On the Riviera Articles
The following articles have been retyped "as is" from the Special Features of the DVD. There was no newspaper or author listed.

“Strings Are Pulled for Danny Kaye”

Zany Danny Kaye turned puppet for one of the big musical scenes in his latest Twentieth Century-Fox Technicolor extravaganza, “On the Riviera,” now at the . . . Theatre, in which he costars with lovelies Gene Tierney and Corinne Calvet.

Working with a troupe of Jack Cole dancers, Kaye and the crew perform an amusing number entitled, “Popo the Puppet,” and actually are suspended by ropes like “Howdy Doody” and “Pinocchio.”

Moved in tempo furnished by a ninety-piece orchestra Danny’s actions were controlled by eight puppeteers who employed a system of counter-balance weights to operate the ropes and performers., The routine, seen on the screen for a total of four minutes, was dreamed up by Director Walter Lang who heard Danny humming the tune on the set.

Mrs. Danny Kaye, Sylvia Fine, composed the tune of “Popo the Puppet” originally to entertain their three-year-old daughter, Dena. The prolific Sylvia was the tunesmith of the songs “On the Riviera,” “Happy Ending,” and “Rhythm of a New Romance,” which are also featured in the film.

“French Double Talk”

French star, Corinne Calvet, complained that she got a Danny Kaye accent from working with the comedian in Twentieth Century-Fox’s resplendent Technicolor musical, “On the Riviera,” coming next to the . . . Theatre.

“When I started this picture,” she said, “I had a good accent. But now, after two months with Danny who played a Frenchman, I find myself talking like him.”

When the picture started, Kaye, the master mimic, put together an accent that was a little French, a little Kaye and a little double talk. To everyone’s surprise it sounded more authentic than Corinne’s.

Now Corinne complains that she’s speaking her language his way.

“Lavishness of Production Highlights ‘On the Riviera’”

Lavish is the word to describe the new Twentieth Century-Fox Technicolor musical, “On the Riviera,” coming soon to the . . . Theatre.

Stars Danny Kaye, Gene Tierney, and Corinne Calvet cavorted on elaborate sets, wore fabulous costumes, and in general out-did Hollywood at its own game.

For a scene at an airport runway, the studio paved the path with fifty thousand dollars worth of minks. When Kaye was informed of the plush underfooting, rented from a Los Angeles furrier at a cost of two thousand five hundred dollars per day, he remarked with a startled grimace, “Walk on them? In shoes?” He couldn’t do that, he said, and asked if it would be all right to walk in his stocking feet. Director Walter Lang agreed. Thanking the film mentor, Kaye remarked: “I always treat mink with respect. I can remember when I could have lived for a year on one mink.”

Not only were his tootsies given the royal treatment, the rest of Danny’s frame was treated with equal elegance. In another scene, Danny wore a six hundred eighty five dollar suit. Not designed to set any new style trend in men’s clothes, the garment was corded with bugle beads to give it an iridescent quality for the Technicolor camera. “On Betty Grable, it might look good,” said Danny, “but on me—well, it’s a good thing I’m a comedian.”

Kaye’s co-star Gene Tierney, was bedecked in a bevy of off-the-shoulder gowns. One such get-up saw sixty yards of tulle hanging from her hips. Aside from gowns which included one of red jersey, a pleated pale green chiffon suit, and a Grecian chiffon outfit, Gene wore an unusual bed jacket made of ostrich feathers, and a white, filmy and feminine negligee.

International ambassador of good looks, Corinne Calvet, a shoe fancier, was furnished with ten pairs of shoes and slippers, a generous helping of Faye Emerson-type gowns, and tailored bathing suits.

Add top songs, dances, comedy, and an extra generous helping of romance, and you’ll get the year’s most lavish filmusical, “On the Riviera.”

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Gene Tierney received an oil bath during the filming of “On the Riviera,” her latest Twentieth Century-Fox Technicolor musical, currently at the . . . Theatre.

Outfitted in a lemon bathing suit designed to set off her terrain nicely, Gene strolled along the beaches of the French Riviera while a soft breeze was supposed to gently caress her.

The wind machine had been oiled the day before, but no one had thought to check it. When it was turned on, it sprayed Gene with oil from head to foot.

“That wasn’t the worse part of it,” said Gene after she had scrubbed herself clean. “The corny humor was terrible. Even Danny Kaye, who co-stars with me in the film, remarked, ‘Hear you struck oil.’”

“Plays Two Characters In Comedy, Danny Kaye Is Duo In Real Life”

Danny Kaye, who plays two characters in Twentieth Century-Fox’s musical farce, “On the Riviera,” with co-stars Gene Tierney and Corinne Calvet, the current filmfare at the . . . Theatre, is two different persons in real life.

Around a film set, he has that firecracker spontaneity moviegoers like in his pictures, and keeps a smooth flow of whimsical tomfoolery going most of the time. But once he walks away from a camera, he leaves the typical lyrical gibberish and the “git-gat-gittle” double talk behind. Danny’s gentle-voiced, quiet, even serious.

But the quadruple scat singing, the nonsensical jargon, the mimicry, the pantomime are his stock in trade. He likes that part of his character, although it’s not the Danny Kaye he lives with most of the time. He likes barking like a dog when rehearsing his lines and to turn to the director and say in all innocence, “Do you think that’s overdoing it?” Danny likes to do a takeoff on a producer who asked him to play a role in a picture, “a wonderful, simple, human terrific story about four people”—a man, a woman and a dog.

“I am a toomler,” Danny proudly asserts. A toomler, according to Kaye’s own dictionary, is “one who creates tumult.” Danny was a toomler in the Borscht circuit summer resorts. His job was to clown around and make like everyone was having fun, so that when it rained, the secretaries who had spent their hard-earned money for two-week vacations wouldn’t check it out. Danny also cut wood, waited on tables and consoled old ladies.

On the romantic side, Danny married his only love, Sylvia Fine, ten years ago. She wrote his first Broadway show, “The Straw Hat Revue,” and has continued to write special material for him, including songs and routines Danny does in “On the Riviera.” The talented couple have a three-year-old daughter, Dena, who is the apple of their eyes, but who has yet to prove herself in show business.

Dena almost daily visited the sets where her daddy was rehearsing “On the Riviera” and between “takes” was serenaded by him.

The many faceted Kaye loves people and utilizes every opportunity to make personal appearances throughout the four corners of the globe.

In testimony to his audience popularity, in Toronto, Canada, a few months ago, 340,000 people crowded into the fair grounds where he was appearing. Similar throngs await him wherever he doe sa show—his recent 23-day stint at New York’s Roxy Theatre proving his overwhelming popularity is no mere token affection.

“He’s a ‘cough-drop,’ he is,” as his adoring British fans would say, but he’s also a quiet, gentle sort of fellow who looks at times as though toomling were about as alien to him as mixing concrete would be to Toscanini.

Still looking for new fields to conquer, Danny has his sights set on the Metropolitan Opera House. Rudolph Bing, Director of the world famous Met, offered him the role of the drunken jailer in “Die Feldermaus,” but due to other commitments Danny was unable to accept. Bing promised him another chance, and Danny spends evenings at home rehearsing the role just in case the Met stages it again. “I’m no Pinza,” he said, “but I’ll wager I’ll keep them awake along horseshoe row.”

Loved by audiences throughout the world, Danny Kaye has proved that he can be two people or a hundred if called upon.

“Revealing Dress Bothers Director”

While most directors leave such problems to others, Walter Lang acts as his own censor when it comes to plunging necklines and such.

Lang, who insists on good taste, had to ride roughshod over the voluptuous bevy of beauties who appear in “On the Riviera,” Twentieth Century-Fox’s lavish Technicolor musical co-starring Danny Kaye, Gene Tierney, and Corinne Calvet, currently at the . . . Theatre.

Acting like an officer inspecting his troops, Lang called his leading ladies in front of him for a review before they went into a scene. One day, however, Miss Calvet, wearing a stunning evening gown, passed Lang’s approval and started a romantic scene with Danny. The dress had looked proper when the inspection occurred, but once Danny entered the scene, things began happening.

“I think,” said Miss Calvet, “it slipped a little. I can’t keep it up unless I take a deep breath and when I make love to Mr. Kaye, I can’t keep the deep breath.” Lang, who has directed such films as “The Jackpot” and “Cheaper by the Dozen” and other top films without violating the code of good taste, agreed that Corinne’s explanation was logical. He sent her to her dressing room to take off the dress, and had an assistant rush it to the wardrobe department with instructions to add some material.

The wardrobe people, experts at putting some material here and taking away from there, made the necessary changes and sent the gown back post haste. After more careful study, the portly, good-natured Lang permitted Miss Calvet to step before the cameras and into Danny Kaye’s eager-beaver arms. Danny smiled sympathetically at Corinne then took her in his arms and kissed her. Lang approved the scene.

“I haven’t had a dress—or the lack of a dress steal a scene in twenty years and I’m not going to let anyone get away with it now,” Lang added.

“Gene Tierney And Husband Have New Design For Living”

[only portion pertaining to Danny was included]

At her request, Twentieth Century-Fox wrote in several love scenes for her with Danny Kaye. Afterwards, Gene said that Danny is tender, romantic and convincing.

“Danny Kaye’s Kiss Has Rare Aroma”

The aroma of Danny Kaye kissing lovely Corinne Calvet in Twentieth Century-Fox’s musical extravaganza, “On the Riviera,” the next attraction at the . . . Theatre, can be compared to the breathtaking fragrance of a dry cleaning plant.

Miss Calvet, the bewitching French import, was dressed in beaded tights and wore tan make-up where the tights did not cover her so that she wouldn’t look too white for the Technicolor camera. Danny was in a dress suit and every time she put her arms around him, the make-up came off on him. After each “take,” Director Walter Lang had to send a man to sponge Danny off with gasoline.

“Theese,” said Corinne, “ees like kissing a service station.”

Mr. Kaye was not flattered by the remark. “I am too much of a gentleman of the Old South—South Brooklyn, that is—“ said Danny in his best plantation voice, “to answer that.”

Lang finally wearied of the delays and said he thought Corinne would look all right without the make-up. A wardrobe woman went in with a can of carbon tetrachloride and washed her down two skins deep.

“Theese,” said the ungallant Mr. Kaye in his best French accent, “ees like keesing an atomic scientist.”

Miss Calvet, half hiding a smile, said: “Come kees your little scientist.”

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