''Folies Bergère de Paris'' is a 1935 American

musical comedy film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, but in some cases, they serve merely as breaks ...

produced by Darryl Zanuck for 20th Century Films, directed by Roy Del Ruth and starring Maurice Chevalier,

Merle Oberon Merle Oberon (born Estelle Merle O'Brien Thompson; 19 February 191123 November 1979) was a British actress who began her film career in British films as Anne Boleyn in ''The Private Life of Henry VIII'' (1933). After her success in ''The Scarle ...

and Ann Southern. At the

8th Academy Awards 8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9. In mathematics 8 is: * a composite number, its proper divisors being , , and . It is twice 4 or four times 2. * a power of two, being 2 (two cubed), and is the first number of t ...

, the “Straw Hat” number, choreographed by Dave Gould, won the short-lived

Academy Award for Best Dance Direction The Academy Awards for Best Dance Direction was presented from 1935 to 1937, after which it was discontinued. Winners and nominees References {{Academy Awards Dance Direction ...

, sharing the honor with “I've Got a Feelin' You're Foolin'” from '' Broadway Melody of 1936''. The film, based on the 1934 play ''The Red Cat'' by Rudolph Lothar and

Hans Adler Hans Adler may refer to: * Hans Adler (poet) (1880–1957), German poet * Hans Adler (business), food industry business * Hans G. Adler (1904–1979), musician, musicologist and collector in South Africa * H. G. Adler (1910–1988), German writer * ...

, is a story of mistaken identity, with Maurice Chevalier playing both a music-hall star and a business tycoon who resembles him. This was Chevalier’s last film in Hollywood for twenty years, and reprised familiar themes such as the straw hat and a rendering of the French song " Valentine". This is also the last film to be distributed by

Twentieth Century Pictures Twentieth Century Pictures, Inc. was an independent Hollywood motion picture production company created in 1933 by Joseph Schenck (the former president of United Artists) and Darryl F. Zanuck from Warner Bros. Financial backing came from Sche ...

before it merged with Fox Film in 1935 to form

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

. Zanuck simultaneously produced a French-language version of the story, also directed by Roy Del Ruth, called
L'homme des Folies Bergère
'. It stars Chevalier and Natalie Paley and

Sim Viva Sim Viva (12 January 1903 – 10 August 1982) was a Belgian soprano singer and actress prominent in operetta and film in the 1920s and 1930s. She made several recordings on the Ultraphone, Pathé, and Odeon labels. . Life and career Sim Viva ...

. Because that film was intended for the French market, they shot scenes showing chorus girls bare breasted. When censor

Joseph Breen Joseph Ignatius Breen (October 14, 1888 – December 5, 1965) was an American film censor with the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America who applied the Hays Code to film production.Staff report (December 8, 1965). Joseph I ...

heard of it, he insisted that the Production Code be enforced even in a film destined for another country. The American Film Institute catalog site describes Zanuck's losing battle with the censors. ''The Red Cat'', which was produced for the Broadway stage by Zanuck, ran for only 13 performances, but the studio benefited from four film adaptations. The third and fourth versions were in

Technicolor Technicolor is a series of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films ...

, these being ''

That Night in Rio ''That Night in Rio'' is a 1941 Technicolor American musical comedy film directed by Irving Cummings and starring Alice Faye, Don Ameche (in a dual role as an American entertainer and an aristocratic businessman he is asked to impersonate temp ...

,'' (1941) directed by

Irving Cummings Irving Caminsky (October 9, 1888 – April 18, 1959) was an American movie actor and director. Career Born in New York City, Cummings started his acting career at age 16 in ''Diplomacy''. His Broadway, performances included ''In the Long ...

(and starring

Don Ameche Don Ameche (; born Dominic Felix Amici; May 31, 1908 – December 6, 1993) was an American actor, comedian and vaudevillian. After playing in college shows, stock, and vaudeville, he became a major radio star in the early 1930s, which ...

Alice Faye Alice Faye (born Alice Jeanne Leppert; May 5, 1915 – May 9, 1998) was an American actress and singer. A musical star of 20th Century-Fox in the 1930s and 1940s, Faye starred in such films as '' On the Avenue'' (1937) and ''Alexander's Ragtime ...

and

Carmen Miranda Carmen Miranda, (; born Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha, 9 February 1909 – 5 August 1955) was a Portuguese-born Brazilian samba singer, dancer, Broadway actress and film star who was active from the late 1920s onwards. Nicknamed "The Br ...

) followed by ''

On the Riviera ''On the Riviera'' is a 1951 Technicolor musical comedy film made by 20th Century Fox. Directed by Walter Lang and produced by Sol C. Siegel from a screenplay by Valentine Davies and Phoebe and Henry Ephron, it is the studio's fourth film base ...

'' (1951), directed by

Walter Lang Walter Lang (August 10, 1896 – February 7, 1972) was an American film director. Early life Walter Lang was born in Tennessee. As a young man he went to New York City where he found clerical work at a film production company. The business piq ...

(and starring Danny Kaye,

Gene Tierney Gene Eliza Tierney (November 19, 1920 – November 6, 1991) was an American film and stage actress. Acclaimed for her great beauty, she became established as a leading lady. Tierney was best known for her portrayal of the title character in the ...

and

Corinne Calvet Corinne Calvet (April 30, 1925 – June 23, 2001), born Corinne Dibos, was a French actress who appeared mostly in American films. According to one obituary, she was promoted "as a combination of Dietrich and Rita Hayworth", but her person ...

Cast

* Maurice Chevalier as Eugene Charlier / Baron Fernand Cassini *

Ann Sothern Ann Sothern (born Harriette Arlene Lake; January 22, 1909 – March 15, 2001) was an American actress who worked on stage, radio, film, and television, in a career that spanned nearly six decades. Sothern began her career in the late 1920 ...

as Mimi *

as Baroness Genevieve Cassini *

Eric Blore Eric Blore Sr. (23 December 1887 – 2 March 1959) was an English actor and writer. His early stage career, mostly in the West End of London, centred on revue and musical comedy, but also included straight plays. He wrote sketches for and appe ...

as Francois * Ferdinand Munier as Morrisot * Walter Byron as Marquis René de Lac *

Lumsden Hare Francis Lumsden Hare (17 October 1874 – 28 August 1964) was an Irish-born film and theatre actor. He was also a theatre director and theatrical producer. Early years Hare studied at St. Dunstan's College in London. Career Hare appeare ...

as Gustave *

Robert Greig Robert Greig (December 27, 1879 – June 27, 1958) was an Australian-American actor who appeared in more than 100 films between 1930 and 1949, usually as the dutiful butler. Born Arthur Alfred Bede Greig, he was the nephew of Australian pol ...

as Henri *

Ferdinand Gottschalk Ferdinand Gottschalk (28 February 1858 – 10 November 1944) was an English theatre and film actor. He appeared in 76 films between 1917 and 1938. He was born and died in London, England. He made his first appearance on the stage in Toronto ...

as Perishot *

Halliwell Hobbes Herbert Halliwell Hobbes (16 November 187720 February 1962) was an English actor. Early years The future actor was the son of William Albert Hobbes (1841-1909), a Warwickshire solicitor, and his wife, Marion Hobbes, née Dennis, (1838-1925). ...

as Monsieur Paulet *

Georges Renavent Georges Renavent (born Georges DeChaux, April 23, 1892 – January 2, 1969) was a French-American actor in film, Broadway plays and operator of American Grand Guignol. He was born in Paris, France. In 1914, he immigrated to the United Stat ...

as Premier of France * Phillip Dare as Victor * Frank McGlynn Sr. as Joseph * Barbara Leonard as Toinette *

Olin Howland Olin Ross Howland (February 10, 1886 – September 20, 1959) was an American film and theatre actor. Life and career Howland was born in Denver, Colorado, to Joby A. Howland, one of the youngest enlisted participants in the Civil War, an ...

as Stage Manager

References

* Green, Stanley (1999) Hollywood Musicals Year by Year (2nd ed.), pub. Hal Leonard Corporation page 41

External links

*
Folies Bergère de Paris
at

AFI catalog The ''AFI Catalog of Feature Films'', also known as the ''AFI Catalog'', is an ongoing project by the American Film Institute (AFI) to catalog all commercially-made and theatrically exhibited American motion pictures from the birth of cinema in ...

L'homme des Folies Bergère
at

* *
L'homme des Folies Bergère
' at the

TCM.com Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of Atl ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Folies Bergere de Paris 1935 musical comedy films 1935 films American black-and-white films 1930s English-language films Films scored by Alfred Newman Films directed by Roy Del Ruth United Artists films Twentieth Century Pictures films American musical comedy films Films produced by Darryl F. Zanuck American multilingual films 1935 multilingual films 1930s American films

Cast

See also

References

External links