BlazeLime Strong and Moving!

Micitype Pretty Good

GazerRise Fantastic!

Paynbob It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

richard-1787 What works in this movie is the comedy of the four men - and, in her soapy dance number, of Lucile Ball. Both when they play swing and when they crack jokes, they're funny.What doesn't work, too often, is the star of the movie, Met coloratura soprano Lily Pons. I enjoy Pons' operatic recordings, and have most of them, but she doesn't work well in this movie. She had neither the personality nor - to be honest - the looks of Jeannette MacDonald or Grace Moore, and at this point she was still having real problems with the English language. A comedy with a lead who isn't good with the language is a real problem. Contrast her with Herman Bing, who misused English to comic effect, and you see the difference. She was no dancer, at least in this movie, either. Her one real talent, that for which she was famous at the Met, was her high notes.That causes problems in a movie made for a general audience. She is too often given music to show off her very high notes and her staccati. At the Met audiences appreciate that sort of thing, but it seems misplaced in what was meant to be a general audience movie. She should have been given more lyrical music, less fireworks. Think of Jeannette MacDonald singing "San Francisco" in the movie of the same name, which came out the year before, or Grace Moore singing "Ciriciribin" - much less "Minnie the Moocher".It's interesting to see how she performs "Una voce poco fa" in her Met Opera scene. If that's how she did the role on state, she was not much of an actress even by the operatic standards of her day.This movie could also have used a better director, to make the comedy scenes even better, or perhaps to have helped Pons do a better job.But the basic problem is that Pons was not movie material, at least not for this sort of general audience comedy. She doesn't sink the picture, but she doesn't add anything positive to it, either.Footnote: The year after making this picture, the male lead, Gene Raymond, would marry Jeannette MacDonald, another lyric coloratura who was much better suited to the movies, and much better presented there.

JLRMovieReviews Lily Pons is "That Girl from Paris," a Paris opera singer, who is supposed to be getting married but runs from the altar because she doesn't love her rich socialite fiancé. She runs into Gene Raymond and instantly they create silly friction between them. But this film is zanily haphazard and fast-paced, with two flat tires, them singing while eating horse! and generally teasing each other. Then, she wants to sail on cruise ship to America, but things are never that easy. Due to complications, she has to be a stowaway and naturally tags along with Gene Raymond and his jazz/blues band. This moves very quickly and, if you're not paying attention, you'll wonder what just happened. The police are after her in America, because she entered the states illegally, and half the movie is about them hiding her and the other half is the romantic scenes between Lily and Gene. But band member Jack Oakie also has designs on her. The music is very delightful. I enjoyed the roof scene very much and also the song where they blended her style of singing with their music. Lucille Ball is the girl singer of the band, but of course Lily sees to it that Lucille can't perform, so she can. I had a great time and wish I watched this before now. Discover Lily Pons and "That Girl from Paris" today!

bkoganbing If That Girl From Paris was made today there would be protesters at the screenings as Lily Pons is quite the illegal alien. I could just see the Donald leading a picket line protesting the fact that the heroine is a woman who stows away on ship to come to America and then is ready to get a marriage of convenience to stay here.Not liking the arranged marriage she's been hammerlocked into Lily hooks up with a touring swing band consisting of Gene Raymond, Mischa Auer, Frank Jenks, and Jack Oakie. Of course all that doesn't sit well with Lucille Ball, affianced to Raymond and getting some of the best lines in the film.Pons has some good numbers in all genres of music including a swing version of the Blue Danube Waltz and highlighting with her character's Metropolitan Opera debut in the Barber Of Seville. This film was made right after Grace Moore scored such a success in One Night Of Love for Columbia Pictures. Studios went out and signed up opera singers, Lily Pons was RKO's catch. The vogue came and went quickly, this was Lily's second feature film after I Dream Too Much. She would do one more Hitting A New High and then she would return to the Metropolitan Opera for real.But I'm glad some of these voices like Lily Pons recorded their art for posterity in films like That Girl From Paris.

Kalaman This is really a wonderful surprise, a charmingly contrived, irresistibly tune-filled operetta, made for RKO in 1936, directed by Leigh Jason. It was intended as a vehicle for its star, Lily Pons, playing the role of a Parisian opera star Nikki Martin that flees her wedding and becomes a stowaway hiding in a ship compartment occupied by an American Jazz band. Nikki meets and falls in love with the band leader Windy McLean (Gene Raymond) and she travels with his band from France to America.Ms. Pons was a superior opera star of its time and "That Girl From Paris" is all hers, though other players, Jackie Oakie, Gene Raymond, Lucille Ball, Mischa Auer, Hermann Bing are all exceptionally good as well. Tall, willowy, coolly complacent (some would say stand-offish), Ms. Pons was no beauty like Jeanette MacDonald or Grace Moore, but she is endowed with an overpoweringly deep, searing opera voice that would put both Jeanette & Grace to shame. As much as the studio is promoting its opera star, RKO is also including as much classical & jazz music as possible and for this, it succeeds.Much of the movie's charm & vivacity seems to run out of gas in the last fifteen minutes or so as the filmmakers try to endow the contrived scenario with a happy, forced ending, but everything before it was a sheer delight.