"Paris Honeymoon" is an above-average Bing Crosby musical. Bing plays a superstitious Texas gambler, engaged to marry a European countess (Shirley Ross). They're planning a Paris honeymoon ... but first Bing needs his good-luck charm: a horseshoe from a left hind hoof. While Bing's valet goes hoof-hunting, Bing takes a wrong turn in the Pyrenees and meets a pair of knees attached to Franciska Gaal.
Hungarian actress Gaal was discovered by Paramount and given the movie-star build-up in three Hollywood films. ("Paris Honeymoon" is her best and last Paramount movie.) She's incredibly annoying in this film, as a peasant girl who latches onto Bing and tries to woo him away from Shirley Ross.
The supporting cast are excellent. Edward Everett Horton gives his usual superb performance as Bing's hoof-hunting valet, a bit more "nelly" than usual. Akim Tamiroff is amusing as a crooked politician promoting a soft drink called "Karloca-Cola". Ben Blue plays a Harpo Marx-like European village idiot, remarkably similar to the role Harpo Marx played in "Two Many Kisses". Like Harpo in that film, Ben Blue here is almost entirely mute, but he spoils the effect when he speaks. "Paris Honeymoon" features a gag sequence with a slot machine that pays out jelly beans to everyone else, but which pays out cash jackpots to Ben Blue: this is very similar to Harpo's slot-machine routine a few years earlier in "Horse Feathers".
The funniest scene in this film occurs when Bing disguises himself as a ghostly head without a body, hoping to scare away Franciska Gaal. (Of course, Bing sings "I Ain't Got No Body".) The songs and production numbers in this film are just a notch below first-rate. The only fly in the paprika is Franciska Gaal, who was strictly from Hungary and went back there after this movie.
Hungarian actress Gaal was discovered by Paramount and given the movie-star build-up in three Hollywood films. ("Paris Honeymoon" is her best and last Paramount movie.) She's incredibly annoying in this film, as a peasant girl who latches onto Bing and tries to woo him away from Shirley Ross.
The supporting cast are excellent. Edward Everett Horton gives his usual superb performance as Bing's hoof-hunting valet, a bit more "nelly" than usual. Akim Tamiroff is amusing as a crooked politician promoting a soft drink called "Karloca-Cola". Ben Blue plays a Harpo Marx-like European village idiot, remarkably similar to the role Harpo Marx played in "Two Many Kisses". Like Harpo in that film, Ben Blue here is almost entirely mute, but he spoils the effect when he speaks. "Paris Honeymoon" features a gag sequence with a slot machine that pays out jelly beans to everyone else, but which pays out cash jackpots to Ben Blue: this is very similar to Harpo's slot-machine routine a few years earlier in "Horse Feathers".
The funniest scene in this film occurs when Bing disguises himself as a ghostly head without a body, hoping to scare away Franciska Gaal. (Of course, Bing sings "I Ain't Got No Body".) The songs and production numbers in this film are just a notch below first-rate. The only fly in the paprika is Franciska Gaal, who was strictly from Hungary and went back there after this movie.