I used to think KING OF JAZZ, Universal's entry into the studio review genre, was the worst, but Paramount tops it. MGM had THE Hollywood REVIEW, the best of the four; Warners had THE SHOW OF SHOWS; Paramount has PARAMOUNT ON PARADE.Only 1 hour and 19 minutes, 20 seconds of this survives, leaving 21 minutes missing. I believe this is lost Technicolor footage (recently restored by UCLA), featuring four numbers: Dream Girl; Singing in a Gondola; The Gallows Song; and Isadore the Toreador.What's left has only one redeeming feature and that is Maurice Chevalier in three numbers: History of the Apache (with Evelyn Brent and obviously directed by Lubitsch); One Girl (most likely directed also by Lubitsch) and the Sweeping The Clouds Away finale.The comedy and musical numbers are from hunger with cheesy sets, forgettable writing and songs, and blah performances. Elsewhere in other reviews here you will find a run down of the numbers and their performers. Perhaps the worst singing is that f Nancy Carroll, although she dances well. Ruth Chatterton even sings better than Carroll, but her number is stupid and beneath her dignity as a dramatic actress.It's fun to see all four of these, just to marvel at how talentless most all the studios were with the advent of sound and musical savor faire. Only MGM comes out on top.

Odd mix of music comedy and sketches show casing all of Paramount stars at the time.Since its release the Technicolor sequences were removed or only presented in black and white (the final musical number on the roof tops). Trims over time reduced this from its original 104 minutes to 77. the version I saw ran 73 minutes.(and as anyone who's ever talked about the film has said this film has several introductions for sequences that never come) A scatter shot affair this has some winning things in it (the final dance number), some strange things (Fu Manchu, Philo Vance and Sherlock Holmes all together in a comedy sketch) and some not so good things (a couple of the songs are duds). Clearly made to cash in the idea of all singing and all dancing as well as to assure the public enough stars that some one they like would be in it, this film is too much of a "good" thing. If you like revues this film I suppose would be great, except that the up and down nature makes it hard to really get into an groove of enjoyment. The film isn't bad, but then again it isn't wholly good, or good enough to make it anything more than a curio. To be honest I don't know if I would watch it again in its present form, though if it were ever restored to full length and with the color sequences I might give it ago again (if for no reason then to see the introduced but removed sequences).6 out of 10. More if you're a fan of old musicals.

Several scenes are still missing from this 1930 film, but what's left is mostly good stuff, and all interesting from a historical point of view. Would you like to see Clive Brook as Sherlock Holmes? Here's a rare chance. Would you like to see Clara Bow sing? Here she is. Would you like to see rather too many songs by Maurice Chevalier? Take your pick of several here. Would you like to see names such as Lillian Roth, Helen Kane, Mitzi Green, and Zelma O'Neill, who are only half-remembered today? Now you can. Would you like to see early appearances by William Powell and Fredric March before they made it big in talkies? They're in this.The musical numbers fall into the 'ok' camp; they are largely static and stagey, and rather old-fashioned, but no more so than any other early talkie revue film. A lot of the film drags (notably Helen Kane's Boop-de-doop school lesson, and the links by Jack Oakie et al) but as a piece of history, it is fine. It should be a candidate for restoration if the whole film survives in a vault somewhere; let's hope so.

You get to see dozens of early talkie stars in this hodgepodge. The short "drama" sequences and most of the "comedy" sequences are awful, but the singing and dancing routines are tops. My favorites are the "I'm in Training for You" routine (Jack Oakie and Zelma O'Neal), the "Dancing to Save Your Soul" routine (Nancy Carroll and an uncredited Al Norman - the great deadpan rubberlegs dancer), Maurice Chevalier singing "All I Want is Just One" and "Sweeping the Clouds Away" and little Mitzi Green imitating Chevalier.