Set in 1890s Paris, the Broadway show on which the film is based was a huge success, with its fabulous and naughty can-can dance, recreated here by Juliette Prowse, the most watchable performer in the entire film. The music of Cole Porter-"You Do Something to Me," "C'est Magnifique," "It's All Right with Me," "Let's Do It," and "I Love Paris"---is worth all the waiting through pointless debates over the immorality of the can-can. Frank Sinatra is his usual sophisticated self, although it's hard to buy him as French. In fact, the biggest mistake in the film is having Frenchmen Maurice Chevalier (whose charms have always been lost on me) and Louis Jourdan around to make us believe we are in Paris; Prowse fakes a French accent reasonably well, but Sinatra and Shirley MacLaine twanging away in American English, make the contrast quite grating on the ears. ---from Musicals on the Silver Screen, American Library Association, 2013
Review of Can-Can
