L'étoile du Moulin Rouge

Despite the title, this film has nothing to do with either the biography of Toulouse-Lautrec nor the famous musical. Instead, it's a silly and forgettable comedy starring Constance Bennett and Franchot Tone. While I love old films, I had a real difficult time enjoying this one.

When the film begins, you learn that Helen (Bennett) loves her husband, Douglas (Tone), but longs to go back on stage. Some time ago, she was the other half of an act...but he insists (like most men of his day) that she stay home and be his dutiful wife. But she decides to play a trick on him when she learns her old partner Raquel (also Bennett) is coming to America. As the two are identical strangers and equally talented, she asks Raquel to let her pretend to be her to see how Douglas reacts. Naturally, she is a perfect duplicate for Raquel in every way and she's a success...but it also appears as if Douglas is ready to now dump his wife for Raquel!

The film's success all depends on the audience's ability to accept a very bad (in my opinion) cliché--the identical stranger. Shows like "I Dream of Jeanie", "Bewitched" and "The Patty Duke Show" all devoted much of their content to this sort of plot device...and in many ways the film comes off more like a bad 60s sitcom than a movie someone would actually pay to see. Additionally, way too much uninteresting music made this one a chore to finish. Not among the actors' best work, that's for sure.