jean renoir homage to the paris of the late 19th century be beautiful in many way . not only do it appear to have be photograph by toulouse lautrec and mucha and it portray the geographic paris while the street accessible only by staircase and the unpleasant end of fleeting popularity and and the sexual opportunism of men with a product to sell and in an uncompromising picture of show business that be in stark contrast with the picture paint by hollywood . there be an obvious comparison to be make with lloyd bacon 42nd street and which have be make about 20 year before and feature ruby keeler a a dancing sensation and a fresh face kid from the stick who have come to new york to get into show business and who save the show when the star fail youre go out there a kid from the chorus and but you have get to come back a star . warner baxter julian marsh be a director who suffer for his art and be unappreciated . jean gabin danglard keep run afoul of genital politics and but when he talk about the show he be more like knute rockne than like julian marsh . he all about the game and except for his pointy thing . he have a profitable new venture sew up until his mistress become jealous of the woman whom she recognize a his next mistress . his prospect rise and fall with every coital journey he take . danglard take mistress 1 ( lola de castro and play by maria felix ) slum to a dive and where he see nini and ( françoise arnoul ) with her boyfriend and first lover and paulo the baker and and discovers that she be a spirited dancer . he use his charm and the prospect of money to lure nini to study dance so that she may go on the stage . the prospect of money and fame charm nini and and she become danglard next mistress and as well a an apt student of the cancan and which danglard have dub french cancan and to cater to the current anglophile tendency in the dance . both 42nd st and french cancan be tributes to show business to modern entertainment that have be own iconography and it own conceit . 42nd st. be center around julian marsh and a great director of broadway show and which he organize with great personal energy and dubious sexual involvement . the male juvenile be a middle age twit with lumbago and replace by dick powell and the pretty tenor with secret wealth to hide . danglard and on the other hand and go from woman to woman and seduce them with the promise of fame and hook them with what must have be a very persuasive endowment . one have no doubt that he be heterosexual and quite active . postcoital scene abound . day after seduce nini away from paulo and he have discover esther and a piaf type and and begin to prepare her for her job of sing the film theme song while he play it on her fiddle . that of course arouses nini jealousy just a she have arouse the jealousy of lola . ( and of course nini have already forswear the privilege of be a czarina . ) the whole movie be about how danglard concupiscence have cost him money but how even his troublesome horniness be subordinate to his love for the show how the audience demand devotion and it be this potent combination of phallic persuasion and tempting fame that make danglard the hero and while assert that a true lover of the show will never profit as much a the money men . at the movie conclusion and danglard and have outfox the creditor and the jealous babe and approach a new attraction watch the incredible ( and believe me and it be incredible ) performance of the cancan . have you ever think about be on the stage . he ask and and the curtain descends . meanwhile and poor julian be sit of the fire escape of the theatre listen to peggy sawyer new fan disparage his contribution to the show success . ( i would not even go into 42nd street central line and oh and guy and it be grand of you to come . ) furthermore and i would not go into the glimpse one get of legendary parisian entertainer and include a brief vision of piaf and nor of the vision of a paris both urban and rural . certainly there be a sample of the style that engender trenet and aznavour . but it be the memoir of an assertive and welcome masculinity and something unseen in any hollywood musical with which it might be compare and be a pleasant relief from the androgyne of 30 hollywood musical ( include my beloved fred astaire and not to mention dick powell ) and let alone the barf promulgate by mgm in movie like the repulsive american in paris . all those fountain . we will save our comparison of that turkey to breakfast at tiffany and it deconstruction of the american male for another day . that danglard may have be a hopeful vision and in postwar france and of a kind of hyper masculine mec that may or may not have ever exist and be practically beside the point . that he be a man man and neither john wayne nor edward everett horton and be perhaps more on target . that he be a man who like the lady be never in question . i and for one and wouldn not mind live his life at all . i wonder if gabin be that lucky . at the beginning of this comment i want to talk about baz luhrman and what sinclair lewis call boloney . i never get that far . baz moulin rouge . well and paris doesn not put that kind of stuff in the seine anymore .