Paramount on Parade (1930)
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6% want to see it
(209 ratings)
Considered the best of the all-star "studio" musicals of 1929 and 1930, Paramount on Parade utilized the talents of practically everyone on the Paramount Pictures payroll. Under the supervision of British musical-comedy favorite Elsie Janis, 11 top directors contributed to the project:… More Considered the best of the all-star "studio" musicals of 1929 and 1930, Paramount on Parade utilized the talents of practically everyone on the Paramount Pictures payroll. Under the supervision of British musical-comedy favorite Elsie Janis, 11 top directors contributed to the project: Dorothy Arzner, Otto Brower, Edmund Goulding, Victor Heerman, Edwin H. Knopf, Rowland V. Lee, Ernst Lubitsch, Lothar Mendes, Victor Schertzinger, Edward Sutherland and Frank Tuttle. Introduced by masters of ceremonies Jack Oakie, Skeets Gallegher and Leon Errol, the film is a vaudeville-like maelstrom of musical duets, comedy sketches, occasional dramatic interludes, and spectacular production numbers. To mention all the highlights would take a book in itself but among them are Nancy Carroll's rendition of "Dancing to Save Your Sole" (performed inside a giant shoe!); Maurice Chevalier (and chorus) soaring heavenward in "Sweeping the Clouds Away" ; child actress Mitzi Green's dead-on impersonations of Chevalier, George Arliss, Moran & Mack and Helen "Boop-a-doop" Kane; Ernst Lubitsch's witty staging of an Apache dance in the style of a polite boudoir farce, with Chevalier (again) and Evelyn Brent; Clara Bow's saucy "I'm True to the Navy Now" ; the wish-fulfillment sketch "Impulses," in which George Bancroft and Kay Francis delightedly upset a dinner party by saying what's really on their minds; and best of all, "Murder Will Out," a murder-mystery parody wherein Fu Manchu (Warner Oland) bumps off Sherlock Holmes (Clive Brook) and Philo Vance (William Powell) when they refuse to give him proper credit for his killing of Jack Oakie. Only the dramatic sketch with Frederic March and Ruth Chatterton truly creaks when seen today. Originally released at 102 minutes, Paramount on Parade is presently available only in an 80-minute version, with all its Technicolor sequences missing: casualties include the elaborate "Drink to the Girl of My Dreams" number, directed by Edmund Goulding and featuring Gary Cooper, Jean Arthur and Fay Wray, and Harry Green's dialect song "Isadore the Toreodor". ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Directed By
- Dorothy Arzner
- Genres
- Musical & Performing Arts
Unrated,
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Cast
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Maurice Chevalier
as Guest Star
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Richard Arlen
as Guest Star
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Jean Arthur
as Guest Star
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Gary Cooper
as Guest Star
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Clara Bow
as Guest Star
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William Austin
as Guest Star
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Jack Oakie
as Guest Star
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George Bancroft
as Guest Star
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Evelyn Brent
as Guest Star
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Mary Brian
as Guest Star
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Clive Brook
as Himself and Sherlock Holmes
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Virginia Bruce
as Guest
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Nancy Carroll
as Guest Star
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Ruth Chatterton
as Guest
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Leon Errol
as Guest Star
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Stuart Erwin
as Guest Star
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Kay Francis
as Guest Star
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Harry Green
as Guest Star
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Mitzi Green
as Guest Star
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James Hall
as Guest Star
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Phillips Holmes
as Guest Star
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Helen Kane
as Guest Star
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Dennis King
as Guest Star
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Fredric March
as Guest Star
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Nino Martini
as Guest Star
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Warner Oland
as Fu Manchu, Himself
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Zelma O'Neal
as Guest Star
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Eugene Pallette
as Himself, Sgt. Heath
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Joan Peers
as Guest Star
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William Powell
as Himself, Philo Vance
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Lillian Roth
as Guest Star
- Stanley Smith
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Iris Adrian
as Guest Star
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Mischa Auer
as Guest Star
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Cecil Cunningham
as Guest Star
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Henry Fink
as Guest Star
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Richard 'Skeets' Gallagher
as Guest Star
- Robert Greig
- Jack Luden
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David Newell
as Guest Star
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Russell Powell
as Guest Star
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Jackie Searl
as Guest Star
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Rolfe Sedan
as Guest Star
- Abe Lyman & Band
- Jack Pennick
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Charles 'Buddy' Rogers
as Guest Star
