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.
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.