Gold Diggers in Paris (1938)

(On Cable TV, May 2022) The Gold Diggers series had five or six films, depending on whether you consider the silent film part of the series. Given that only a few minutes of the 1923 and 1929 instalments have survived to this day, you can argue that twenty-first century film viewers should consider this a four-film series. No matter the minutia, what’s certain is that Gold Diggers in Paris is the last of the series – and it feels like the least. The 1933 one had some brilliant moments for that era of filmmaking; the 1935 and 1937 ones had Dick Powell and Busby Berkeley. This one? It does have Berkeley helping out on the dance sequences, but not much else. The story is a snooze involving a Parisian cabaret that dispenses with the gentle battle-of-the-sexes (or rather battle-of-the-classes) that had been a gentle but persistent theme of the series so far. Heck, even the female casting feels non-existent. The Parisian sets are unconvincing (despite some stock footage), the novelty Schnickelfritz Band is shoehorned in, and even the climactic Berkeley number feels rote. It’s a bit too well-natured to be dislikable, but Gold Diggers in Paris just feels like a redundant film. One so useless that it killed off a series that went out of steam during its duration. Too bad, because the previous instalments each had their own charm and interest.