Rudy Vallee is the leader of an orchestra and night club dance act that is struggling to stay in business. To make it worse, his ex-wife is trying to have him put in jail for failing to pay alimony. So, when an idiot (Hugh Herbert) accidentally invites him and his troop to a dance contest in Paris, Vallee jumps at the opportunity to attend. After all, they'll get paid just for attending--even if none of them know the ballet. So, he grabs a lady who does know ballet (Rosemary Lane) and they head to France. But, what they don't know is that the real ballet leader and his insane friend (Eddie Brophy) are actively in pursuit--as they want to punish them for taking their jobs. It's all clearly a silly case of mistaken identities--a very inconsequential but enjoyable plot. And, fortunately, two usually obnoxious actors (Hugh Herbert and Mabel Todd) are used sparingly throughout the film! As for the dancing, this was a bit of a surprise to me. Although Busby Berkeley is listed as the director of the musical numbers, there really isn't much dancing until the end of the film. It's more a musical--with quite a few nice numbers sung mostly by Vallee and a few odd but enjoyable novelty tunes. The songs are not great but are uniformly nice. As for the musical extravaganza at the end, it's pretty weird--even by Berkeley standards. You just have to see it to believe it...and then you might not! By wife's response to this number...'Good Lord!'.
Review of Gold Diggers in Paris
