April In Paris

The State Department wants Ethel Barrymore to represent the American theater at an arts exposition in Paris. But Miss Ethel Barrymore's invitation goes instead to Miss Ethel "Dynamite" Jackson, a very blonde, very brassy chorus girl. And she's going to give Paris an Eiffel! Doris Day and Ray Bolger star in this musical bonbon highlighted by the Vernon Duke/E.Y. Harburg title tune and a high-kicking, bell-ringing rendition of the Jule Styne/Sammy Cahn "I'm Gonna Ring the Bell Tonight." Day is pure TNT as Dynamite, and Bolger's rubbery comic artistry ideally complements her. He's the stuffy bureaucrat who mismailed the Barrymore missive -- and now has a stateroom full of Dynamite on his hands for a Paris-bound ocean voyage.