Word: fresnay
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Ludwig Bemelmans, who decorated his own Hapsburg restaurant in Manhattan and writes and illustrates children's books, has furnished colorful, charming, completely fitting scenery for Noah. Some wild, reedy snatches of music by Louis Horst are effective. But without Pierre Fresnay's superb impersonation of Noah himself, the fantasy would collapse...
What story there is to this slim, slight comedy concerns an impoverished French gentleman, a refugee from the Revolution, named Paul (Pierre Fresnay). Turning adventurer, he picks up a virginal chanteuse, takes her across the Channel to Brighton. It is 1811; Brummell struts at Bath; in & out of prim Adam houses parades the world of fashion; Guardsmen wear tight breeches; George IV is Regent. Paul's plan is to marry off his Melanie (small, saucy Yvonne Printemps) to a highborn tripper, thereby assuring himself a pension. The Regent himself asks Melanie to a souper à deux. The choleric Earl...
Mile Printemps, making her first U. S. appearance since 1926 in the first English-speaking part she ever attempted, gives Mr. Coward's little tale her best. She trills four of the seven songs, trips lightly up & down the stage in flat heels and Lanvin costumes. Unlike Pierre Fresnay. who holds the record for the greatest number of performances in Musset and for speaking better English than any other French actor, Mile Printemps does not always articulate the graceful Coward lyrics sufficiently to make them intelligible. But she and M. Fresnay provide an agreeable, if not an eventful, evening...