Gold Diggers in Paris is indeed the last installment in the Warner Brothers "Gold Diggers" series of films--and not a moment too soon! Yes, the film has quite a few good musical numbers and the acting is rather good; but that slapstick "Schnickelfritz Band" and Rudy Vallée's stiffness when he sings the opening number bring the film down to some degree.
When the action starts, we see that a New York City nightclub run by Terry Moore (Rudy Vallée) and Duke Dennis (Allen Jenkins) is a miserable financial flop. They even tell the help (Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson plays the doorman) to tell arriving customers to go away! Suddenly, a naïve Frenchman arrives at their club to invite them to participate in a fancy dance competition in Paris. Little does the Frenchman know that he has accidentally mistaken Terry, Duke and the young ladies who dance in the New York City nightclub for the Academy Ballet of America run by the great Padrinsky (Curt Bois)! Terry and Duke need the money so bad that they decide to go to France even though they know they'll be masquerading as the Academy Ballet of America.
Soon they're all on a ship bound for Paris--along with Mona, Terry's ex-wife who connives her way onboard in exchange for forgiveness on Terry's back alimony payments. Terry and Mona are divorced but Mona sticks around to make sure she'll get a part in the show when they get to Paris. All of this is unknown to Kay Morrow (Rosemary Lane), a very pretty dancer in the New York nightclub who strikes up a romance with Terry onboard the ship to France. Complications arise, of course, when Padrinsky and his Academy Ballet of America discover that the group bound for France is merely pretending to be them! Padrinsky immediately goes to Paris with his troupe--taking along with him his ballet-loving gangster buddy, Mike Coogan (Edward Brophy).
But questions remain unanswered. What will happen to Terry, Duke and their crew of young ladies if or when they are discovered as frauds? Will Padrinsky succeed in his efforts to replace them? What about Kay and Terry--will Kay forgive Terry for not telling her about his past marriage to Mona? No plot spoilers here--watch the movie and find out!
The film has fine musical numbers by Rudy Vallée even if he is a bit stiff when he sings, ""I Wanna Go Back to Bali." The finale is a wonderful feast for the eyes; Busby Berkeley did a great job of choreographing this elaborate sequence; and I'm sure you'll enjoy it. The DVD also comes with three extras; I especially liked the Merrie Melodies cartoon about Cinderella and the short about actors racing to get silly photographs of themselves is also very well done. Look for a very young Phil Silvers who acts wonderfully.
Overall, Gold Diggers In Paris deserves to be the last in the "Gold Diggers" series of films. It's probably the weakest "Gold Diggers" film; I missed seeing the actors from the other "Gold Diggers" films. In addition, "The Schnickelfritz Band" wears on me real quick. Nevertheless, the film does entertain--it's just that it doesn't entertain as well as its predecessors did. It is worth watching; but maybe you should see this one on a rainy day when nothing else is on TV.
Three and one-half stars.