MartinHafer "The Red Cat" was a Broadway play. It was back Darryl Zanuck and brought to the screen almost immediately as "Folies Bergère de Paris" and then, within a short time, remade it as "A Night in Rio" and now here in "On the Riviera"! And, if that isn't enough, the basic story idea of this script is very familiar--using one of Hollywood's oldest clichés--the 'identical stranger'. Like "The Prisoner of Zenda" and "The Prince and the Pauper", this movie hinges on the audience accepting that this is possible. In other words, if you can't accept this, the film will be rough sailing.In this version, the lead is played by the talented Danny Kaye--who sings and dances up a storm. Now if you like singing and dancing, you're in luck. If you don't, then once again it will be rough sailing. My problems is that I am not a huge musical fan. There are, of course, exceptions. Kaye plays dual roles--a singer/dancer as well as a famous French aviator. The humor begins, such as it is, when the aviator is in London and he's needed in Paris--so, reluctantly, the actor/dancer is paid to pretend to be the aviator. The acting is quite good but the story is just too old and too familiar to make the story anything other than a time-passer.By the way, while I wasn't all that impressed by this film, I must say that the special features on the DVD for the film are terrific--and actually make watching it worth while. I especially liked "The Rivera Story", as it showed side-by-side comparisons of the three films--and they were often word-for-word the same picture.

Robert J. Maxwell I'm afraid I couldn't get with the program here. Danny Kaye is responsible for some of the funnier movies ever made, but this plot is a weak comedy of manners. It has Kaye as Jack Martin, a nightclub impersonator, being called on to pretend he's a celebrated, aristocratic French aviator. There is a mix up with the aviator's wife, Gene Tierney, and Kay's girl friend, Corinne Calvet, gets jealous.It's in glorious Technicolor but it's all been done elsewhere, often better, as in "The Prisoner of Zenda." Sometimes worse, as in "The Front." There's little in the way of physical comedy. Kaye doesn't take any pratfalls. He rarely seems as rattled as he does in his usual screen persona -- more embarrassed than neurotic and cowardly. He doesn't sing a gibberish song. The location needn't have been the French Riviera. Kaye's part could easily have been given to anyone else.It's as much a musical as it is a comedy. Kaye plays a showman and does his musical numbers straight. None are memorable ("Ballin' the Jack") and Kaye wears a tuxedo. Kaye is energetic enough, on stage and off stage, and his voice is pleasant, but that's about it. One of his songs' best features is that it used (unless I'm mistaken) Gwen Verdon for one of the lead dancers. She should have had more screen time.If this was an attempt to broaden the style of Kaye's performances, it really doesn't work. As a comedian, with a good script, he's superb. As a singer and dancer, he's mediocre.

Scooter B First of all, I must confess that I haven't seen the original Chevalier film on which "On the Riviera" is based. However, Fox recycled the plot before this film for "That Night in Rio" with Don Ameche, Alice Faye, and Carmen Miranda in the Danny Kaye, Gene Tierney, and Corinne Calvet roles. I think "Rio" is far superior to "Riviera." The plot is much better paced, less frantic and frenetic (although that may simply be the difference between Ameche and Kaye as performers). For me, a little Kaye "shtick" goes a long way, and the more he uses it, the less amused I get. In this film, he lays it on with a trowel. Fox dipped into the well once too often. The only saving grace is the lustrous Tierney in luscious color.

smithy-8 Danny Kaye has made many good movies, but "On the Riviera" and "White Christmas" are my favorites. Danny Kaye plays two men who look alike but have different personalities and lives. One is a philandering industrialist, who is elegant, and the other is an entertainer, who is silly. Each man has a beautiful woman in his life: the industrialist's wife (Gene Tierney) and the entertainer's girlfriend (Corinne Calvet). Both women are funny and this is their best comedy.