By Frank Miller
Good Girls Go to Paris
Brief Synopsis
An English professor helps a waitress take a dream vacation in Paris.
Cast & Crew
Read More
Alexander Hall
Director
Melvyn Douglas
Ronald Brooke
Joan Blondell
Jenny Swanson
Walter Connolly
Olaf Brand
Alan Curtis
Tom Brand
Joan Perry
Sylvia Brand
Film Details
Genre
Comedy
Release Date
Jun
30,
1939
Premiere Information
New York opening: week of 23 Jun 1939
Production Company
Columbia Pictures Corp. of California, Ltd.
Distribution Company
Columbia Pictures Corp. of California, Ltd.
Country
United States
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 15m
Sound
Mono
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
8 reels
Synopsis
Ronald Brooke, an English exchange professor at a Midwestern college, is astounded at waitress Jenny Swanson, whose ambition is to gold-dig her way to Paris. Jenny begins to realize her dream when Ted Dayton, the son of a millionaire, hits her with his car and she entices him into a marriage proposal. When her conscience prevents her from going through with a breach of promise suit, Ronnie counsels her that good girls go to Paris too, and then informs her that he is leaving town to marry Sylvia Brand. Jenny, under orders from Mr. Dayton, must leave town also, and en route to New York, she meets Tom Brand, the spendthrift grandson of millionaire Olaf Brand and brother of Sylvia. Upon reaching New York, Tom and Jenny go nightclubbing, where Jenny learns that Sylvia is in love with Dennis Jeffers, the butler's son, but fears that her grandfather will disinherit her if they marry. That night, Tom becomes so drunk that Jenny takes him home to the Brand mansion, where she meets Tom's mother Caroline, who introduces Jenny to the irascible Olaf as Sylvia's roommate. Olaf welcomes Jenny into the house when she prescribes old Swedish remedies for his imagined ills, and soon she gets Tom out of a jam involving a gambling debt. She also ruins the plans of gigolo Paul Kingston, who intends to attach himself to the Brand millions by romancing Caroline. After Jenny prods Sylvia into admitting her love for Dennis, Ronnie proposes to Jenny, promising her a honeymoon in Paris.
Director
Alexander Hall
Director
Cast
Melvyn Douglas
Ronald Brooke
Joan Blondell
Jenny Swanson
Walter Connolly
Olaf Brand
Alan Curtis
Tom Brand
Joan Perry
Sylvia Brand
Isabel Jeans
Caroline Brand
Stanley Brown
Ted Dayton
Alexander D'arcy
Paul Kingston
Henry Hunter
Dennis [Jeffers]
Clarence Kolb
Dayton, Sr.
Howard Hickman
Jeffers
Richard Fiske
Robert Sterling
Beatrice Curtis
Leon Belasco
Barlow Borland
Crew
Lionel Banks
Art Director
Al Clark
Film Editor
Lenore Coffee
Original Story
William Joyce Cowen
Original Story
Ken Englund
Screenwriter
Henry Freulich
Photography
Jack Goodrich
Sound Recording
Kalloch
Gowns
Gladys Lehman
Screenwriter
William Mull
Assistant Director
William Perlberg
Producer
M. W. Stoloff
Music Director
Film Details
Genre
Comedy
Release Date
Jun
30,
1939
Premiere Information
New York opening: week of 23 Jun 1939
Production Company
Columbia Pictures Corp. of California, Ltd.
Distribution Company
Columbia Pictures Corp. of California, Ltd.
Country
United States
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 15m
Sound
Mono
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
8 reels
Articles
Good Girls Go to Paris
Feeling she was going nowhere at Warner Bros., Joan Blondell left the studio in 1939 to freelance. For her first film at Columbia, and the first of two with director Alexander Hall and leading man Melvyn Douglas, she entered screwball territory as a waitress out to get to Paris any way she can. When her conscience keeps her from blackmailing a wealthy young man from the nearby college, she takes on the problems of a wealthy New York family, learning that, as her friend college professor Douglas had counseled her, "Good girls go to Paris, too." That was the film's original title before the Production Code deemed it too suggestive, so Columbia simply dropped the last word. Blondell was filling in for Jean Arthur, for whom the studio had bought Lenore J. Coffee and William J. Cowen's story "Miss Aesop Butters Her Bread." Blondell and Douglas prove an amiable team, with strong support from Walter Connolly as an irascible old tycoon, Isabel Jeans as his flighty daughter-in-law, Alexander D'Arcy as a fortune hunter and Clarence Kolb as the temperamental father of one of Blondell's marks. Look closely to spot Dorothy Comingore as Blondell's boss and Robert Sterling as a student.
By Frank Miller
By Frank Miller
Good Girls Go to Paris
Feeling she was going nowhere at Warner Bros., Joan Blondell left the studio in 1939 to freelance. For her first film at Columbia, and the first of two with director Alexander Hall and leading man Melvyn Douglas, she entered screwball territory as a waitress out to get to Paris any way she can. When her conscience keeps her from blackmailing a wealthy young man from the nearby college, she takes on the problems of a wealthy New York family, learning that, as her friend college professor Douglas had counseled her, "Good girls go to Paris, too." That was the film's original title before the Production Code deemed it too suggestive, so Columbia simply dropped the last word. Blondell was filling in for Jean Arthur, for whom the studio had bought Lenore J. Coffee and William J. Cowen's story "Miss Aesop Butters Her Bread." Blondell and Douglas prove an amiable team, with strong support from Walter Connolly as an irascible old tycoon, Isabel Jeans as his flighty daughter-in-law, Alexander D'Arcy as a fortune hunter and Clarence Kolb as the temperamental father of one of Blondell's marks. Look closely to spot Dorothy Comingore as Blondell's boss and Robert Sterling as a student.
By Frank Miller
Quotes
Trivia
Originally titled "Good Girls Go To Paris, Too," but the censors objected.
Notes
According to a pre-production news item in Hollywood Reporter, Jean Arthur was slated to star in this picture. The item also noted that Boyce De Gaw and Isabel Dawn were to have written it, but they are not credited on screen, in Screen Achievements Bulletin or in reviews. The Variety review notes that this was Joan Blondell's first film for Columbia.
