film), but Minnelli ’s GIGI/'58, Huston ’s MOULIN ROUGE/'52 and Renoir ’s FRENCH CANCAN/'55 are each in their own way infinitely superior to this malarkey.
NOTE: It takes chutzpah to include a tribute to writer Abe Burrows on a pic that utterly trashes his work.
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