That Girl From Paris (1936)

Very Cool!!!

A Masterpiece!

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

What works in this movie is the comedy of the four men - and, in her soapy dance number, of Lucile Ball. Both when they play swing and when they crack jokes, they're funny.What doesn't work, too often, is the star of the movie, Met coloratura soprano Lily Pons. I enjoy Pons' operatic recordings, and have most of them, but she doesn't work well in this movie. She had neither the personality nor - to be honest - the looks of Jeannette MacDonald or Grace Moore, and at this point she was still having real problems with the English language. A comedy with a lead who isn't good with the language is a real problem. Contrast her with Herman Bing, who misused English to comic effect, and you see the difference. She was no dancer, at least in this movie, either. Her one real talent, that for which she was famous at the Met, was her high notes.That causes problems in a movie made for a general audience. She is too often given music to show off her very high notes and her staccati. At the Met audiences appreciate that sort of thing, but it seems misplaced in what was meant to be a general audience movie. She should have been given more lyrical music, less fireworks. Think of Jeannette MacDonald singing "San Francisco" in the movie of the same name, which came out the year before, or Grace Moore singing "Ciriciribin" - much less "Minnie the Moocher".It's interesting to see how she performs "Una voce poco fa" in her Met Opera scene. If that's how she did the role on state, she was not much of an actress even by the operatic standards of her day.This movie could also have used a better director, to make the comedy scenes even better, or perhaps to have helped Pons do a better job.But the basic problem is that Pons was not movie material, at least not for this sort of general audience comedy. She doesn't sink the picture, but she doesn't add anything positive to it, either.Footnote: The year after making this picture, the male lead, Gene Raymond, would marry Jeannette MacDonald, another lyric coloratura who was much better suited to the movies, and much better presented there.

If That Girl From Paris was made today there would be protesters at the screenings as Lily Pons is quite the illegal alien. I could just see the Donald leading a picket line protesting the fact that the heroine is a woman who stows away on ship to come to America and then is ready to get a marriage of convenience to stay here.Not liking the arranged marriage she's been hammerlocked into Lily hooks up with a touring swing band consisting of Gene Raymond, Mischa Auer, Frank Jenks, and Jack Oakie. Of course all that doesn't sit well with Lucille Ball, affianced to Raymond and getting some of the best lines in the film.Pons has some good numbers in all genres of music including a swing version of the Blue Danube Waltz and highlighting with her character's Metropolitan Opera debut in the Barber Of Seville. This film was made right after Grace Moore scored such a success in One Night Of Love for Columbia Pictures. Studios went out and signed up opera singers, Lily Pons was RKO's catch. The vogue came and went quickly, this was Lily's second feature film after I Dream Too Much. She would do one more Hitting A New High and then she would return to the Metropolitan Opera for real.But I'm glad some of these voices like Lily Pons recorded their art for posterity in films like That Girl From Paris.

Perhaps it made sense from a commercial standpoint: bringing a great lady of the opera, Lili Pons, to a level at which the public could more easily relate to her - perhaps even to identify with her in some respects. The result, ideally, would have been to create a leading lady in films who sang divinely as she was surrounded by "us." Miss Pons gave it her best try - here and elsewhere - but it just didn't work. Most unfortunately, the filmmakers effort to generate the common touch involved presenting her in the most commonplace outfits, makeup and coiffure, downplaying the "glamour" associated with grand opera. Supporting her with the buffoonery of Jack Oakie and his cohorts, having her hiding under blankets, climbing here and there, etc. doesn't register either. Though no beauty, Lili Pons can radiate elegance and charm (along with her great vocalizing), as she does, in full costume, when she sings "Una voce poco fa" in this picture. Her movies don't give us enough of the Lili Pons that made her a stage presence, and might have made her a screen presence. To have her play against (her own) type - here and elsewhere - was a mistake.

It does have one scene of note. Pons plays an opera singer hiding out with a jazz band. The band knows nothing of her identity. She sabotages their singer (Lucille Ball in an early role) and is forced to go on stage as a substitute. Well, she only knows opera; the band only knows jazz. She sings "The Blue Danube" with both her and the band segueing from classical singing to jazz and back. It's a really delightful number, very inventive. If the movie is ever on TCM or AMC, it's work a look just for that