The last and probably least of the intermittent Warner Gold Diggers of ..... series begun in '29(I've yet to see the '37 one). Rudy Vallee takes the usual place of Dick Powell as the lead male and singer. Rosemary Lane revisits her status as the lead female, established in the prior "Varsity Show", and "Hollywood Hotel" of this series of musicals. The latter 2 films featured established Big Bands of this era. In contrast, this film features the comical Schnickelfritz Dixieland jazz band, which pops up every now and then. Hugh Herbert plays the bonehead Maurice Giraud sent from Paris to NYC to bring the Academy Ballet of America to Paris for an annual competition. Instead, he mistakenly brings a troupe from the near bankrupt Club Balle, led by proprietors Rudy Valley(as Terry) and Allen Jenkins, as Duke. We have the further complication that Terry's ex-wife: Mona(Gloria Dickenson)is hounding him for delinquent alimony payments. She threatens to put him in jail if he doesn't pay up pronto, or take her along on the trip to Paris as one of the dancers. The dancers don't know ballet, so Rudy hires an excitable teacher(Luis) and his one student(Kay)to accompany them to Paris, teaching the girls ballet while on the crossing.In Paris, things go OK until their deception is discovered, as the leader(Padrinsky) of the real Academy Ballet America arrives. The Café Balle bunch are almost all deported just before the competition, when Mona(Terry's ex) comes up with a scheme to deport Padrinsky and gangster Mike instead. It works, and the Café Balle girls (amazingly) win the prize of $50,000. Actually, there was no true ballet dancing involved. The acting was good, in general. The characters are generally pleasant and interesting. Mabel Todd: the slightly goofy blonde with the overbite, was sometimes annoying trying to be funny. She supposedly was a ventriloquist, who projected her voice into a coached dog at appropriate times: something to amuse the kiddies, presumably. The Schnickelfritz band also serves to keep the kids awake and the adults amused with their raucous comical performances at several points. Harry Warren and Johnny Mercer or Al Dubin composed the non-Schnickelfritz music. Rudy and Rosemary(Kay), or sometimes the chorus, sang these songs, pleasant but unmemorable. Busby Berkeley was the choreographer, but I couldn't tell, except for his occasional film tinkering, making the stage and dancers strongly tilted, annoying to me.The screenplay is perfectly goofy, of course, but fun. I realize that the standard formula for these types of films dictated that Kay(Rosemary)would emerge as Rudy's girl in the end, after a few ups and downs. But, I was rooting for a reconciliation between Rudy and Mona(Gloria) after she saved the Café Balle bunch from ignominy and bankruptcy. I realize that she did her criminal act partly in self interest, as Rudy wouldn't be able to make her alimony payments unless he won the prize.This was Gloria's second film role, she being the lead female in her first. She was a striking-looking blonde, seemingly older than Rosemary(Kay), but actually younger. She came across as the brainiest and most forceful of the characters. Unfortunately, her private life and film career gradually spiraled downward, with 3 husbands within only a few years, frequent demotion to supporting roles, and alcoholism. She would die at age 27 from a house fire.Presently available as part of the Busby Berkeley Film Collection

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!'.

Why do I think that this project -- scripted by a small legion of writers and storysmiths -- wasn't originally conceived as a Gold Diggers project. But the glittering title had been dormant for a while and maybe it could con a few more moviegoers into plunking down their silver. At least it had Busby Berkeley's choreography. Despite the fact that Rudy Vallee is no Dick Powell, Rosemary Lane is no Joan Blondell and the story has enough holes to drive a double-decker tour bus through, it's surprisingly entertaining. And Berkeley's high-stepping Parisian finale, while not as heady as "My Forgotten Man" or "Lullaby of Broadway" is a synchronized marvel. There's also a surprising pleasure -- the Schnickelfritz Band, a wonderfully lunatic musical aggregation who combine dixieland jazz and slapstick. It's almost worth watching just for these musical maulers who preceded and may well have inspired Spike Jones.

"Gold Diggers in Paris" (Warner Brothers, 1938), directed by Ray Enright, the last in the annual musical series, is the least known and discussed of all the "Gold Diggers" musicals of the 1930s that usually featured Dick Powell with choreography by Busby Berkeley. It's been long unavailable until resurrected on cable's Turner Network Television in 1989, and later on Turner Classic Movies where it played every so often since TCM's premiere in 1994. In spite of its latter-day rediscovery to a newer audience, it's still virtually overlooked and forgotten mainly because it doesn't hold up to its predecessors. Much of it strains for laughs and musical interludes weak, with the possible exception of the finale.As for the plot, which opens in Paris, Pierre LeBrac (Melville Cooper) is holding a board meeting where he's selecting several members to go to various countries to bring back the greatest dance groups from all over the world to appear in their upcoming Paris Exposition. Maurice Giraud (Hugh Herbert), afraid to come to America in fear of facing the savage Indians(!), is chosen to go there anyway and bring back the American Ballet Company. While in New York City, Giraud comes to the Club Balle' where Terry Moore (Rudy Vallee), singer and proprietor, is entertaining. Giraud, who mistakes Terry's club for a ballet company, invites Moore's troupe to accompany him back to Paris where they are to appear in the annual dance expedition for $10,000 plus expenses paid to the company. Because his night club isn't making any profits anyway, Terry, along with his partner, Duke Dennis (Allen Jenkins) accept. Before they go, Terry and Duke go to find the best ballet master to train the girls who can only dance to modern swing music. They choose Professor Luis Leoni (Fritz Feld) from the directory, and find Kay Morrow (Rosemary Lane), a ballet dancer and his only pupil. Rounding out the girls, Terry and company board the ship to Paris where he becomes interested in Kay. Also on board is Terry's ex-wife, Mona (Gloria Dickson), who becomes Kay's cabin roommate. While in Paris, situations arise as the real American Ballet Company turns up, having Terry's troupe exposed as impostors.With music and lyrics by Harry Warren and Al Dubin, the musical program includes: "I Wanna Go Back to Bali" (sung by Rudy Vallee and chorus); "Day Dreaming All Night Long" (sung by Vallee and Rosemary Lane/ lyrics by Johnny Mercer); "A Stranger in Paree" (sung by Vallee imitating Maurice Chevalier; Rosemary Lane, Mabel Todd, Allen Jenkins, Gloria Dickson and the Schnickelfritz Band); "The Latin Quarter" (sung by Lane, Vallee/chorus); and "I Wanna Go Back to Bali" (sung by Vallee, Mabel Todd, Allen Jenkins and chorus). While "My Adventure" is listed among the songs in the movie, it's not presented in the final print.In between Vallee's crooning comes newcomers to the screen, The Schnickelfritz Band, taking the spotlight to themselves with "Listen to the Mockingbird," "Who's That Man? It's Colonel Corn," and performing an instrumental number at the Paris banquet. Though wild and goofy band-players, they's somewhat predecessors towards the more famous Spike Jones and his City Slickers Band of the 1940s. The Schnickelfritz Band faded to obscurity as quickly as they appeared.With the exception of Gloria Dickson trying to obtain her alimony from her ex-hubby (Vallee), with few scenes involving a couple of chorus girls playing up to middle-aged well-to-do Frenchmen, the movie itself contains limited "gold digging" antics to offer promise from the title. Most of all, what weakens the plot most is the ventriloquism scenes involving Mabel Todd (the blonde with the buck teeth and odd-ball laugh) as she throws her voice to a great dane to the confused Maurice (Herbert), making him believe he's encountered a "talking dog." Even Hugh Herbert, supporting a mustache and beret, is not too convincing playing a Frenchman.It's been mentioned by host Robert Osborne in one of the showings of "Gold Diggers in Paris" that Dick Powell, the original choice, turned down the role that went to Rudy Vallee, making his first screen appearance since SWEET MUSIC (Warners, 1935). Aside from Vallee's Maurice Chevalier imitation, he also impersonates the then current US President, Franklin D. Roosevelt. Busby Berkeley's choreography is the best he could do with this edition, mainly due to limited funds for a lavish show-stopping production. "The Latin Quarter" is a notable tune, best known as background scoring for the Pepi Le Pew cartoons. For a bit of nostalgia, "Gold Diggers in Paris" features clips from the "Young and Healthy" number from 42nd STREET (1933) and "Spin a Little Web of Dreams" from FASHIONS OF 1934 superimposed in its opening title credits, followed by views of Paris, including the famous landmark of the Eiffel Tower."Gold Diggers in Paris," which focuses more on singing and band playing than dancing, has that 1940s musical feel. It also shows the changing of the times along with the decline of the Warners musical. Besides this being the "weakest link" of the series, "Gold Diggers in Paris" still has some good moments to offer. For star searchers, look for Eddie "Rochester" Anderson briefly seen as a doorman, along with future 20th-Fox blonde of the 1940s, Carole Landis, who can be glimpsed as one of the members of gold digging troupe. Never distributed to home video, "Gold Diggers in Paris" became available on the DVD format in 2007. (**1/2)