Just adequate, this slight musical comedy has two French leading ladies whose mirror images are identical. Constance Bennett has a rare musical role, playing mostly a brunette dancer desperate for the starring part whose husband (Franchot Tone) refuses to allow her to take the part. When a glamorous blonde look-alike (also Bennett) arrives in New York, she allows her twin to temporarily take her place, helping her dye her hair blonde and teaching her how to act like a Moulin Rouge star in order to make Tone jealous. It backfires by Tone flirting with the blonde, making Bennett believe that she's losing her husband...to herself!
This much used plot has involved look- alikes of both genders, even the following year by the same studio, only with Maurice Chevalier in the dual part, and that time taking place at the actual Folies Bergere in Paris rather than simply dropping its name like it is here. Two big musical numbers crop up at the end, one involving coffee in the morning and kisses at night, the other a bit dramatic and performed in between dramatic plot sequences. That number, "The Boulevard of Broken Dreams", is not quite the cult classic that it could have been, simply because it lacks the camp quotient.
With most big musicals running over 90 minutes, this clocks in at just 70. Would that make this be considered a B musical? Maybe not, but it is at least an A-. Joining in are Helen Westley as Tone's housekeeper who seems more loyal to her mistress, and singer Ross Columbo who could definitely be referred to as Bing minus. I can't put this onto my list of pre-code favorites, but I won't call it a did, either. It is one I've been searching for over many years, and now that I've found it wasn't thrilled by it as I had expected to be.
This much used plot has involved look- alikes of both genders, even the following year by the same studio, only with Maurice Chevalier in the dual part, and that time taking place at the actual Folies Bergere in Paris rather than simply dropping its name like it is here. Two big musical numbers crop up at the end, one involving coffee in the morning and kisses at night, the other a bit dramatic and performed in between dramatic plot sequences. That number, "The Boulevard of Broken Dreams", is not quite the cult classic that it could have been, simply because it lacks the camp quotient.
With most big musicals running over 90 minutes, this clocks in at just 70. Would that make this be considered a B musical? Maybe not, but it is at least an A-. Joining in are Helen Westley as Tone's housekeeper who seems more loyal to her mistress, and singer Ross Columbo who could definitely be referred to as Bing minus. I can't put this onto my list of pre-code favorites, but I won't call it a did, either. It is one I've been searching for over many years, and now that I've found it wasn't thrilled by it as I had expected to be.