Thursday, April 16, 2020

Wednesday, April 15 - Gold Diggers in Paris

Gold Diggers in Paris (1938)

Maurice Giraud (Herbert) is sent to New York to arrange for the Academy Ballet of America to come to Paris to compete for cash prizes at an international dance festival, but a cabbie takes him by mistake to the Club Ballé, a nightclub about to go under. The desperate owners of the club, Terry Moore (Vallee) and Duke Dennis (Jenkins), know that an error has occurred, but see the invitation as a way out of their financial problems. To get some ballet into their nightclub act, they hire ballet teacher Luis Leoni (Fritz Feld) and his star (and only) pupil Kay Morrow (Rosemary Lane) to teach their girls ballet on the boat crossing the Atlantic. Terry finds Kay very attractive, but things are complicated when his ex-wife, Mona (Gloria Dickson), invites herself along, rooming with Kay.

Meanwhile, the head of the real ballet company, Padrinsky (Curt Bois), finds out what has happened and cables Giraud aboard ship, then heads to Paris with his patron, a ballet-loving gangster named Mike Coogan (Edward Brophy), who intends to rub out Terry and Duke. Giraud is upset about being hoaxed, but is mollified when a "talking dog" (a ventriloquist hired by Terry and Duke) convinces him that Padrinsky is the liar.

After they arrive in Paris, a representative of the exposition, Pierre Le Brec (Melville Cooper), wants to watch the group's rehearsals, and Duke tells his new friend Coogan, the gangster, that Le Brec is causing him trouble. Coogan goes to "take care" of the problem, but by mistake knocks out Leoni instead of Le Brec. Padrinsky shows up and arranges for the imposters to be deported on the day of the contest, but Mona manages to change the order so that Coogan and Padrinsky are shipped out, instead, which allows the company to perform and win the grand prize.

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