Gold Diggers in Paris
Encyclopedia
Gold Diggers in Paris is a 1938 Warner Bros.
movie musical
directed by Ray Enright
with musical numbers created and directed by Busby Berkeley
, starring Rudy Vallee
, Rosemary Lane
, Hugh Herbert
and Allen Jenkins
.
) is sent to New York to arrange for the Academy Ballet of America to come to Paris to compete for cash prizes at an international dance festival, but a cabbie takes him by mistake to the Club Ballé, a nightclub about to go under. The desperate owners of the club, Terry Moore (Rudy Vallee
) and Duke Dennis (Allen Jenkins
), know that there's been an error, but see the invitation as a way out of their financial problems. To get some ballet into their nightclub act, they hire ballet teacher Luis Leoni (Fritz Feld
) and his star (and only) pupil Kay Morrow (Rosemary Lane
) to teach their girls ballet on the boat crossing the Atlantic. Terry finds Kay very attractive, but things are complicated when his ex-wife, Mona (Gloria Dickson
), invites herself along, rooming with Kay.
Meanwhile, the head of the real ballet company, Padrinsky (Curt Bois), finds out what's happened and cables Giraud aboard ship, then heads to Paris with his patron, a ballet-loving gangster named Mike Coogan (Edward Brophy
), who intends to rub out Terry and Duke. Giraud is upset about being hoaxed, but is mollified when a "talking dog" (a ventriloquist hired by Terry and Duke) convinces him that Padrinsky is the liar.
After they arrive in Paris, a representative of the exposition, Pierre Le Brec (Melville Cooper
), wants to watch the group's rehearsals, and Duke tells his new friend Coogan, the gangster, that Le Brec is causing him trouble. Coogan goes to "take care" of the problem, but by mistake knocks out Leoni instead of Le Brec. Padrinsky shows up and arranges for the imposters to be deported on the day of the contest, but Kay manages to change the order so that Coogan and Padrinsky are shipped out instead, which allows the company to perform and win the grand prize.
Cast notes:
, which was a remake of the earlier film, and the first to feature Busby Berkeley's extravagant production numbers; Gold Diggers of 1935
; and Gold Diggers of 1937
. Majestic Pictures attempted to cash in on the "Gold Diggers" concept by naming a feature Gold Diggers of Paris, however Warner Bros. prevented this through legal action, and the filming and release of Gold Diggers in Paris may have been a part of the effort to protect what Warners considered to be their trademark.
The film was in production at the Warner Bros. studios in Burbank
from January to March 1938. It premiered in New York City on 1 June 1938, and went into general release on 11 June. The film was known as "The Gay Impostors" in the U.K.
.
The majority of the songs in Gold Diggers in Paris were written by the team of Harry Warren
(music) and Al Dubin
(lyrics), who contributed many of the songs in the Gold Diggers series and other Warner Bros. musicals. "I Wanna Go Back to Bali", "Latin Quarter" (a song which was later used frequently in Warner Bros. cartoons featuring Pepe Le Pew
), "Let's Drink to a Dream", "Put That Down in Writing", "Stranger in Paree" and "Waltz of the Flowers" were their creations in this film. In addition, Harry Warren wrote two other songs, "My Adventure" and "Daydreaming All Night Long", but with lyrics by Johnny Mercer
.
(who came later), performs novelty songs in the film. Led by Freddie Fisher, who played woodwinds, sang and also composed the song "Colonel Corn" for the band, the band consisted of Stanley Fritts (trombone, drums, jug, washboard), Nels Laakso (cornet, trumpet), Paul Cooper (piano, arrangements), Kenneth Trisko (drums), and Charles Koenig (string bass / tuba). By the time Gold Diggers in Paris was being filmed, Nels Laakso had replaced original trumpet player George Rock
, who left to become a key member of Spike Jones
's City Slickers. The group, which was billed as "America's Most Unsophisticated Band!", recorded for Decca Records
, and were brought to Hollywood by Rudy Vallee after his agent saw them in St. Paul, Minnesota.
According to one source, Gold Diggers in Paris was almost complete at the time the band arrived in Hollywood, so the band's segments were inserted into the film with short intros and reaction shots used to connect them to the rest of the action. The band broke up shortly after doing the film, with Fritts taking some of the members east to become the "Korn Kobblers", and Fisher staying in Hollywood to open a nightclub, where he appeared billed as "The Original Colonel of Corn". Although the Schnickelfritz Band never appeared in another film, Fisher appeared in several others as a band leader.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
movie musical
Musical film
The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...
directed by Ray Enright
Ray Enright
Ray Enright was an American film director. He directed 73 films between 1927 and 1953.He was born in Anderson, Indiana and died in Hollywood, California from a heart attack.-Selected filmography:...
with musical numbers created and directed by Busby Berkeley
Busby Berkeley
Busby Berkeley was a highly influential Hollywood movie director and musical choreographer. Berkeley was famous for his elaborate musical production numbers that often involved complex geometric patterns...
, starring Rudy Vallee
Rudy Vallée
Rudy Vallée was an American singer, actor, bandleader, and entertainer.-Early life:Born Hubert Prior Vallée in Island Pond, Vermont, the son of Charles Alphonse and Catherine Lynch Vallée...
, Rosemary Lane
Lane Sisters
The Lane Sisters refers to a group of sisters, three of whom achieved success in the 1920s and 1930s as a singing act, with their popularity onstage leading to a series of successful films. A fourth sister was not successful and left this milieu and a fifth avoided show business altogether...
, Hugh Herbert
Hugh Herbert
Hugh Herbert was a motion picture comedian. He began his career in vaudeville, and wrote more than 150 plays and sketches.-Career:...
and Allen Jenkins
Allen Jenkins
Allen Jenkins was an American character actor of stage, screen and television.-Early life:He was born David Allen Curtis Jenkins in Staten Island, New York on April 9, 1900.-Career:...
.
Plot
Maurice Giraud (Hugh HerbertHugh Herbert
Hugh Herbert was a motion picture comedian. He began his career in vaudeville, and wrote more than 150 plays and sketches.-Career:...
) is sent to New York to arrange for the Academy Ballet of America to come to Paris to compete for cash prizes at an international dance festival, but a cabbie takes him by mistake to the Club Ballé, a nightclub about to go under. The desperate owners of the club, Terry Moore (Rudy Vallee
Rudy Vallée
Rudy Vallée was an American singer, actor, bandleader, and entertainer.-Early life:Born Hubert Prior Vallée in Island Pond, Vermont, the son of Charles Alphonse and Catherine Lynch Vallée...
) and Duke Dennis (Allen Jenkins
Allen Jenkins
Allen Jenkins was an American character actor of stage, screen and television.-Early life:He was born David Allen Curtis Jenkins in Staten Island, New York on April 9, 1900.-Career:...
), know that there's been an error, but see the invitation as a way out of their financial problems. To get some ballet into their nightclub act, they hire ballet teacher Luis Leoni (Fritz Feld
Fritz Feld
Fritz Feld was a film character actor actor who appeared in over 140 films, both silent and sound. His trademark was to slap his mouth with the palm of his hand to create a pop sound.-Biography:...
) and his star (and only) pupil Kay Morrow (Rosemary Lane
Lane Sisters
The Lane Sisters refers to a group of sisters, three of whom achieved success in the 1920s and 1930s as a singing act, with their popularity onstage leading to a series of successful films. A fourth sister was not successful and left this milieu and a fifth avoided show business altogether...
) to teach their girls ballet on the boat crossing the Atlantic. Terry finds Kay very attractive, but things are complicated when his ex-wife, Mona (Gloria Dickson
Gloria Dickson
Gloria Dickson was an American stage and screen actress of the 1930s and 1940s.-Life and career:Born in Pocatello, Idaho, Dickson began acting during high school in amateur theatre productions. Encouraged by her acting coaches, she moonlighted doing dramatic readings at social clubs and on KFOX...
), invites herself along, rooming with Kay.
Meanwhile, the head of the real ballet company, Padrinsky (Curt Bois), finds out what's happened and cables Giraud aboard ship, then heads to Paris with his patron, a ballet-loving gangster named Mike Coogan (Edward Brophy
Edward Brophy
Edward S. Brophy was an American character actor, voice artist, and comedian. Small of build, balding, and raucous-voiced, he was known for portraying gangsters, both serious and comic.-Career:...
), who intends to rub out Terry and Duke. Giraud is upset about being hoaxed, but is mollified when a "talking dog" (a ventriloquist hired by Terry and Duke) convinces him that Padrinsky is the liar.
After they arrive in Paris, a representative of the exposition, Pierre Le Brec (Melville Cooper
Melville Cooper
George Melville Cooper , best known as Melville Cooper, was a British stage, film and television actor. Among his roles are the cowardly Sheriff of Nottingham in The Adventures of Robin Hood, starring Errol Flynn, and Mr...
), wants to watch the group's rehearsals, and Duke tells his new friend Coogan, the gangster, that Le Brec is causing him trouble. Coogan goes to "take care" of the problem, but by mistake knocks out Leoni instead of Le Brec. Padrinsky shows up and arranges for the imposters to be deported on the day of the contest, but Kay manages to change the order so that Coogan and Padrinsky are shipped out instead, which allows the company to perform and win the grand prize.
Cast
- Rudy ValleeRudy ValléeRudy Vallée was an American singer, actor, bandleader, and entertainer.-Early life:Born Hubert Prior Vallée in Island Pond, Vermont, the son of Charles Alphonse and Catherine Lynch Vallée...
as Terry Moore - Rosemary LaneLane SistersThe Lane Sisters refers to a group of sisters, three of whom achieved success in the 1920s and 1930s as a singing act, with their popularity onstage leading to a series of successful films. A fourth sister was not successful and left this milieu and a fifth avoided show business altogether...
as Kay Morrow - Hugh HerbertHugh HerbertHugh Herbert was a motion picture comedian. He began his career in vaudeville, and wrote more than 150 plays and sketches.-Career:...
as Maurice Giraud - Allen JenkinsAllen JenkinsAllen Jenkins was an American character actor of stage, screen and television.-Early life:He was born David Allen Curtis Jenkins in Staten Island, New York on April 9, 1900.-Career:...
as Duke 'Dukie' Dennis - Gloria DicksonGloria DicksonGloria Dickson was an American stage and screen actress of the 1930s and 1940s.-Life and career:Born in Pocatello, Idaho, Dickson began acting during high school in amateur theatre productions. Encouraged by her acting coaches, she moonlighted doing dramatic readings at social clubs and on KFOX...
as Mona - Melville CooperMelville CooperGeorge Melville Cooper , best known as Melville Cooper, was a British stage, film and television actor. Among his roles are the cowardly Sheriff of Nottingham in The Adventures of Robin Hood, starring Errol Flynn, and Mr...
as Pierre LeBrec - Mabel Todd as Leticia
- Fritz FeldFritz FeldFritz Feld was a film character actor actor who appeared in over 140 films, both silent and sound. His trademark was to slap his mouth with the palm of his hand to create a pop sound.-Biography:...
as Luis Leoni - Curt Bois as Padrinsky
- Edward BrophyEdward BrophyEdward S. Brophy was an American character actor, voice artist, and comedian. Small of build, balding, and raucous-voiced, he was known for portraying gangsters, both serious and comic.-Career:...
as Mike Coogan - Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson as Doorman
- The Schnickelfritz Band as themselves
Cast notes:
- Carole LandisCarole LandisCarole Landis was an American film and stage actress whose break-through role was as the female lead in the 1940 film One Million B.C.. Landis has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 1765 Vine Street....
, Peggy MoranPeggy MoranPeggy Moran was an American film actress who appeared in films between 1938 and 1943.-Life and career:...
and Diana LewisDiana LewisDiana "Mousie" Lewis was an American film actress and a MGM contract star.Born in Asbury Park, New Jersey, Lewis began her film career in All the King's Horses and worked steadily over the next few years, usually in minor roles...
appear as Gold Diggers
Production
Gold Diggers in Paris was the fifth and last in Warner Bros.' series of "Gold Digger" films, following Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929), which is now lost; Gold Diggers of 1933Gold Diggers of 1933
Gold Diggers of 1933 is a pre-code Warner Bros. musical film directed by Mervyn LeRoy with songs by Harry Warren and Al Dubin , staged and choreographed by Busby Berkeley...
, which was a remake of the earlier film, and the first to feature Busby Berkeley's extravagant production numbers; Gold Diggers of 1935
Gold Diggers of 1935
Gold Diggers of 1935 is a Warner Bros. musical film directed and choreographed by Busby Berkeley and starring Dick Powell, Gloria Stuart, Adolphe Menjou, Winifred Shaw, Alice Brady, Hugh Herbert and Frank McHugh...
; and Gold Diggers of 1937
Gold Diggers of 1937
Gold Diggers of 1937 is a 1936 Warner Bros. movie musical directed by Lloyd Bacon with musical numbers created and directed by Busby Berkeley, and starring Dick Powell and Joan Blondell, who were married at the time, and Victor Moore. The film features songs by the teams of Harold Arlen and E.Y...
. Majestic Pictures attempted to cash in on the "Gold Diggers" concept by naming a feature Gold Diggers of Paris, however Warner Bros. prevented this through legal action, and the filming and release of Gold Diggers in Paris may have been a part of the effort to protect what Warners considered to be their trademark.
The film was in production at the Warner Bros. studios in Burbank
Burbank, California
Burbank is a city in Los Angeles County in Southern California, United States, north of downtown Los Angeles. The estimated population in 2010 was 103,340....
from January to March 1938. It premiered in New York City on 1 June 1938, and went into general release on 11 June. The film was known as "The Gay Impostors" in the U.K.
Songs and music
As usual for a Warner Bros. musical of this period, the extravagant musical numbers were created, designed, staged, choreographed and directed by Busby BerkeleyBusby Berkeley
Busby Berkeley was a highly influential Hollywood movie director and musical choreographer. Berkeley was famous for his elaborate musical production numbers that often involved complex geometric patterns...
.
The majority of the songs in Gold Diggers in Paris were written by the team of Harry Warren
Harry Warren
Harry Warren was an American composer and lyricist. Warren was the first major American songwriter to write primarily for film. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song eleven times and won three Oscars for composing "Lullaby of Broadway", "You'll Never Know" and "On the Atchison,...
(music) and Al Dubin
Al Dubin
Alexander "Al" Dubin was an American lyricist. He became known through his collaborations with the composer Harry Warren.-Life and works:...
(lyrics), who contributed many of the songs in the Gold Diggers series and other Warner Bros. musicals. "I Wanna Go Back to Bali", "Latin Quarter" (a song which was later used frequently in Warner Bros. cartoons featuring Pepe Le Pew
Pepé Le Pew
Pepé Le Pew is a fictional character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons, first introduced in 1945. A French skunk that always strolls around in Paris in the springtime, when everyone's thoughts are of "love", Pepé is constantly seeking "l'amour" of his own...
), "Let's Drink to a Dream", "Put That Down in Writing", "Stranger in Paree" and "Waltz of the Flowers" were their creations in this film. In addition, Harry Warren wrote two other songs, "My Adventure" and "Daydreaming All Night Long", but with lyrics by Johnny Mercer
Johnny Mercer
John Herndon "Johnny" Mercer was an American lyricist, songwriter and singer. He is best known as a lyricist, but he also composed music. He was also a popular singer who recorded his own songs as well as those written by others...
.
The Schnickelfritz Band
The Schnickelfritz Band, ("schnickelfritz" supposedly being German slang for "silly fellow"), a comedy musical group somewhat reminiscent of Spike JonesSpike Jones
Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny and other Warner Brothers cartoon characters, performed a drunken, hiccuping verse for 1942's "Clink! Clink! Another Drink"...
(who came later), performs novelty songs in the film. Led by Freddie Fisher, who played woodwinds, sang and also composed the song "Colonel Corn" for the band, the band consisted of Stanley Fritts (trombone, drums, jug, washboard), Nels Laakso (cornet, trumpet), Paul Cooper (piano, arrangements), Kenneth Trisko (drums), and Charles Koenig (string bass / tuba). By the time Gold Diggers in Paris was being filmed, Nels Laakso had replaced original trumpet player George Rock
George Rock
George Rock was a member of Spike Jones and His City Slickers.In addition to being a trumpet player, he also sang with the group from time to time, using a voice characterization that sounded like a child...
, who left to become a key member of Spike Jones
Spike Jones
Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny and other Warner Brothers cartoon characters, performed a drunken, hiccuping verse for 1942's "Clink! Clink! Another Drink"...
's City Slickers. The group, which was billed as "America's Most Unsophisticated Band!", recorded for Decca Records
Decca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
, and were brought to Hollywood by Rudy Vallee after his agent saw them in St. Paul, Minnesota.
According to one source, Gold Diggers in Paris was almost complete at the time the band arrived in Hollywood, so the band's segments were inserted into the film with short intros and reaction shots used to connect them to the rest of the action. The band broke up shortly after doing the film, with Fritts taking some of the members east to become the "Korn Kobblers", and Fisher staying in Hollywood to open a nightclub, where he appeared billed as "The Original Colonel of Corn". Although the Schnickelfritz Band never appeared in another film, Fisher appeared in several others as a band leader.
See also
- The Gold DiggersThe Gold Diggers (1923 film)The Gold Diggers is a Warner Bros. silent film directed by Harry Beaumont with screenplay by Grant Carpenter based on the play of the same name by Avery Hopwood which ran for 282 performances on Broadway in 1919 and 1920. Both the play and the film were produced by David Belasco...
- Gold Diggers of Broadway
- Gold Diggers of 1933Gold Diggers of 1933Gold Diggers of 1933 is a pre-code Warner Bros. musical film directed by Mervyn LeRoy with songs by Harry Warren and Al Dubin , staged and choreographed by Busby Berkeley...
- Gold Diggers of 1935Gold Diggers of 1935Gold Diggers of 1935 is a Warner Bros. musical film directed and choreographed by Busby Berkeley and starring Dick Powell, Gloria Stuart, Adolphe Menjou, Winifred Shaw, Alice Brady, Hugh Herbert and Frank McHugh...
- Gold Diggers of 1937Gold Diggers of 1937Gold Diggers of 1937 is a 1936 Warner Bros. movie musical directed by Lloyd Bacon with musical numbers created and directed by Busby Berkeley, and starring Dick Powell and Joan Blondell, who were married at the time, and Victor Moore. The film features songs by the teams of Harold Arlen and E.Y...
- Pre-Code Hollywood