FILM : ‘Zouzou’: Sharing Baker’s Secret

Star vehicles, those usually flimsy movies designed to put some celebrity (such as Madonna) on the screen so fans have a 10-foot image to adore, are nothing new. Hollywood, not known for missing commercial opportunities when they come along, has been doing it for years.

When “Zouzou” came out in 1935, St. Louis-born Josephine Baker was a cultural phenomenon in France, her adopted country. She was a song-and-dance comedienne with an appeal both exotic and common. By making the most of her talents, and by generating sparks through expert image-making, Baker was the Madonna of her day, the queen of the demimonde.

Baker’s popularity was so huge that her handlers began looking for a larger stage than the risque Parisian theaters where she strutted. In 1934, partly because Baker was curious about movies but mostly to capitalize on her fame, filming for “Zouzou” began. The picture can be seen Friday night at Golden West College as the “International Film” series ends.

Because of Baker’s significance in France, “Zouzou” is historically intriguing, one of the few documents of a rare career. As art, though, it’s only a curiosity, a footnote in French cinema. Even as entertainment, it’s sporadic, with little dramatic push and only the barest of a plot contrived to set up Baker’s few spotlighted scenes. But we do get to see Baker perform, and that’s something.

We’re first introduced to Baker after seeing her character, Zouzou, as a pretty little girl who lives with the carnival and is entranced by the image she sees in a hand mirror. Soon, she’s all grown up and eager for her childhood companion, Jean (the great Jean Gabin, looking uncomfortable and mildly confused here), whom she loves, to return from his life as a sailor.

Once Jean is on land, the everyday events (Zouzou gets a job in a laundry but frequents the playhouse where Jean works as a stage manager) are mundane and static. Zouzou’s love is frustrated as Jean falls for one of her friends, and that’s about it as far as conflict goes in Carlo Rim’s screenplay. But every now and then, Baker gets moments to show off her comic flair, especially the mix of physicality (an eccentric, akimbo dancing) and a gamin’s innocence.

What the audience is waiting for, of course, is for Baker to take center stage in some huge production number. And that’s just what you get as “Zouzou” strolls toward its grand finale.

As for these last chorus line shots, it’s clear that Busby Berkeley was the inspiration. The peculiar choreography and fanciful props (the dozens of dancers step through a giant bedroom complete with girl-sized telephones) are Berkeley knockoffs but, unfortunately, performed without the panache he insisted on.

Still, it’s captivating when the camera finally settles on Baker, done up only in feathers and singing while perched high in a bird cage. She appears almost magical under the soft lighting, a strange, glowing creature with a tiny but passionate voice.

Throughout “Zouzou,” you sense that film was not Baker’s bag, that the lack of impulsive creativity must have dampened much of the charm she brought to the more spontaneous stage environment. But those last images at least give a glimmer of what she was and what the fuss was all about.

What: “Zouzou” starring Josephine Baker.

When: Friday, March 27, 7:30 p.m.

Where: Golden West College’s Forum II theater, 15744 Golden West St., Huntington Beach.

Whereabouts: Take the San Diego (405) Freeway to Golden West Street and head south to the campus.

Wherewithal: $3 and $3.50.

Where to Call: (714) 891-3991.