I think my score of 3 might just be generous for this movie....as it's really, really bad. To make it worse, the film has some amazing actors in the film. However, the godawful musical numbers are so bad and so hard on your ears that even the best actors couldn't make this one work! Yes, the likes of Edward Everett Horton, Frank McHugh, Walter Pidgeon and Claude Gillingwater* couldn't make this one work!
The film is supposedly about French folks, but you'll never hear anything close to resembling a French accent in the film. It's a film about a Legionnaire (Pidgeon) falling for a cabaret singer...and the father (Gillingwater) refusing to allow the marriage. As for Bernice Claire, she plays the woman...and her acting isn't bad but when she began singing my dog attempted suicide several times! Yes, her operatic style and the songs were just awful and you need to hear them to believe them!! My daughter also heard a few songs and said something like "Why are you torturing yourself with this movie?!"....and that pretty much sums it up. It's a movie with nice acting and a decent plot...but the singing is just horrible. This film is one of the reasons why after a plethora of musicals in the late 20s and early 30s, Hollywood stopped making so many for a few years until they realized the public did enjoy musicals...provided they didn't stink!
*While very, very few people would know his name, Gillingwater made a career out of playing old sour pusses...and he was great at it! He really was amazing playing such parts and here he's at his best.