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Paris (1929 film)

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Paris
theatrical poster
Directed byClarence G. Badger
Written byMartin Brown
E. Ray Goetz
Hope Loring(titles)
Produced byRobert North
StarringIrene Bordoni
Jack Buchanan
Louise Closser Hale
Jason Robards Sr.
ZaSu Pitts
CinematographySol Polito
Edited byEdward Schroeder
Music byCole Porter
Edward Ward
Production
company
Distributed byWarner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Release date
  • November 7, 1929 (1929-11-07)
Running time
97 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Paris is a 1929 American Pre-Code musical comedy, filmed with Technicolor sequences: four of ten reels were originally photographed in Technicolor. Paris was the fourth color movie released by Warner Bros.; the first three were The Desert Song, On with the Show and Gold Diggers of Broadway, all released in 1929. (Song of the West was actually completed by June 1929 but had its release delayed until March 1930). The film was adapted from the Cole Porter Broadway musical of the same name. The musical was Porter's first Broadway hit. No film elements of Paris are known to exist, although the complete soundtrack survives on Vitaphone disks. The sound tape reels for this film survives at UCLA Film and Television Archive.

Paris was the fourth movie Warner Brothers had made with their Technicolor contract. Paris used a color (Technicolor) process of red and green, at the time it was the third process of Technicolor.[1][2][3]

Lobby card

Plot

Irene Bordoni is cast as Vivienne Rolland, a Parisian chorus girl in love with Massachusetts boy Andrew Sabbot (Jason Robards Sr.) Andrew's snobbish mother Cora (Louise Closser Hale) tries to break up the romance. Jack Buchanan likewise makes his talking-picture debut as Guy Pennell, the leading man in Vivienne's revue.

Cast

Production

Warner Bros. paid the celebrated French music hall star and Broadway chanteuse Irene Bordoni $10,000 a week to star in this film, playing the role she had originated on Broadway, introducing the enduring Porter standard "Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love". While this film was being shot, the studio was in the process of completing their all-star revue The Show of Shows (1929), so they had Bordoni film a number for the revue. Their initial intention was to have Bordoni star in two musical features, but due to the poor box-office reception of Paris, they decided not to make any more films with her.[4]

Songs

  • "My Lover"
  • "Paris"
  • "Somebody Mighty Like You"
  • "An' Furthermore"
  • "Wob-a-ly Walk"
  • "Don't Look at Me That Way"
  • "Crystal Girl"
  • "I'm a Little Negative"
  • "I Wonder What is Really on his Mind"
  • "Miss Wonderful"
  • "Among My Souvenirs"
  • "The Land of Going to Be"

Paris utilized advertisements of a type which were common for its time, featuring the talking in the film and Irene Bordoni starring. One ad for Paris said "See the talking picture of the future".

See also

References