There was definitely a loss of the wonderful magic from earlier Busby films (Gold diggers 33, Gold diggers 35, Dames, Footlight parade, and 42nd street) and later Busby films (the lovely Judy Garland films). This film had sort of a good idea in it; Hugh Hubert is ordered by the French ballet expedition to gather up the American ballet academy of New York and bring them to the expedition in France. Hugh mistakes the band and dancers of the club Balle for the ballet academy. And Terry, the show's manager,and his partner, even after recognizing Hugh's mistake, decides to go along with it since the expedition pays off and Terry is desperate for money. So the idea was good, but the story as it's being carried out had some dumb annoying things in it. One was the band from the club Balle, when they played at the club and then on the ship, I found quite annoying the exaggerated goofy, cornball facial expressions on the trumpet player, the tuba player with the glasses, the guy in the cowboy hat, etc. Why did anyone get the idea anyone would like that? A large part of golden age films, they knew better than this. I usually love the great comedy from that time period such as the Marx brothers and Laurel and Hardy, and even the three stooges. Next to them, these people in this film seemed to be the runt of the litter. And Hugh Hebert took his quality down a notch in this film from his earlier films too, which had genuinely funny moments such as his hiccuping scene from "Dames". In this film, Hugh just jumped around more childishly with more exaggerated facial expressions yelling "woo- hoo!" every few seconds, or repeating goofy comments (such as his remarks about the Indians at the meeting) that weren't that funny to begin with. The French ballet teacher that went along with them and his exaggerated style of acting was the same corny style of acting as the band and Hugh's.
There were some good things.in this film such as the pretty dancers from the club Balle and a pretty girl Kay who is the goofy ballet teacher's only student. I sort of enjoyed the song Terry sings to Kay on the ship, but even that lacked the passion and romance from ship singing scenes in other 1930s films such as Kitty Carlisle and Allen Jones singing "Alone" in "Night at the opera". That scene in that film was wonderful passionate magic. There are countless other 1930s and 1940s films and songs with that same amazing wonder. This film just had more scenes which lost that special touch. But even though it wasn't quite in the category of magic, the singing scene still wasn't bad, and Kay was quite pretty. The other girl singers from the club were pretty and had nice voices. The finale number, actually, was very good. It was the best part of the film. Because it was the Golden Age, inferior films back then we're still better than inferior films today. That's why this film got a 5 where the bad films today I will rate a 1 or a 2. Just look at the awful 21st century style films with all the horrible gross toilet humor. That kind of stuff didn't exist at all yet back then, even in pre code films. Not in the way it is today. There were still moments in this film where you still knew you were in a different age than today. It was just a disappointment from so many other films of the time period due to those dumb, corny, exaggerated characters (the band, Hugh, and the ballet teacher).
There were some good things.in this film such as the pretty dancers from the club Balle and a pretty girl Kay who is the goofy ballet teacher's only student. I sort of enjoyed the song Terry sings to Kay on the ship, but even that lacked the passion and romance from ship singing scenes in other 1930s films such as Kitty Carlisle and Allen Jones singing "Alone" in "Night at the opera". That scene in that film was wonderful passionate magic. There are countless other 1930s and 1940s films and songs with that same amazing wonder. This film just had more scenes which lost that special touch. But even though it wasn't quite in the category of magic, the singing scene still wasn't bad, and Kay was quite pretty. The other girl singers from the club were pretty and had nice voices. The finale number, actually, was very good. It was the best part of the film. Because it was the Golden Age, inferior films back then we're still better than inferior films today. That's why this film got a 5 where the bad films today I will rate a 1 or a 2. Just look at the awful 21st century style films with all the horrible gross toilet humor. That kind of stuff didn't exist at all yet back then, even in pre code films. Not in the way it is today. There were still moments in this film where you still knew you were in a different age than today. It was just a disappointment from so many other films of the time period due to those dumb, corny, exaggerated characters (the band, Hugh, and the ballet teacher).