April in Paris (1952)

A series of misunderstandings leads to a chorus girl traveling to Paris to represent the American theater, where she falls in love with a befuddled bureaucrat.

Director:

David Butler

Writers:

Jack Rose, Melville Shavelson

Stars:

Doris Day, Ray Bolger, Claude Dauphin

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Doris Day	...	Ethel S. 'Dynamite' Jackson
Ray Bolger	...	S. 'Sam' Winthrop Putnam
Claude Dauphin	...	Philippe Fouquet
Eve Miller	...	Marcia Sherman
George Givot	...	François
Paul Harvey	...	Secretary Robert Sherman
Herbert Farjeon	...	Joshua Stevens
Wilson Millar	...	Sinclair Wilson
Raymond Largay	...	Joseph Welmar
John Alvin	...	Tracy
Jack Lomas	...	Cab Driver

Storyline

Miss Ethel 'Dynamite' Jackson is a chorus girl who mistakingly receives an invitation from the State Department to represent the American theatre at an arts exposition in Paris, France. There's only one problem, the invitation was meant for Miss Ethel Barrymore. Meanwhile, S. Winthrop Putnam, the bureaucrat who made the mistake tries unsuccessfully to correct his mix-up. It's too late, for Dynamite Jackson is off to Paris, where the two meet and marry, or so they think!

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Plot Keywords:

festival | paris france | april | american in paris | vacation | 

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Taglines:

Warner Bros.' Musical Oo-La-La!

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Genres:

Comedy | Musical | Romance

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English French

Release Date:

17 April 1953 (Denmark)

Also Known As:

April i Paris

Filming Locations:

Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Doris Day wrote in her autobiography that she only encountered trouble or tension on two of her Warner Bros. movies: 'April in Paris' and Young at Heart (1954). Regarding this film, she claimed that leading man Ray Bolger and director David Butler clashed early on, with Butler accusing Bolger of trying to steal scenes away from Day. Day also mentioned that, being a relative newcomer to movies, she was unaware of Bolger's tricks and managed to stay out of the line of fire.

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Goofs

Near the end, when Doris Day "stomps" on Ray Bolger's foot, she doesn't hit even close to his foot.

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Quotes

Ethel S. 'Dynamite' Jackson: Say something!
S. Winthrop Putnam: What a built!

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Connections

Referenced in Mary Tyler Moore: Divorce Isn't Everything (1970)

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Soundtracks

April in Paris
(1932)
Music by Vernon Duke
Lyrics by E.Y. Harburg
Sung by Doris Day
Sung by an off-screen chorus during the opening credits
Reprised by Claude Dauphin

User Reviews

They must have been in Seine.

Of all the major Hollywood studios, Warner Brothers were always the most cheese-paring. All of their musicals -- except the wonderful 'Yankee Doodle Dandy' and some later adaptations of Broadway musicals -- are marred by extremely low budgets and obvious economy measures. 'April in Paris' is one of several Warners musicals featuring an established popular ditty (with a stiff price-tag for performance rights) as the movie's title song, buttressed by some very forgettable songs by resident Warners tunesmiths. Except for one high-spirited and high-kicking number called 'Ring the Bell Tonight', only the E.Y. Harburg/Vernon Duke title song is memorable here.

Doris Day amazes me, not only for her unearthly beauty and her quiet sex appeal, and for her underrated acting ability, but also for her musical talents. I've read that Day originally trained as a dancer, but switched to a career as a vocalist after she was injured in a car accident. Her singing voice is so clear and beautiful, I've difficulty believing that singing was her second choice of career. And, as she proves here, she has no physical handicap as a dancer ... unless you count the dull choreography of LeRoy Prinz.

Ray Bolger is an interesting choice of romantic leads for Day, but the two of them don't really team very well. Here, he plays a character very similar to the one played by Donald O'Connor in 'Are You with It?': a repressed wonk who turns out to be a superb dancer. Bolger (an underrated actor) is quite good in his straight scenes here as a harried bureaucrat, a less nelly version of Edward Everett Horton ... but that character just doesn't match up with Bolger's dazzling dance numbers. Bolger's Massachusetts accent is much more obvious here than in any of his other films. Bolger was sometimes required to play epicene men, as in the Broadway musical 'By Jupiter'. Here, he's impressively virile, as he strips off his dinner jacket and lights into some rapid-fire nerve taps far more proficient than Ann Miller's.

I always enjoy watching Bolger dance. Here, regrettably -- blame it on LeRoy Prinz -- Bolger doesn't do anything he hasn't done better in several better musicals, except for a brief trick shot in which he dances between two full-length portraits of Washington and Lincoln (also played by Bolger) who dance along with him. I was impressed with a brief pas de deux between Bolger and Day, in which she dances conventionally but manages to keep up with Bolger while he does his usual "Where's Charley?" moves.

The contrived plot line requires Bolger and Day to mistakenly believe they're married to each other. Two Frenchmen perform the wedding service without actually being qualified for that job. This being a Hollywood film of the 1950s, it's imperative that the fake marriage remain unconsummated, so the two Frenchmen then have conscience pangs and sabotage the marital bed so that no sex can take place ... instead of simply admitting their deception. Speaking of 1950s morals: this movie's dialogue features several occurrences of the word 'gay' in its innocent sense.

Two of my least favourite movie clichés are: every building in Washington DC is directly across the street from the Capitol, and every location in Paris has a clear view of the Eiffel Tower. We get both of those clichés in this movie. On the positive side, we get a brief appearance by character actor Shepard Menken as a Parisian waiter. Actress Eve Miller does her best in an unplayable role as Day's rival. Eve Miller's acting career never quite caught on; she suicided shortly after her fiftieth birthday.

The movie's weird plot gives us Claude Dauphin as an omniscient Frenchman. A gag sequence requires that Ray Bolger's hat be several sizes too large ... but later the same chapeau fits him perfectly, and later still it's too large again when the scriptwriter recycles the gag. This movie is more than competently directed by the underrated David Butler, but matters are not helped by a script which requires Day's and Bolger's characters to be unable to make up their minds about deeply important issues such as love and career. Still, as enjoyable froth, I'll rate 'April in Paris' 7 out of 10.