April in Paris (1952)

This is one of the most awful movies I've ever seen. Doris Day is wonderful - obviously it must have been hard for her to not be charming and sing delightfully. Truthfully, I had to skip ahead constantly to the scenes where I could just see Doris Day, but she keeps being crowded by a complete cast of creeps, not least the two main male characters. It's one painful French cliché after the other. But nothing is more painful that the "love interest" between Doris Day and Ray Bolger. Brrrrr.Doris Day must be one of the most badly treated actors in Hollywood, castingwise. It's amazing that she is able to deliver a fresh and spontaneous performance in the midst of that plot, those characters and those costumes. Skip.

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.

True, even for the breezy 1950s, the plot for this musical is as light as a feather--but if you are a DORIS DAY fan, as I certainly was during these early Day films at Warner Bros., you'll be enchanted by her way with a song--particularly "I'm Gonna Ring the Bell Tonight", "April in Paris" and "That's What Makes Paris Par-ee". And on top of that, she excels in all of her dance routines, even those in which RAY BOLGER clearly has the spotlight to himself.It's one of those mistaken identity plots that Warners used extensively throughout the '40s and '50s, something about a showgirl being mistaken for a diplomat and mistakenly invited to represent the U.S. at a French festival. Naturally, all is straightened out in time for a happy ending although I can't say I detected any real chemistry between Bolger and Day--even in a musical where logic doesn't really matter.The dances staged by LeRoy Prinz are not the best, but there are some cheerful, well staged moments when Bolger gets to do his tap routines and limber legged dancing. All in all, it passes the time pleasantly if you have a weakness for musicals the way they were in the '50s. And Doris proves that singing wasn't her only asset. Her dancing is also very professional (and not surprisingly, she intended to become a dancer before an accident ruined her plans and she switched to singing).

This picture was made when Doris Day was "Doris Day", that fresh-faced, delightful blond singer who lit up the screen with her beautiful smile and glorious singing."April in Paris", directed by David Butler was a colorful, joyous romp for Doris Day and Ray Bolger. Mr. Bolger has been criticized for not being a suitable co-star for Miss Day, but I felt he did a credible job in the picture. No, he was not handsome, like Rock Hudson, but Rock couldn't DANCE like Bolger!And dance up a storm, he does! I enjoyed his acrobatic dance routines in "I'm Gonna Ring the Bell Tonight" and the political-themed dance with former Presidents' portraits, coming to life to dance with Bolger.Doris Day, as Ethel "Dynamite" Jackson, a chorus girl, who is mistakenly chosen, instead of Ethel Barrymore, to represent America at a Paris Festival, is energetic and bouncy and mostly delightful. Her rendition of "April in Paris" was hauntingly beautiful and the highlight of the film.The nicely staged, "It Must Be Him" also showcased Miss Day's glorious voice and dancing skills as did "That's What Makes Paris Paree".Claude Dauphin lugubriously reprises the title tune in a side-walk cafe with the wind blowing bitterly while he sings the song to Doris Day.To my knowledge, this is the only occasion in which Doris Day has a fist fight on the screen! If you can believe it, she was battling over Ray Bolger with Eve Miller, who also had the illusion that Bolger was "Clark Gable".In the aforementioned, "I'm Gonna Ring the Bell Tonight", Doris Day opens the number with some rousing singing and later joins Bolger for some fancy footwork.If you love Doris Day, you'll like this picture. As usual, there was able support by veteran actors like Paul Harvey, who later played "Henry Miller", proprietor of the Golden Garter in "Calamity Jane".