Artists and Models Abroad
Cast & Crew
Mitchell Leisen
Jack Benny
Joan Bennett
Mary Boland
Fritz Feld
Phyllis Kennedy
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Patricia Harper, daughter of Texas oil man and millionaire James Harper, is vacationing with her Aunt Isabel Channing in Paris. There she dines with her fiancé, Eliott Winthrop, who is soon to be an important diplomat. Bored by Eliott's snobby friends, Pat joins an American theatrical troupe led by Buck Boswell that is stranded in Paris. After faking an attempt at suicide so the troupe can flee a hotel, Pat and her father sleep with the troupe backstage at the Exposition Internationale, which will feature a pageant of the history of the feminine arts. After Buck convinces a group of Russian models that they are too late for the dress rehearsal, his troupe becomes part of the show. When Pat admires a necklace on loan from the French government that Napoleon gave to Josephine, James steals it in order to get it copied. The police arrive and the troupe flees to the Royal Carlton, where Pat gets them a suite. When Eliott discovers James's and Pat's picture in the paper as Russian impostors, Pat shamefully quits the troupe. Buck believes Pat and James are indigent and so proposes to Pat in order to keep her off the streets, but she declines, keeping her identity a mystery. James then hides the copied jewels in Buck's drawer, and when Buck discovers them he deems James a thief. Gantvoort, a Dutch businessman, then arrives to secure James' sale of his oil lands to him, and Buck tears up the contract, insisting James is a crook. Buck then returns the necklace, and the authorities discover it is a fake and imprison Buck and the troupe, releasing them only so that Buck can lead them to the real jewels. At the Cafe Trocadero, all converge, and after the necklace is shot out of a cannon, Buck retrieves it and James explains his intentions and his real identity. Buck is absolved of guilt and deported along with his troupe, and James thanks Buck for saving his oil fields, which have recently increased in value. As they leave Paris, Buck and Pat make plans to marry.
Director
Mitchell Leisen
Cast
Jack Benny
Joan Bennett
Mary Boland
Fritz Feld
Phyllis Kennedy
Monty Woolley
George P. Huntley
Joyce Compton
The Yacht Club Boys
Adrienne D'ambricourt
Andre Cheron
Jules Raucourt
Georges Renavent
Chester Clute
Alex Melesh
Dolores Casey
Sheila Darcy
Yvonne Duval
Marie De Forest
Gwen Kenyon
Joyce Mathews
Mary Parker
Nicholas Soussanin
Francisco Maran
Louis Mercier
Louis Van Den Ecker
Charles De Ravenne
Joseph Romantini
Robert Du Couedic
Eddie Davis
Alphonse Martell
Ray De Ravenne
Arthur Dulac
Armand Kaliz
George Kerebel
Saverio Rinaldo
Gennaro Curci
Jean Perry
Constant Franke
Paul Cremonesi
Robert Graves
Eugene Beday
George Davis
Paco Moreno
Jacques Vanaire
Eugene Borden
Fred Cavens
Manuel Paris
Jean De Briac
Fred Malatesta
David Mir
Georges De Gombert
Ferdinand Schumann-heink
Ken Gibson
Joseph De Beauvolers
Martial De Serrand
Paul Bryar
Peter Camlin
Ed Agresti
Andre Marsaudon
Roque Guinart
William Emile
Cliff Nazarro
Jack Chefe
Albert D'arno
Harry Lamont
Maurice Brierre
Tony Merlo
Linda Yale
Donald Boucher
George Calliga
Marie Burton
Paula De Cardo
Carol Parker
Helaine Moler
Evelyn Keyes
Laurie Lane
Norah Gale
Maria Doray
Ethel Clayton
Crew
Adlerberg
Agnès
Alix
Annek
Russel Crouse
Hans Dreier
Farciot Edouart
Ken Englund
Ernst Fegté
Lillian Fischer
Arthur Franklin
A. E. Freudeman
Richard Harlan
Doane Harrison
Edith Head
Charles Hisserich
Arthur Hornblow Jr.
Don Johnson
Lanvin
William Lebaron
[lucien] Lelong
Howard Lindsay
Howard Lindsay
Margot
J. P. Mcevoy
Boris Morros
Paquin
Patou
Leroy Prinz
Ralph Rainger
Leo Robin
Jack Rock
Maggy Rouff
Schiaparelli
Suzy
Max Terr
Ted Tetzlaff
The Yacht Club Boys
Worth
Adolph Zukor
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
This film is a sequel to Artists and Models. Press material states that Paramount's "stock girls," models Joyce Mathews, Yvonne Duval, Gwen Kenyon, Sheila Darcy, Mary "Punkins" Parker, Marie De Forest and Dolores Casey, were called the "Seven Cinderellas." In a modern source, Leisen states that he sent a woman to Paris to supervise the dress-making by the famous French couturiers. Along with Patou, Leisen lists Chanel, Mainboucher, and Molyneux, all three of whom were not credited on the film. When Leisen's envoy returned to the U.S. with the dresses, Leisen chose models that fitted them as closely as possible. One Alix white jersey, he notes, was worn by "Kansas" [Marie De Forest], who was the only model skinny enough to fit into it. Leisen says he designed Mary Parker's dress, which she later copied in black for her nightclub shows at the St. Regis in New York. According to Leisen, Joan Bennett was "just furious" when she learned she had to wear a dress trimmed with silver Christmas tree ornaments. Eleanor Broder (apparently Leisen's assistant) also interviewed in the modern source, reports that Jack Benny did his radio show on Sunday nights during the film's shooting, and his writers would meet with him on the set to confer about material for the next week's show. When the film's shooting was over, Benny reportedly gave everybody on the crew a check.
