50 Million Frenchmen

50 Million Frenchmen (1931)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Your tolerance level of Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson will certainly determine how much you enjoy this comedy from director Lloyd Bacon. In the film they play two dumb Americans who find themselves in Paris trying to track down a certain woman. Along the way they manage to drive many people crazy including the viewers of the film. 50 MILLION FRENCHMEN is a pretty bad movie on several levels. I understand that comedy is very subjective but the Olsen and Johnson routine just didn't win me over here. In fact, I thought it was quite annoying at times and especially the Johnson laugh, which just made me want to throw myself in front of a moving bus. Even if you do enjoy their routine you're still going to be left with a rather poorly made movie. This was one of those early talkies where it's clear that most of the people involved just didn't know what they were doing yet. Just check out the opening scene with the woman and watch her performance. She's all over the place and appears to be looking off camera at the director trying to get some sort of help. Others throughout the cast also appears to be struggling in front of the camera but it doesn't stop here because the cinematography is bad and the entire film just has a very cheap look. Bela Lugosi fans might want to skip through some of the film to find his uncredited performance. It's funny to note that this film opened the same date as Dracula.