Summary
A junior government official, Winthrop Putnam, sees his career
aspirations evaporate when he realises that he has invited the wrong
woman to represent the American theatre at an exposition in
Paris. An invitation intended for the actress Ethel Barrymore is
mistakenly sent to an unknown chorus line girl, Ethel Jackson.
Fortunately for Winthrom, his superiors regard this not as an error but
as a masterstroke, since it shows that the government still has the
common touch. Although Winthrop is engaged to be married (to his
boss’s daughter), he falls in love with Ethel on the boat trip to
Paris. An incurably romantic Frenchman, Philippe Fouquet,
contrives to bring them together...
Review
It’s clearly an uphill task, but Doris Day manages to breathe life into
this anemic and rather silly musical comedy, aided and abetted by song and dance
man Ray Bolger and fading French matinee idol Claude
Dauphin. The scriptwriters should have been boiled in oil
(olive oil, that is, with a soupçon of garlic)
since it appears that absolutely no thought went into the plot and you are left
wondering just why a film called April
in Paris is set mainly on a boat. The
comedy is somewhat hit and miss (with regrettably more of the
latter than the former) but, thankfully, most of the musical
numbers hit the spot and prevent the whole thing from sinking more
spectacularly than the Titanic.
This may not be in the first or even the second division of Hollywood
musicals, but it just about passes for entertainment, thanks mainly to
the joie de vivre that Doris Day brings to it. April in Paris is one of those
films that should be reserved for a late night viewing, when your
critical faculties are dimmed and a mild soporific is called for to
ease you gently into the arms of Morpheus.
© filmsdefrance.com 2009
Write a review for this film...User Comments
Useful links
- Best French films of 2011
- Best French films of the 2000s
- Best of the French New Wave
- Best of French film comedy
- The best 100 French films
- The most successful French films
- Great French filmmakers
Related links
- Other American films of the 1950s
- The best American films of the 1950s
- Other American romantic comedies
- The best American romantic comedies
- Biography and films of David Butler
To buy this film
Check DVD and Blu-ray availability:
Credits
- Director: David Butler
- Script: Jack Rose, Melville Shavelson
- Photo: Wilfred M. Cline
- Cast: Doris Day (Ethel S. ’Dynamite’ Jackson), Ray Bolger (S. 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), Andrew Berner (Jacques), Robert Cornell (Charles)
- Country: USA
- Language: English
- Runtime: 94 min
Similar films
If you like this film you may also like the following:- Adam’s Rib (1949)
- Babes in Toyland (1934)
- Born Yesterday (1950)
- Father of the Bride (1950)
- Finian’s Rainbow (1968)
- Funny Face (1957)
- The Gay Divorcee (1934)
- Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935)
- Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948)
- Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)
- Show Boat (1951)
- South Pacific (1958)
- Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
- You Can’t Take It with You (1938)
To buy April in Paris:

Comedy / Musical / Romance






