Plot Summary - When the king of a small European nation needs a loan for his country, he seeks help from the Americans. A banker arrives from America to approve the loan and immediately bonds with the King over his shirt (King: "Why the hell don't you fix your shirt?" Loan Man: "How the hell can I?"). The banker feels that in order to approve the loan they need to make the royal family more popular - which could be accomplished if the Crown Prince were to get engaged. A problem: the oh so handsome Prince (George O'Brien) is supposedly shy and has a one-track mind - automobiles! Feeling that "two old fools are better than one", the King and the Banker head to Paris to try and find a female to seduce the prince and get his motor going for the ladies. The two end up in this Apache Dance Club in Montmarte, where ultra-bored nightclub Apache dancers put on an act for tour buses that stop and fill the club with Americans seeking a glimpse of the wild side of Paris - fights, knifing's, etc., are all faked for the benefit of the suckers. The two men find a prospect - Dolores (Virginia Valli), one tough chick sporting a bullet hairdo and small, sharp knife tucked in her garter. They offer her 50,000 francs if she succeeds in seducing the unsuspecting Crown Prince, then send her on her way to pull her wiles on him - but on arrival she oddly faints through the door of his house during a rainstorm, then wakes up to find herself in his bed with ALL her clothes removed and drying (hmm, is he really as shy as they say?!). She is unaware of his identity and because he's one of those European royals who likes to go about wearing a uniform, she believes him to be a soldier in the King's Guard. When she heads out to find her mark, Prince Eric (William Powell), playboy cousin of the Crown Prince, gets his cousin out of the way so that he can seduce Dolores - and she mistakenly believes that the man she begins to romance is the Crown Prince. She begins to discover what a creep Prince Eric is, while at the same time the actual Crown Prince IS interested and they start to fall in love - the rub, how can they allow a commoner like her to actually marry a royal?!
Review - Directed by Howard Hawks, I thought this sophisticated silent romantic-comedy was quite good. Entertaining, with a good touch of humor throughout - love a scene where Powell is peeling a banana while secretly watching Valli undress - yeah, priceless. Enjoyed the Apache Club scene too - amusing, fun stuff. George O'Brien is oh so fit and good looking - not completely my usual type, but wooo - he *is* cute. My one complaint would be that I would have liked to have seen him given a lot more to do in this film, his part is sort of bland and - not enough screen time! After watching this film I was thinking that it really deserves a DVD release, it certainly has many worthwhile qualities to it. NOTE: the Imdb and other sources list Virginia Valli's character name as Gaby, but I remember Dolores and that is what my notes say too. To try and confirm this I did find more than one online source that had the name as Dolores, so I'm going with that for this review. Rating - 9/10 stars
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2 comments:
I love George O'Brien - and I'm very envious right now- how I'd love to see him as a Ruritanian prince. Have you see Fig Leaves, his other film with Howard Hawks? Someone loaded sections of it on Youtube. Maybe Fox could do a "Silent Hawks" DVD set! Thanks for the review!
I have a copy of "Fig Leaves" - and for some odd reason I haven't watched it yet! I'm in the mood for some more George O'Brien, think I'll try and watch that film in the next week. I think a DVD set of "Silent Hawks" would be great!!
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