Damals in Paris

"The Last Time I Saw Paris" was a hit in 1954-55, mostly because of the rising super star, Elizabeth Taylor. Taylor was the lead female, Helen Ellswirth, but her role and part in the story were second to the male lead, Charles Wills, played by Van Johnson. The fact that the 22-year-old Taylor was billed ahead of Johnson shows her star status and MGM's promo to cash in on the movie.

While it was a success at the box office - bringing in just under $5 million on a budget just under $2 million, the film finished 36th for the year. Considering its star content that included Walter Pidgeon, Donna Reed, Eva Gabor, and the rising Roger Moore, "The Last Time I Saw Paris" might have finished much better. There were many good movies in 1954, the year that "White Christmas" topped them all at the box office, and got just one Academy Award nomination. It was also the year of "Rear Window," "The Caine Mutiny," "The Glenn Miller Story," "On the Waterfront," "Magnificent Obsession," and a host of musicals, comedy romances, dramas, Westerns and war films that all fared better than this film.

Other reviewers have noted the characteristic of this film that sets it back. It's heavy melodrama, fodder for the daytime TV soap operas that were airing at the time. It's slow and drawn out. And, the fact that the main cast are almost all dysfunctional characters, puts a moribund pall over the film. It even starts off that way. So, the gaiety and excitement of the main period in the life of Charles Wills (Van Johnson) and Helen Ellswirth (Elizabeth Taylor) don't come off as fun at all. More pall descends on the film.

Walter Pidgeon's James Ellswirth interjects some light comedy in his hedonistic, irresponsible character. A young Roger Moore has the role of a tennis bum gigolo, Paul. And the capable Donna Reed is seen mostly as a sour, snippy woman with a huge secret that she can't hide from her husband, Claude Matine (George Dolenz), or the audience.

Van Johnson's role is strange, and one can't imagine why Helen would fall for him. Except for a little smiling and openness early, his character becomes moribund through most of the film. There are no exceptional or even very good portrayals in the film - perhaps Taylor's is the best as just okay.

I think this film had possibility, but the writers would need to put some life and spunk into Johnson's Wills. His self-pity wears very thin very fast; then his alcoholism and the very strange marital relationship of the two weighs down this film.

I strain to give the film five stars, so that's a credit as much to the decent but minor portrayal by Pidgeon. As the totally irresponsible head of the Ellswirth family, his witty philosophy at times provides the only spark for this film.

Here are the best lines of this movie, set in Paris just after the end of World War II.

James Ellswirth, "Your sister has made me very proud. We couldn't tell you the good news before, but Helen has been expelled from the university."

James Ellsworth, "Oh, now look, let her alone. After all, I was expelled from Harvard once, and why shouldn't a girl follow in her father's footsteps?"

Helen Ellswirth, "We're not rich either. We just live that way. Daddy says it the same thing, only it's much cheaper."

Helen Ellswirth, "Daddy says, it isn't what you have, it's what you owe."

James Ellswirth, "Helen getting married. Marion getting married. Father abandoned in middle age." Exhales, "Hmph. What man could ask for more?"

Charles Wills, "Is it Sunday already? What happened to Friday and Saturday?"

Charles Wills: "What'd I do?" Helen Ellswirth, "That, I'd be very interested to know."

Charles Wills: "Well, where are you going?" Helen, "To do something important - buy a new hat."

Lush not terribly faithful rendition of Fitzgerald's Babylon Revisited is hampered by the miscasting of Van Johnson in the lead. There is no way other than script demands that Elizabeth Taylor would pick the vapid Johnson let alone stay with him throughout the increasingly boorish behavior he subjects her too. Donna Reed fulfills the requirements of her part but it asks little of her skill. The film is beautifully shot with that MGM sheen and Walter Pidgeon gives a terrific performance as Elizabeth's madcap father. Fitzgerald is hard to adapt to begin with and the script writers don't have a firm grasp on the material so it becomes a colorful soap opera but little else.

At the end of the war years his character, Charles, is a writer for the Stars and Stripes, and wants to continue a career in journalism. He meets James Ellswirth (Walter Pidgeon), an aging member of the lost generation, and his two grown daughters. There is level headed Marion (Donna Reed) and frisky flirtatious Helen (Elizabeth Taylor).

Charles and Marion are first an item, but then Helen steals him away from her own sister. Marion settles down with somebody else. That is to say, she settles for someone else. Houses tend to settle, and it's usually no fun to watch. But I digress.

Then the barren worthless oil fields that James gave Charles and Helen as a wedding present come in big time and suddenly Charles and Helen are fabulously wealthy and they transform into a second lost generation in the tradition of dear old dad, except this time with the money to make a really big mess of their lives. Charles quits his job and just becomes a huge drunken womanizing jerk, feeling sorry for himself because all of his rejection from publishers. This is where we get to the hard to believe part. I just don't buy Van Johnson as this tortured yet shallow soul. Louis B. Mayer, when he was redecorating MGM after Irving Thalberg's death, specifically hired Johnson because of his easy, song and dance man's likability and uncomplicated face. The part cries out for Kirk Douglas or maybe even better - Montgomery Clift.

A huge tragedy ensues, and Marion, taking time off from settling, comes back into the picture to make things even worse. Who do I really feel sorry for in this film full of unlikeable characters? Marion's husband, who at the end, finally figures out he's been settled for all of these years. You can see it in his face. And if that face looks familiar, it's because the actor is the father of Monkee Mickey Dolenz.

A successful writer ( Van Johnson) remembers about his love story with a gorgeous American girl ( Elizabeth Taylor ) in post WWII Paris . As we watch bright scenarios from Paris as the Arc of Triumph , river Sena , Cathedral of Notre Dame , promenade of Eliseos ; furthermore a horsemen race and Montecarlo car race , among others . Based on a semi-autobiographic novel titled ¨ Babylon revisited ¨ by F. Scott Fitzgerald who is well incarnated by Van Johnson and in which Helen played by Elizabeth Taylor represents Zelda , Scott's wife .

This interesting movie reminisces the love affair between a wealthy war reporter and a feisty young woman ; it packs romance , drama , and colorful scenarios . Good support cast as Donna Reed , Eva Gabor , Kurt Kasznar , John Ducette and Walter Pidgeon who steals the show as joyful and sponger father . Glamorous cinematography in glimmer Technicolor by Joseph Ruttemberg and adequate musical score .

The motion picture is professionally written and directed by Richard Brooks . He's an American filmmaker and screenwriter who won an Oscar for ¨ Elmer Gantry ¨ writings ; Brooks so consistently blended the good with average which it became quite impossible to know what to expect from him next . In the 50s , the harder his movies impacted , the more successful they were ; and the gentler they were , the less effective as ¨The last time saw Paris ¨ . Thus , the Brooks pictures that have the biggest hit in the 50 are the following : ¨Blackboard jungle ¨, ¨Something of value ¨ ¨The Brothers Karamazov ¨ , and in the 60s are ¨ Sweet bird of youth¨, Cat on a hot tin roof ¨, ¨In cold blood ¨ and ¨ The professionals ¨ ; in addition during the 70s a special mention to ¨ Bite the bullet ¨. Rating : : Good film that appeal to Elizabeth Taylor fans .

F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story "Babylon Revisted", reworked by three screenwriters (including director Richard Brooks), becomes a well-dressed but chilly, mopey star-vehicle. Americans in Paris find themselves wealthy after striking oil, but the writer-husband's inability to sell a story--coupled with a drinking problem and an attraction to a catty socialite--puts a strain on their marriage. Elizabeth Taylor does what she can with the masochistic wifey role, even getting what actresses like to call "a good hospital scene," but Van Johnson has more of an opportunity as a performer to show range and emotion (the writing is slanted that way). The scenario becomes episodic after the couple comes into money, while the final portion of the plot continues 15 minutes longer than necessary, presumably to 'teach' angry relative Donna Reed about forgiveness...and to show Johnson begging for love, something that apparently humbles every tortured writer's soul. **1/2 from ****