4/10
A dull affair
24 November 2010
Albert (Maurice Chevalier) is a waiter who comes into a fortune. Unfortunately, he has just been persuaded by his boss Philibert (OP Heggie) to sign a binding contract which does not allow him to leave his place of employment unless he pays the owner £400,000. Well, Albert is obviously not very happy about this and he tries to get the sack on a daily basis - this apparently will break the contract - but he doesn't succeed. At the same time he is living the highlife at Paris nightclubs. As a womanizer, Albert has a few sticky situations with a couple of women but love manages to win out in the end.

There are a few rare moments of actual funny comedy in this film - Chevalier throwing water onto Frances Dee who plays "Yvonne" and the scene where he tries to get the sack by making all the customers wait for ages before taking their orders, and then promptly sitting down at a spare table to play cards by himself. That's it. Nothing else is funny. In fact, the film is pretty tedious with a boring duel scene at the end. The story just peters out and ends with an extremely improbable conclusion. The women aren't particularly attractive considering that the film is meant to take place amongst the chic set of Paris. I would have thought that Chevalier could have chosen a more attractive bunch to hang out with! And the attraction that Frances Dee has for Chevalier appears out of NOWHERE - it is very phony stuff. The music is crap in this film but Chevalier is OK in his role. Unlike stupid Stuart Erwin who plays "Paul". This is a forgettable film.
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