Paramount on Parade (1930)

MGM taught us to sing in the rain, while the Warner Brothers told us "Never take a shower. It's an awful pain. Singin' in the shower is like singin' in the rain". Over at the very art deco Paramount, Maurice Chevalier joined a bunch of chorus girl cuties to literally sweep the clouds out of the sky and shakes all those nasty demons off of the rooftops of Paris. Chevalier, who appears in several numbers, would later have another stormy weather number a few years later in "Folies Bergere" where he got the Busby Berkley like "Rhythm of the Raindrops".Among the other highlights are Clara Bow's flirtatious "True to the Navy" (ironically the name of a film she just did a year later), Nancy Carroll's "Dancing To Save Your Soul" (rising out of a giant shoe) and Helen Kane's squeaky voiced "What Did Cleopatra Say", playing a schoolteacher to Paramount's child stars. Ruth Chatterton, one of Paramount's top dramatic stars of this time, also sings, and there are rare glimpses of such early 30's forgotten celebrities as Lillian Roth, Zelma O'Neal and Richard "Skeets" Gallagher, once big names but now a distant memory except to classic cinema buffs like myself. Edited after its release and missing much of its footage for its later television release, what still exists is entertaining and nostalgic. There's a great comedy skit that shows a Hollywood party in motion where stars say what they think they should say in polite society, and then a repeat of it where they say what they are really thinking. There's also a detective movie spoof that involves Sherlock Holmes (Clive Brook), Philo Vance (William Powell) and Detective Heath (Eugene Palette) up against Fu Manchu (Warner Oland). Pretty much just more of the same with the majority of Paramount's contract players, this is more music than sketch, and the elaborateness of the film is even greater than MGM's "Hollywood Revue", Warner Brothers' "Show of Shows", Universal's "King of Jazz" (in spite of its color photography) and Fox's "The Fox Movietone Follies". In the cut version, appearances by such big names as Jean Arthur, Gary Cooper, Kay Francis and Richard Arlen are fleeting, but for its nostalgic look back at life at the beginning of the sound era as new stars took over the fading silent stars, it makes fascinating viewing.

I used to think KING OF JAZZ, Universal's entry into the studio review genre, was the worst, but Paramount tops it. MGM had THE Hollywood REVIEW, the best of the four; Warners had THE SHOW OF SHOWS; Paramount has PARAMOUNT ON PARADE.Only 1 hour and 19 minutes, 20 seconds of this survives, leaving 21 minutes missing. I believe this is lost Technicolor footage (recently restored by UCLA), featuring four numbers: Dream Girl; Singing in a Gondola; The Gallows Song; and Isadore the Toreador.What's left has only one redeeming feature and that is Maurice Chevalier in three numbers: History of the Apache (with Evelyn Brent and obviously directed by Lubitsch); One Girl (most likely directed also by Lubitsch) and the Sweeping The Clouds Away finale.The comedy and musical numbers are from hunger with cheesy sets, forgettable writing and songs, and blah performances. Elsewhere in other reviews here you will find a run down of the numbers and their performers. Perhaps the worst singing is that f Nancy Carroll, although she dances well. Ruth Chatterton even sings better than Carroll, but her number is stupid and beneath her dignity as a dramatic actress.It's fun to see all four of these, just to marvel at how talentless most all the studios were with the advent of sound and musical savor faire. Only MGM comes out on top.

"Paramount On Parade" is both a musical revue and a collection of skits by Hollywood stars who can sing and some who cannot. The entertainment value is uneven as some of their stints in front of the camera range from pretty good to mediocre, from Maurice Chevalier to George Bancroft, whose forte was gangster roles. The movie was an excuse for Paramount to showcase as much of their stable of stars as they could assemble, and there were quite a lot of them. I understand that there were a spate of star revue-type pictures produced around the start of the sound era, and this was another one in that mold.The main reason to see this picture in 2010, I found, was as a museum piece, watching old stars that I had only heard of. Hadn't seen much of Mitzi Green to speak of, ditto Skeets Gallagher, and had never seen Harry Green before. From that standpoint it was fascinating, but maybe not for moviegoers older than me. There was a good skit with four old-time movie sleuths, Warner Oland, William Powell, Clive Brook and Eugene Palette (who was more of a movie dim-witted cop).On the IMDb site it is clocked at 77 minutes but at Capitolfest in Rome,N.Y. (8/10), a 102 minute 35mm print restored by the UCLA film department was shown which made it extra special.

Odd mix of music comedy and sketches show casing all of Paramount stars at the time.Since its release the Technicolor sequences were removed or only presented in black and white (the final musical number on the roof tops). Trims over time reduced this from its original 104 minutes to 77. the version I saw ran 73 minutes.(and as anyone who's ever talked about the film has said this film has several introductions for sequences that never come) A scatter shot affair this has some winning things in it (the final dance number), some strange things (Fu Manchu, Philo Vance and Sherlock Holmes all together in a comedy sketch) and some not so good things (a couple of the songs are duds). Clearly made to cash in the idea of all singing and all dancing as well as to assure the public enough stars that some one they like would be in it, this film is too much of a "good" thing. If you like revues this film I suppose would be great, except that the up and down nature makes it hard to really get into an groove of enjoyment. The film isn't bad, but then again it isn't wholly good, or good enough to make it anything more than a curio. To be honest I don't know if I would watch it again in its present form, though if it were ever restored to full length and with the color sequences I might give it ago again (if for no reason then to see the introduced but removed sequences).6 out of 10. More if you're a fan of old musicals.