Popular reviews

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  Review by theironcupcake ★★½

  First and foremost, in this house we love and respect Wynne Gibson and Benny Rubin.

  In many ways, Children of Pleasure is an extremely creaky talkie, including a poorly preserved soundtrack with dialogue mixed lower than the music and other background noise; plot-wise, the film is also a basic affair, concerning budding NYC songwriter Danny Regan (Lawrence Gray) and his determination to marry high society’s most fetching young heiress, Pat Thayer (Judith Wood, aka Helen Johnson, who played the non-squeaky-voiced sister – the one stuck on her boss, Paul Lukas – in Dorothy Arzner’s Working Girls). But despite such a simple story and its predictable outcome, Children of Pleasure has something special going for it, at least for this viewer:…

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  Review by Kari ★★★ 2

  I'm giving this a higher rating than most because I am a big fan of Wynne Gibson and she was great in this. The music and dance numbers were OK but it was the drama of Gibson's unrequited love for Lawrence Gray that I liked. I'm a sucker for that trope. Tell me I am not alone!

  Per Wikipedia: The film is an adaptation of a play that riffed on the real-life relationship between songwriter Irving Berlin and Long Island socialite Ellin Mackay, which was all over the gossip columns in the late 1920s. Mackay's millionaire father cut her off and did not speak to her for years because, after a long courtship, she married Berlin, who was Jewish.

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  Review by PUNQ ★★

  A stiff old musical with a Ill-fated romance in the center. The musical stuff was the main highlight. There was at least some imagination put into that. The love stuff was fairly ordinary with leading man Lawrence Gray struggling to command the screen. Judith Wood looked pretty, but Wynne Gibson, as the girl with the heart of gold, stole the movie, leaving it with some dignity.

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  Review by hellohildy ★★½

  Not as racy as the title suggests, but a fun early musical. I think there are just things that made sense to humans in 1930 that are incomprehensible now. For example: May Boley. She plays the diva star of the show, Fanny Kaye. Her voice is, sorry, to my ears unbearable. She's built like a very short truck and moves like one with flat tires. And I didn't find her comic dialog very well delivered either. Sorry Ms Boley. The rest of the cast was hit and miss, but fun jazzy tunes and a couple of yowza production numbers.

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  Review by Will Remmers 1

  Always a terrifying thrill to watch an early talkie with a cast list filled with people I don't know and don't know anything about. Thankfully, I had peeped theironcupcake's excellent review ahead of time so I knew this would have people worth paying attention to. I agree!

  Not much I can add as that is a very comprehensive write-up. This kind of plot is definitely up my alley and I savor the chance to see these pictures before faceless conglomerate WARNER MEDIA murders TCM the way they murdered Warner Archive.

  The best part of the film is definitely the insane volcano song (and I love seeing it go from 0-to-100: we get the songwriter presentation of the song to its…

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  Review by Michael_Elliott ★★

  Danny Regan (Lawrence Gray) is a successful songwriter who gets involved with society girl Pat (Judith Wood) but he doesn't realize that she doesn't take him serious while Emma (Wynne Gibson) really does love him.

  CHILDREN OF PARADISE is an early MGM talkie that wants to mix romantic drama with music but sadly it really doesn't succeed at any of it. If you're a fan of these early talkies then I guess this one here is worth watching but there's no question that it really doesn't contain anything too special.

  The dance and music numbers are certainly the best thing about the picture as they at least show a little originality and they are also somewhat clever and easy on…

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  Review by ChangingReels ★★

  Wynne Gibson carries this DOA musical single handed behind the woodshed to put the audience out of it’s misery. Apparently there was some shooting of musical numbers in Technicolor (Dust exists still) but I don’t think even that could save this.

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  Review by Paul Stelter ★

  Mostly-dull relic livened a bit by the fact that it's about Tin Pan Alley Yiddish-accented folks (including Benny Rubin). Oh, and in the first five minutes there's a pointless group blackface dance number.

  By that I mean there's literally no reason for it: the dancers don't sing, and there's no Southern or stereotypical black-themed motif to the number. It's probably the most inoffensive use of blackface a modern viewer could conceive of, if that makes sense. So it's not even worth seeing for historical value, though I mention it because it's one of the the few things that kept my attention.

  Ann Dvorak and Jack Benny are in it, but uncredited. I didn't notice them.