View source for Paramount on Parade

{{short description|1930 pre-Code revue film}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2020}}
{{Infobox film
| name           = Paramount on Parade
| image          = Paramount-on-Parade-1930-LC.jpg
| caption        = [[Warner Oland]], [[Clive Brook]], [[William Powell]] and [[Eugene Pallette]] in the "Murder Will Out" sequence
| director       = [[Edmund Goulding]] and 10 other directors
| producer       = [[Jesse L. Lasky]]<br>[[Adolph Zukor]]<br>Albert S. Kaufman<br>[[Elsie Janis]]<br>[[B. P. Schulberg]]
| writer         = [[Joseph L. Mankiewicz]]
| starring       = [[Jean Arthur]]<br>[[Richard Arlen]]<br>[[George Bancroft (actor)|George Bancroft]]<br>[[Clara Bow]]<br>[[Evelyn Brent]]<br>[[Mary Brian]]<br>[[Nancy Carroll]]<br>[[Leon Errol]]<br>[[Maurice Chevalier]]<br>[[Gary Cooper]]<br>[[Kay Francis]]<br>[[Richard "Skeets" Gallagher]]<br>[[James Hall (actor)|James Hall]]<br>[[Helen Kane]]<br>[[Fredric March]]<br>[[Nino Martini]]<br>[[Jack Oakie]]<br>[[William Powell]]<br>[[Charles "Buddy" Rogers]]<br>[[Lillian Roth]]<br>[[Fay Wray]]
| music          = Harold Jackson<br>[[Richard A. Whiting]]<br>[[Elsie Janis]]<br>[[Ballard MacDonald]]
| cinematography = [[Victor Milner]]<br>[[Harry Fischbeck]]
| editing        = [[Merrill G. White]]
| distributor    = [[Paramount Pictures]]
| released       = {{film date|1930|4|22}}
| runtime        = 102 minutes 
| country        = United States
| language       = English}}

'''''Paramount on Parade''''' is a 1930 all-star American [[Pre-Code Hollywood|pre-Code]] [[revue]] released by [[Paramount Pictures]], directed by several directors including [[Edmund Goulding]], [[Dorothy Arzner]], [[Ernst Lubitsch]], [[Rowland V. Lee]], [[A. Edward Sutherland]], [[Lothar Mendes]], [[Otto Brower]], [[Edwin H. Knopf]], [[Frank Tuttle]], and [[Victor Schertzinger]]—all supervised by the production supervisor, singer, actress, and songwriter [[Elsie Janis]].

Featured stars included [[Jean Arthur]], [[Richard Arlen]], [[Clara Bow]], [[Evelyn Brent]], [[Charles "Buddy" Rogers]], [[Jack Oakie]], [[Helen Kane]], [[Maurice Chevalier]], [[Nancy Carroll]], [[George Bancroft (actor)|George Bancroft]], [[Kay Francis]], [[Richard "Skeets" Gallagher]], [[Gary Cooper]], [[Fay Wray]], [[Lillian Roth]] and other Paramount stars. The screenplay was written by [[Joseph L. Mankiewicz]], produced by [[Adolph Zukor]] and [[Jesse L. Lasky]], with cinematography by [[Victor Milner]] and [[Harry Fischbeck]].

==Production==
''Paramount on Parade'', released on April 22, 1930, was Paramount's answer to all-star revues like ''[[Hollywood Revue of 1929]]'' from [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]], ''[[The Show of Shows]]'' from [[Warner Bros.]], and ''[[King of Jazz]]'' from [[Universal Pictures|Universal Studios]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021232/ |title=Paramount on Parade|website=IMDb.com|access-date=February 6, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/500685/paramount-on-parade |title=Paramount on Parade (1930) - Overview |website=Turner Classic Movies |access-date=February 6, 2016}}</ref> The film had 20 individual segments—several of them in two-color [[Technicolor]] — directed by 11 directors, and almost every star on the Paramount roster except [[Claudette Colbert]] and the [[Marx Brothers]]. (Colbert became a star in May 1930 with the release of ''[[The Big Pond]]'', also with Chevalier and also released in a French-language version.) [[Cecil B. DeMille]] was also not involved in the revue as he had moved to [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]] in 1928 and would not return until 1932 to direct ''[[The Sign of the Cross (1932 film)|The Sign of the Cross]]''.<ref>[[Stanley Green (historian)|Green, Stanley]] (1999) Hollywood Musicals Year by Year (2nd ed.), pub. Hal Leonard Corporation {{ISBN|0-634-00765-3}} page 12</ref>
 
===International versions===
Paramount also produced a [[Spanish language|Spanish-language]] version titled ''Galas de la Paramount'' starring [[Barry Norton]], [[Ramon Pereda]] and [[Rosita Moreno]]; a [[French language|French-language]] version, ''Paramount en parade'', directed by [[Charles de Rochefort]]; and a [[Romanian language|Romanian-language]] version ''Parada Paramount'' (Chevalier and [[Nino Martini|Martini]] also starred in the French version, and Romanian actress [[Pola Illéry]] starred in the Romanian version). There was also a Dutch version, ''Paramount op Parade'' with [[Theo Frenkel]], and a Scandinavian version starring [[Ernst Rolf]] and his wife, [[Tutta Rolf]].

==Preservation status==
[[File:Technicolor ad - Motion Picture, July 1930.jpg|thumb|260px|''Paramount on Parade'' featured in a 1930 advertisement for [[Technicolor]]]]
The film, including some of its Technicolor sequences, has been restored by the [[UCLA Film and Television Archive]]. The original title sequence and chorus girl number immediately following it, however, are still lost. The sound for two of the Technicolor sequences ("Gallows Song" and "Dream Girl") are also missing.

According to Robert Gitt, film archivist now retired from UCLA, in a lecture at  [[Pacific Film Archive]] at [[University of California, Berkeley|UC Berkeley]], the film was also released with [[sound-on-disc]] for those theaters not equipped for [[sound-on-film]]. The archive had a report of the soundtrack for this film still existing on disc until the [[1994 Northridge earthquake]] destroyed a set of discs that a collector was planning to donate.

In August 2010, CapitolFest in Rome, New York showed a 102-minute version restored by UCLA Film and Television Archive. Some sequences are still missing the sound, for some sequences only the soundtrack exists.

==List of sequences==
* "Title Sequence" during Credits with [[Kay Francis]] and [[George Bancroft (actor)|George Bancroft]] (lost footage; only sound survives)<ref name="google1">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P_ODoCwz2EsC&pg=PA188 |title=Evelyn Brent: The Life and Films of Hollywood's Lady Crook|page=188 |author1=Lynn Kear |author2=James King |date=July 31, 2009 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=9780786454686|access-date=February 6, 2016}}</ref>
* "Showgirls on Parade" with [[Mitzi Mayfair]] (lost Technicolor footage; only sound survives)<ref name="google1"/>
* "We're the Masters of Ceremony" [[Jack Oakie]], [[Richard "Skeets" Gallagher]], and [[Leon Errol]] introduce themselves as [[master of ceremonies|MC]]'s of the film
* "Love Time" [[Charles "Buddy" Rogers]] and [[Lillian Roth]]
* "Murder Will Out" [[William Powell]], [[Clive Brook]], [[Warner Oland]], [[Eugene Pallette]], and Oakie
* "Origin of the Apache" [[Maurice Chevalier]] and [[Evelyn Brent]] do a parody of an [[Apache (dance)|Apache dance]]
* "Song of the Gondolier" [[Nino Martini]] sings "Come Back to Sorrento" (Technicolor; survives complete)
* "In a Hospital" Leon Errol, [[Jean Arthur]], [[Phillips Holmes]], and David Newell
* "In a Girl's Gym" Jack Oakie, and [[Zelma O'Neal]]
* "The Toreador" [[Kay Francis]] and Harry Green (as Isadore the Toreador) parody ''[[Carmen (opera)|Carmen]]'' (Technicolor; survives complete)
* "The Montmartre Girl" [[Ruth Chatterton]], [[Stu Erwin]], [[Fredric March]], [[Stanley Smith (actor)|Stanley Smith]], [[Jack Pennick]]
* "Park in Paris" [[Maurice Chevalier]]
* "Mitzi Herself" [[Mitzi Green]]
* "The Schoolroom" [[Helen Kane]], Mitzi Green. Kane sings "What Did Cleopatra Say?" to her class
* "The Gallows Song" Skeets Gallagher and [[Dennis King (actor)|Dennis King]] (Technicolor footage survives; sound missing, current prints use King's commercial vocal recording of the song.)<ref name="google1"/>
* "Dance Mad" [[Nancy Carroll]] and [[Abe Lyman]]'s Band
* "Dream Girl" [[Richard Arlen]], [[Jean Arthur]], [[Mary Brian]], [[James Hall (actor)|James Hall]], [[Gary Cooper]], and [[Fay Wray]] sing "Let Us Drink To The Girl Of My Dreams" (Technicolor footage survives; sound missing)<ref name="google1"/>
* "The Redhead" [[Clara Bow]], and 42 Navy men sing "True to the Navy"
* "Impulses" [[George Bancroft (actor)|George Bancroft]], Kay Francis, and [[Cecil Cunningham]]
* "Rainbow Revels" finale Chevalier and girls' chorus (including [[Iris Adrian]] and [[Virginia Bruce]]) sing "Sweeping the Clouds Away" (in Technicolor; survives only in black-and-white)<ref name="google1"/>

==Foreign-language versions==
A large number of [[foreign-language version]]s were shot including:

* ''Galas de Paramount'' (Spanish) premiered in [[New York City|New York]] in early August, 1930, in [[Buenos Aires]] August 28, 1930 and in [[Los Angeles]] September 7, 1930; with [[Ramón Pereda]], [[Barry Norton]], [[Rosita Moreno]] as hosts to sequences from the original version and new sequences featuring [[Juan Pulido]], [[Ernesto Vilches]], [[Albertina Rasch]] as well as  [[Nino Martini]] and [[Mitzi Green]] in both new and original-version segments.
* ''Paramount en parade'' (French) with [[Maurice Chevalier]], [[Nino Martini]], [[Jeanette MacDonald]], Saint-Granier, [[Marguerite Moreno]], [[Louis-Jacques Boucot]], Fanny Clair, and [[Charles de Rochefort]] (Rochefort also directed)
* ''Parada Paramount'' (Romanian) with [[Pola Illéry]]; directed by Rochefort
* ''Paramount op Parade'' (Dutch) with [[Theo Frenkel|Theo Frenkel Jr.]], Mien Duymaer van Twist, and Louis Davids; directed by Job Weening

At Paramount's Hollywood studio, [[Ernst Rolf]] and his Norwegian wife, [[Tutta Rolf]], filmed introductions and sequences for the Scandinavian version. Japanese comedian Suisei Matsui introduced the film in Japan. [[Mira Zimińska]] and Mariusz Maszynski appeared in the Polish version, and Dina Gralla and Eugen Rex appeared in the German version. Paramount filmed most of the above versions, along with Czech, Hungarian, Serbian, and Italian versions, at their [[Joinville-le-Pont|Joinville Studios]] in Paris.

==See also==
*[[List of early color feature films]]
*[[Multiple-language version]]
*''[[The House That Shadows Built]]'' (1931 promotional film released by Paramount)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090808101425/http://geocities.com/fredric_march2/paramountonparade2.html ''Paramount on Parade'' at Fredric March Filmography]
* [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0191340/ ''Paramount en Parade'' (French language version) at IMDB]
* {{AFI film|785|Galas de la Paramount}}


{{Edmund Goulding}}
{{Ernst Lubitsch}}
{{Lothar Mendes}}
{{Frank Tuttle}}
{{A. Edward Sutherland}}
{{Dorothy Arzner}}
{{Rowland V. Lee}}
{{Otto Brower}}
{{Victor Schertzinger}}
{{Victor Heerman}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paramount on Parade}}
[[Category:1930 films]]
[[Category:1930 musical films]]
[[Category:1930s color films]]
[[Category:American musical films]]
[[Category:1930s English-language films]]
[[Category:Film revues]]
[[Category:Films directed by A. Edward Sutherland]]
[[Category:Films directed by Dorothy Arzner]]
[[Category:Films directed by Edmund Goulding]]
[[Category:Films directed by Edwin H. Knopf]]
[[Category:Films directed by Ernst Lubitsch]]
[[Category:Films directed by Frank Tuttle]]
[[Category:Films directed by Otto Brower]]
[[Category:Films directed by Rowland V. Lee]]
[[Category:Films directed by Victor Heerman]]
[[Category:Films directed by Victor Schertzinger]]
[[Category:Films produced by B. P. Schulberg]]
[[Category:American multilingual films]]
[[Category:Paramount Pictures films]]
[[Category:Films with screenplays by Joseph L. Mankiewicz]]
[[Category:American black-and-white films]]
[[Category:1930 multilingual films]]
[[Category:Early color films]]
[[Category:1930s American films]]
[[Category:English-language musical films]]