A charming musical,sparkling with wit like champagne which flows like water.Henri Garat,himself a crooner,was a specialist of the genre.
Henri Leroy leads a double life,or more like ,he is forced to have two jobs ,to make ends meets.
By day ,he is a clerk in a records shop,which is interesting because it shows us that kind of place when the 78 used to reign on the gramophones ,a long time before LPs and SPs ;now that the CDs may disappear ,replaced by downloading,who knows if there will be records shops in the future?And this shop in the mid-thirties had an auditorium ,where you can cut your own record,like Elvis did for his mother in the fifties,but with more sophisticated paraphernalia.
By night,he becomes a Professional ballroom dancing host ;his shrewd boss has asked him to pass himself off as a prince to launch his night club ,and to attract the female clientèle :some kind of male Cinderella (check the title);
This is as light as champagne but it is much fun to watch:the clerk,kissing the shop's owner's daughter ,and forgetting to open whereas a queue is waiting outside;this girl is rapturous about her dad's employee ,which infuriates the fat man:Paul Pauley was an obese actor and often served as a foil to the handsome Young lead;the handsome dancer,mistaken for a genuine prince by some aristocrats from "Palestria" ,an imaginary land ,who want him back on the throne;the real prince ,who wants to be left alone ,smoking cigarettes ,far way from politics....Pauley ,who begins to think her daughter may become a princess nay a queen ,and kowtows to his clerk...
The lines are worthwhile ,displaying a Sacha Guitry influence:
A posh gentleman to his wife : -Because you cheated on me with a prince ,it enhanced my prestige and I feel great!
-I never did so.
-What a pity! really too bad!
