La ragazza di Parigi

What works in this movie is the comedy of the four men, especially Jack Oakie but also Micha Auer, Frank Jenks, and Gene Raymond - and, in her soapy dance number, of Lucile Ball. Both when they play swing and when they crack jokes, they're funny, and often very funny. I just watched the movie again on TCM, and I came to the conclusion that this could have been a very fine comedy if Pons and much of her music had been replaced by someone else. But she not only does not add to this picture, her moments on screen often detract. And that is a real shame, because other than her, there is a lot to like here.

I enjoy Pons' operatic recordings, and have most of them, but she doesn't work well in this movie. She had neither the personality nor - to be honest - the looks of Jeannette MacDonald or Grace Moore, and at this point she was still having real problems with the English language. A comedy with a lead who isn't good with the language is a real problem. Contrast her with Herman Bing, who misused English to comic effect, and you see the difference. She was no dancer, at least in this movie, either. Her one real talent, that for which she was famous at the Met, was her high notes.

That causes problems in a movie made for a general audience. She is too often given music to show off her very high notes and her staccati. At the Met audiences appreciate that sort of thing, but it seems misplaced in what was meant to be a general audience movie. She should have been given more lyrical music, less fireworks. Think of Jeannette MacDonald singing "San Francisco" in the movie of the same name, which came out the year before, or Grace Moore singing "Ciriciribin" - much less "Minnie the Moocher" - and you see how such a soprano could have handled pop music effectively. Pons just doesn't seem at ease with it.

It's interesting to see how she performs "Una voce poco fa" in her Met Opera scene. If that's how she did the role on stage, she was not much of an actress even by the operatic standards of her day. She tilts her head to the music, and opens and closes her fan. That's about all there is to it. If you recall Risë Stevens doing the Habanera from Carmen in *Going My Way* you can see that more could have been done to make the scene interesting - if Pons had been willing.

This movie could also have used a better director, to make the comedy scenes even better, or perhaps to have helped Pons do a better job. I suppose RKO was not going to assign one of its better directors to this.

But the basic problem is that Pons was not movie material, at least not for this sort of general audience comedy. She doesn't sink the picture, but she doesn't add anything positive to it, either. On this latest watching, I do really feel that she messed up what could have been a fine film.

Footnote: The year after making this picture, the male lead, Gene Raymond, would marry Jeannette MacDonald, another lyric coloratura who was much better suited to the movies, and much better presented there.