Cinevent's Past notes: A GENTLEMAN OF PARIS

So you want to discuss silent drama, science fiction, horror, noir, mystery and other NON-COMEDY films? Look no further, this is the place.
Richard M Roberts
Godfather
Posts: 2895
Joined: Sun May 31, 2009 6:30 pm

Cinevent's Past notes: A GENTLEMAN OF PARIS

Postby Richard M Roberts » Sat Jun 15, 2013 2:33 pm

Haven't done one of these in awhile. Here's one for the 1927 Adolph Menjou Paramount Comedy:

A GENTLEMAN OF PARIS

I have very mixed emotions about this film. A GENTLEMAN OF PARIS should be one of those glistening bright, Parisian-set, decked-out Adolph Menjou vehicles with silk-clad women and silk-hatted men and everybody being so, so, so darn elegant and certainly the film goes for that, and yet there is a slightly sour undertone to this occasion that either should not be there, or should have been played for all it was worth. It gives one pause, and does not seem to be what the filmmakers intended.

If anyone could make a film about upper-class Paris Society, it was Director Harry d’abbadie d’arrast, born of wealthy parentage in Buenos Aires, Argentina, who got into pictures after being wounded in the French Army during WWI and meeting Director George Fitzmaurice while recuperating in a military hospital. Fitzmaurice invited d’arrast to come to Hollywood after the War, which d’arrast did, first working as a researcher and technical advisor on things Parisian and found work in that capacity on Chaplin’s A WOMAN OF PARIS in 1923. This led to becoming one of Chaplin’s “assistants” on THE GOLD RUSH, which, like other Chaplin assistants like Edward Sutherland and Monta Bell led to other and better things. d’arrast directed his first film for Paramount, SERVICE FOR LADIES starring Adolph Menjou in 1927, and its success brought on this reteaming later in the year.

Menjou plays the Marquis de Marignan, a French Nobleman with a very busy little black book of marrieds and unmarrieds alike. He has promised his future and rather well-off Father-in-Law that he will give up his philandering ways, but unfortunately discovers that one of his latest conquests turns out to be the wife of his Butler (Nicholas Soussasin) who, like most Butlers, really keeps the wheels of the Marquis’s life greased and spinning, as well as knowing where the bodies are buried.

What happens is the fun to come, but be warned, this film still comes off to this writer as somewhat of a missed opportunity. There’s a wonderfully wicked comedy here if the guiding hand were Ernst Lubitsch, or even if the star was Raymond Griffith. Imagine something along the lines of of a Jeeves and Wooster story from Hell where Bertie is not-so-nice an upper-class twit and Jeeves has finally turned on his boss. Perhaps Director d’arrast was a little too ingrained in a culture where it is less of a sin to cheat with someone’s wife than cheat at cards to really look it in the eye. Don’t get me wrong, this is a genteel and pleasant six reels to pass the time, but there was a lot more gold here than actually was mined.

Harry d’arrast was apparently a difficult director, praised for his champagne touch, but also notorious for champagne budgets. A GENTLEMAN OF PARIS seems to be his only surviving silent film, he made four more with titles like THE MAGNIFICENT FLIRT and DRY MARTINI (both 1928), indicating that he continued in the same direction of style. However, d’arrast’s extravagances and inability to adhere to shooting schedules led to his firing from his first sound feature, Samuel Goldwyn’s RAFFLES with Ronald Colman, ironically enough being replaced by the man who had brought him into the business; George Fitzmaurice. d’arrast made LAUGHTER for Paramount in 1930, and it was well received, but he would not make another film for three years, the 1933 RKO film TOPAZE with John Barrymore, which is probably d’arrast’s most well-known film. Giving up on Hollywood, d’arrast made two films in Spain, then gave it all up, preferring to live a life similar to the one he had made movies about, residing in Monte Carlo and living off his family fortune and the roulette tables. He is another of Hollywood’s more colorful characters, but like so many of them, he made his impact with a sadly small filmography.




RICHARD M ROBERTS

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 28 guests