April in Paris (1952)

Strong and Moving!

Sadly Over-hyped

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Doris Day is adorable perky-chaste with a lousy script and songs with goofy lyrics in a fake studio Paris.Ray Bolger, fine dancer, is grotesquely miscast as a diplomat.The gags are unusually lame, even for this kind of comedy. I kept imagining any number of other male leads like Astaire or Kelly or O'Connor.This movie has not aged well in 60 years. Very disappointing, especially when compared with some of Day's finest work such as "Love Me or Leave Me" made only three years later.And contrast "April in Paris" with "Singin' in the Rain" from the SAME YEAR. Sigh.

This is a pleasant but basically forgettable musical from a decade that produced far better. The performers are all talented and have done much better elsewhere; they are not to blame. The script is basically boring, and the title very misleading: only the last 15 minutes or so of the movie takes place in Paris. And when it does, it's all painted backdrops. We never really get to Paris.What I found interesting was the post-WW II notion that Americans are very up-tight, especially sexually, and that a trip to Paris could do wonders to loosen them up. (This idea is well presented in the great 1948 Billy Wilder movie, "A Foreign Affair," though there Paris is not the answer, it's just getting out of the American mindset and encountering Europeans.) One of the bright spots of the movie is Doris Day's dance-and-sing number on the ship, "I'm gonna ring the bell tonight," when she encounters the "joie de vivre" of the French crew on the ocean liner and starts to loosen up herself.Later, there is a decent number with Day and the Frenchman, Philippe Fouquet (Claude Dauphin, playing the role that Georges Guétary had played so much better the year before in "An American in Paris") in which the appeal and disappointments of Paris are sketched out.In sum, this is a pretty forgettable movie: forgettable music, certainly, forgettable dialog mostly (though there are a few nasty lines between Day and her female rival), unremarkable story - you never believe there is any real feeling between Ray Bolger and Day - forgettable if energetic dancing. Coming a year after "An American in Paris" - and no doubt meant to play off the success of that movie - this is pretty much a letdown. Even the scenes of Paris are fake.

Doris Day as Ethel 'Dynamite' Jackson gets a letter from the State Department saying that she's been chosen to be an American representative at an Arts Festival in Paris. The letter was supposed to go to Ethel Barrymore instead. Doris had written the State Department about a work permit visa to work at a nightclub in Montreal. It's a faux pas of the highest order that State Department bureaucrat Ray Bolger has committed and he tries to rectify the situation. But when the press gets a hold of it, the thing becomes a popular move. So Bolger's boss Paul Harvey puts him in charge of getting Doris's diplomatic etiquette up to speed. For better or worse Bolger and Day are going to spend April In Paris together. The popular Vernon Duke-E.Y. Harburg standard serves as the title for this film and Warner Brothers got Vernon Duke to write the balance of the score with Sammy Cahn's lyrics. Nothing really outstanding here, but the score fits well with styles of the two leads.Doris is great as always, the problem here is Bolger and the part he plays. Ray Bolger was a great personality on stage who but for two roles never quite was able to translate the same popularity to the big screen. One role was of course the Scarecrow in The Wizard Of Oz and the other was the lead in Charley's Aunt. And both of those were comic parts.As a traditional screen lead Ray never quite made it. In fact in watching April In Paris I couldn't quite see what Doris saw in him. Of course with her attraction it was obvious as Bolger so succinctly put it, 'What a Built'. Ray plays a traditional WASP stuffed shirt diplomat who is engaged to the demanding daughter of Harvey, Eve Miller. Getting involved with Day was not an upward career move.Of course Doris sparks the attention of Claude Dauphin who's working his way back to France on the same ship that Bolger and Day and company are traveling. She has a nice number with Dauphin in a Parisian nightclub.Bolger's big moment on the screen is a very nicely staged fantasy number where portraits of Lincoln and Washington come alive and dance with him as Bolger dreams about his future. It was as creative as something Gene Kelly or Fred Astaire might have done.Still Ray is not quite leading man material and the film can't overcome that. Fans of Doris and Ray will like it though, but I fear it's not one of Doris Day's best films.

First off, I am a huge Doris fan and I thought this movie was not one of her best (her own autobiography said she wanted someone different for the choreography...but I thought that was the best part). Doris is always good but the movie might have looked better if we saw some of the real Paris and why not show off some of the fashions sung about and actually see real settings.Ray Bolger was NOT Fred Astaire but he sure is energetic. There was no real spark between Ray and Doris (who is excellent in the "Rock the Boat" number in the Cruiseliner's kitchen).I bought this inexpensively from Ken Cranes on Laserdisc and Doris looks terrific as always. From what I've read Ray had some trouble with the director who accused him of trying to upstage Doris on camera - as if that were ever possible.My advice...rent TEA FOR TWO instead.