Rich, Young And Pretty (1951)

A Texas rancher (Wendell Corey) is hesitant about taking his daughter (Jane Powell) to Paris on a business trip. The girl thinks her mother (Danielle Darrieux) died when she was two but in reality, she's a nightclub chanteuse living in Paris. Directed by Norman Taurog (BOYS TOWN). Danielle Darrieux is one of the great stars of French cinema but she didn't have much luck with her rare forays to Hollywood. They kept putting her in fluff like THE RAGE OF PARIS and this charmless musical (she had better luck the following year with a good role in 20th Century Fox's 5 FINGERS). Perhaps she liked the idea of being in an MGM musical. The songs by Nicholas Brodszky and Sammy Cahn aren't much though one of them, Wonder Why got a best song Oscar nomination. It's nice to look at in all its candy colored Technicolor glory and it does try to sparkle but it has all the fizz of a glass of champagne that has been sitting too long. We know how it's going to end long before the final fadeout. With Fernando Lamas, Vic Damone, Una Merkel, Marcel Dalio and Richard Anderson.