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It opens with the future Hopalong Cassidy in imperial uniform, at a diplomatic meeting the Prussian count (William Boyd) is more interested in beauty, namely that of calligraphy and his fiancée (Jetta Goudal). He breaks their engagement upon finding her in an unfaithful embrace, "I had rather marry a woman of the streets." She obliges him in a fit of pique, "I shall avenge this scorn in a woman's way," candidates are considered at Le Chien Qui Fume cabaret. (A close-up of the canine statue with top hat and pipe cranes away to a high-angled view of the Parisian demimonde on a busy evening.) The perfect bride is first seen demurely posing for a portrait, then revealed as the cherry-bomb that is Lupe Vélez in full flight. The charade involves molding the mass of spastic energy into a curtsying debutante, pouring a proper cup of coffee is among the lessons, she balances a coaster on her nose to the vexation of Franklin Pangborn as the etiquette instructor. "You are supposed to be a hostess—not a trained seal!" Not D.W. Griffith's Pygmalion but his Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne, "a rare mud-flower." A brief and continuous passage illustrates the expressive movement at play: The camera tracks behind the nobleman as he sprints toward the balcony, it becomes a POV when he gazes down for an overhead glimpse of a departing carriage, then tilts back up for his reaction as he turns around. The heroine's musical request at the gala ("You Tickle Me, I'll Tickle You") is vetoed in favor of something more solemn, her aching chanson is heard at last by the true beloved in an audience of mirages. The bouquet of roses, discarded, picked up, discarded again, picked up again. "The joke is finished." With George Fawcett, Albert Conti, Henry Armetta, and William Bakewell. In black and white.
--- Fernando F. Croce |