A Parisian Romance

Lew Cody is a rich Parisian baron with a ring of keys; he asks strangers on the street to pick one, notes "Charming" and goes to the apartment's occupant. One of his amours complains he doesn't love her any more. He replies that he never said he did, that he estimated the affair would cost him at least half a million francs, and writes her a check for the difference. Then he meets Marion Shilling, the naive fiancee of Gilbert Roland. He's a poor painter, and knows the Baron's reputation.

It rates to be a cheap, salacious B PreCode, on its surface. but the actual talent is very good. It's a modernized version of a play by Octave Feuillet, a member of the Academie Francaise who died in 1890. Cody plays his role like John Barrymore, the usually mediocre Miss Shilling is excellent until the denouement, and Gilbert is fine. Even Luis Alberni is a rare, serious (if small role) shows he didn't have to do comedy all the time.

I credit the director, Chester Franklin. He was the brother of better-known Sidney Franklin. Together they directed the Fox Kiddie movies until William Fox split them up. While Sidney became one of MGM's major producer-directors, Chester's success was more muted; his directing career would end a few years later, directing a children's movie for RKO. He would die in 1954, aged 63.

I suspect the patience that Franklin needed in directing small children was used in getting a good performance out of Miss Shilling. As for Mr. Cody, he seems an awfully nice guy for a rake. He's very good opposite 6-year-old Cullen Johnson and a frog.