Songs (by Rogers and Hart): ‘Isn’t it Romantic?’, ‘Mimi’, ‘Lover’, and ‘The Son of a Gun is Nothing But a Tailor.’

Maurice Chevalier is described thus, in Halliwell’s Filmgoer’s Companion:

‘Inimitable French singing entertainer, known throughout the world for his accent, his straw hat and his jutting lower lip.’

Chevalier received an honorary Academy Award in 1958 – the year he charmed the world again in Gigi – for ‘his contributions to the world of entertainment for more than half a century.’

Possibly his most famous screen moment, however, is one in which he doesn’t actually appear.  In the Marx Brothers film Monkey Business, the madcap foursome have stowed away on a cruise ship; Zeppo has by chance found Maurice Chevalier’s passport, and so the brothers take turns doing Chevalier impersonations in order to be allowed off the boat…