In Paris, A.W.O.L.: A Vaudeville Mess

Is it worth your time?

Honestly? Only if you really love old-school, clunky melodrama where the plot holes are bigger than the theater stage. If you dig movies like Applause but wish it had way more spy tropes and way less focus, you might find this charming. If you need logic or, you know, a steady pace, stay far away. 🚩

The whole thing feels like three different movies glued together with cheap paste. One minute we are watching a vaudeville act, the next we are in a WWI trench, and then—surprise—we are in a basement hunting a German spy. It is chaotic in a way that feels unintentional.

The flashback structure is rough. It feels like the writers realized halfway through that nobody cared about the necklace theft, so they just threw a war hero arc on top of it. It’s a bit of a head-scratcher.

Odd little moments

• The transition between the vaudeville stage and the front lines is so jarring it almost gave me whiplash.
• The "hero" moment in the cellar feels like it was filmed in a shoebox.
• There is a specific look one of the actors gives the camera around the 30-minute mark that feels like he’s asking the director if he can go home yet.

You can tell the budget was… tight. Whenever they try to do a "big" scene, the camera cuts away so fast you barely see anything. It’s like watching a play where the actors are trying to hide the fact that the set is literally made of cardboard. 📦

Compared to something like Trouble in Paradise, this just feels like it’s missing a soul. It’s going through the motions of drama without actually feeling the weight of it. You see these guys in uniforms, but they don't look like soldiers. They look like guys who found some costumes in a trunk.

The spy reveal? Yikes. It comes out of absolutely nowhere. One guy is a jerk about a necklace, then he is suddenly a threat to national security. It’s the kind of writing that makes you put your head in your hands.

I wouldn’t call it a lost masterpiece, that’s for sure. It’s more of a curiosity—the kind of movie that makes you wonder what the production meeting was like. Maybe they just wanted to get it finished and go to lunch.