Lucybespro It is a performances centric movie

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Anoushka Slater While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

JohnHowardReid Copyright 3 December 1952 by Warner Bros Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Paramount: 24 December 1952. U.S. release: 3 January 1953. U.K. release: 6 April 1953. Australian release: 29 April 1953. Sydney opening at the Regent. 9,057 feet, 100 minutes. NOTES: Number 42 at Australian ticket windows for 1953. While the film itself did not break into the ranks of the top thirty domestic box-office champions, Doris Day herself was voted number 7 of the nation's money-making stars of 1952 in a poll of all U.S. exhibitors conducted by The Motion Picture Herald. Ray Bolger was often berated by director Butler during shooting for his efforts to crowd Doris Day. Why the egotistic Bolger should try these tricks to overshadow his co-star is a mystery. He is extremely well treated throughout and often seems to be enjoying an undisputed lead. He even has an elaborate special effects solo in which he dances with himself as both a costumed Washington and Grant. COMMENT: Just because a movie was popular in all sections of the community (the carriage trade, the middle classes, the workers), doesn't mean critics have to look for faults. April in Paris far from deserves its so-so critical reputation. For at least three-quarters of the way through, the dialogue is not only bright and snappy with fast, witty comebacks, but even amusingly risqué. It's true the fountain runs a bit dry towards the close, and is therefore replaced by unlikely farce, but even this comparative wasteland is enlivened by a delightfully photographed production number for Doris Day. As for the songs, though they seemed no more than mildly pleasant at the time, they have improved with repetition. What's more, they're colorfully staged. Bolger's comic dancing, lithe and superbly timed, is such a joy, so cleverly choreographed in fact, one wishes there were more. Miss Day herself is a gem, whilst Dauphin makes the ideal spoof of a Frenchman. It all just goes to show how spoilt we were back in 1953. A film as pacy, as superbly photographed and never mind the expense, with the occasional inventive bit of direction, would cause a sensation if newly released today. (And some of the dialogue, amazingly frank for 1952, would also seem right at home).

richard-1787 This is a pleasant but basically forgettable musical from a decade that produced far better. The performers are all talented and have done much better elsewhere; they are not to blame. The script is basically boring, and the title very misleading: only the last 15 minutes or so of the movie takes place in Paris. And when it does, it's all painted backdrops. We never really get to Paris.What I found interesting was the post-WW II notion that Americans are very up-tight, especially sexually, and that a trip to Paris could do wonders to loosen them up. (This idea is well presented in the great 1948 Billy Wilder movie, "A Foreign Affair," though there Paris is not the answer, it's just getting out of the American mindset and encountering Europeans.) One of the bright spots of the movie is Doris Day's dance-and-sing number on the ship, "I'm gonna ring the bell tonight," when she encounters the "joie de vivre" of the French crew on the ocean liner and starts to loosen up herself.Later, there is a decent number with Day and the Frenchman, Philippe Fouquet (Claude Dauphin, playing the role that Georges Guétary had played so much better the year before in "An American in Paris") in which the appeal and disappointments of Paris are sketched out.In sum, this is a pretty forgettable movie: forgettable music, certainly, forgettable dialog mostly (though there are a few nasty lines between Day and her female rival), unremarkable story - you never believe there is any real feeling between Ray Bolger and Day - forgettable if energetic dancing. Coming a year after "An American in Paris" - and no doubt meant to play off the success of that movie - this is pretty much a letdown. Even the scenes of Paris are fake.

moonspinner55 Exceedingly thin Warner Bros. musical, blanketed in tacky lustre and stock footage, involves an inept assistant's assistant in Washington, D.C. who is in charge of sending out the invites to attend a Theatre Arts Festival in Paris, France; somehow, an invitation meant for Ethel Barrymore is sent instead to a chorus girl named Ethel Jackson (nicknamed "Dynamite", though we are never told why). The dancer is promptly uninvited, and then re-invited, by the assistant, who falls in love with her on the ship sailing to Europe. Doris Day, perky as ever, is delightful in her early scenes celebrating with her chorus friends and with the shipboard kitchen crew ("Don't stop!" she tells the fellas, "I'm tickin'!"). Unfortunately, she has to contend with rubber-faced, bug-eyed Ray Bolger in the romance department, and it's all Miss Day can do to keep her spirits up. Bolger never found stardom in the movies sans his Scarecrow character; he does a very fine solo dance routine early on, but otherwise comes across as a joyless sourpuss, snapping at underlings and mugging at the camera (no gentleman would ever try to upstage Doris Day!). Doris sings the title song very prettily, but the other tunes are fairly forgettable. As for the happy ending, I can only hope the filmmakers were joking and that Day's "Dynamite" Jackson lures a replacement suitor aboard the ship heading back to the U.S.A. ** from ****

bkoganbing Doris Day as Ethel 'Dynamite' Jackson gets a letter from the State Department saying that she's been chosen to be an American representative at an Arts Festival in Paris. The letter was supposed to go to Ethel Barrymore instead. Doris had written the State Department about a work permit visa to work at a nightclub in Montreal. It's a faux pas of the highest order that State Department bureaucrat Ray Bolger has committed and he tries to rectify the situation. But when the press gets a hold of it, the thing becomes a popular move. So Bolger's boss Paul Harvey puts him in charge of getting Doris's diplomatic etiquette up to speed. For better or worse Bolger and Day are going to spend April In Paris together. The popular Vernon Duke-E.Y. Harburg standard serves as the title for this film and Warner Brothers got Vernon Duke to write the balance of the score with Sammy Cahn's lyrics. Nothing really outstanding here, but the score fits well with styles of the two leads.Doris is great as always, the problem here is Bolger and the part he plays. Ray Bolger was a great personality on stage who but for two roles never quite was able to translate the same popularity to the big screen. One role was of course the Scarecrow in The Wizard Of Oz and the other was the lead in Charley's Aunt. And both of those were comic parts.As a traditional screen lead Ray never quite made it. In fact in watching April In Paris I couldn't quite see what Doris saw in him. Of course with her attraction it was obvious as Bolger so succinctly put it, 'What a Built'. Ray plays a traditional WASP stuffed shirt diplomat who is engaged to the demanding daughter of Harvey, Eve Miller. Getting involved with Day was not an upward career move.Of course Doris sparks the attention of Claude Dauphin who's working his way back to France on the same ship that Bolger and Day and company are traveling. She has a nice number with Dauphin in a Parisian nightclub.Bolger's big moment on the screen is a very nicely staged fantasy number where portraits of Lincoln and Washington come alive and dance with him as Bolger dreams about his future. It was as creative as something Gene Kelly or Fred Astaire might have done.Still Ray is not quite leading man material and the film can't overcome that. Fans of Doris and Ray will like it though, but I fear it's not one of Doris Day's best films.