Endstation Paris

I feel a great affinity with Back Street because of the way it shows that a love affair will stay exciting and endure longer because the lovers are only able to be together for short periods of time with long intervals between their meetings. The hum drum aspects of married life never changes their relationship. They are on a perpetual honeymoon. Every time they meet it is exciting and they always look forward to seeing each other. I have often thought that if I had never married my husband and just had a relationship with him like Susan Hayward had with John Gavin over the years I probably would have been happier. She had the best of both possible worlds in my estimation. A wonderful successful career and the knowledge that someone loved her passionately and completely all those years. In addition she could return that love without reservation and enjoy the happiness it gave her to do so. I bet there are thousands of married women who watched this movie and had the same thoughts as I.

That old romantic chestnut Back Street gets its third filming and a big Ross Hunter type budget with Ross Hunter type gloss. But the story is still the same.

Stepping into the shoes of Irene Dunne and Margaret Sullavan is another one of the greats and a personal favorite of mine. Susan Hayward is perfectly cast as the ultimate 'other' woman.

The original story was written in the twenties and it has been updated to the fifties and given fabulous European locations in Rome and Paris. But the story begins when Susan who is an aspiring clothing designer meets Marine John Gavin who is awaiting his discharge. It's as it always is, the guy's married as she learns on their next meeting.

One thing leads to another and pretty soon Hayward who is by now a very successful dress designer is working out of Paris where Gavin has also relocated. He's the heir to a department store chain and takes his wife and kids over there to oversee European operations.

In order for us to feel sympathy for Hayward and Gavin in their predicament you have to make the wife the world's biggest shrew. That's what Hunter did, but he cast Vera Miles totally against type. Usually Vera was a good girl on screen. But when she turned bad she was something to see. She really steals the film from Hayward not an easy thing to do against an actress who certainly played her share of bad girls. I'm surprised Miles was overlooked at Oscar time for this performance. In fact traditional casting would have had Hayward the drunk and slutty wife and Miles the understanding mistress.

I can only imagine that Rock Hudson had other commitments because the role of the husband is perfect for him. John Gavin however does a very good job in the part.

Look for a nice performance from Reginald Gardiner as the fashion designer who makes Hayward a protégé. Had this been done at 20th Century Fox instead of Universal, the part would have been Clifton Webb's.

This is a nice version of Fannie Hurst's story of a woman who sacrifices her legal happiness for her man. Maybe Back Street is due for another remake. I can see Meryl Streep now as the either the wife or the mistress.

I have watched this film probably more than a dozen times and finally purchased the DVD even though it was only available in full TV-Sized screen format. It may be low brow and poor in most respects for a movie critic's standards, but I love it. I did not think either Hayward or Gavin did a bad or wooden job with their performances. Maybe I am just a patsy for tear-jerker style movies, but I have always enjoyed this movie, even today when it appears so dated and somewhat impoverished by today's standards of movie making. Perhaps we have become too jaded and so-called sophisticated to just sit back and appreciate a story that is reasonably well told and beautifully filmed.

Third movie-version of the Fannie Hurst novel, following successful adaptations in 1932 and 1941, this time with the glossy and unmistakable Ross Hunter touch. Susan Hayward is hardly a "back street gal" here, she's a would-be dress designer from Lincoln, Nebraska who has a meet-cute with returning soldier (and married man) John Gavin, apparently the sole heir to a department store chain. It takes a few reels to get these two together, but in the meanwhile our heroine goes to New York and then to Rome as the assistant to one of the top fashion designers in the world. Once Gavin catches up to her in Paris--and the gossip hits the fan--audiences can clearly see how dated this plot has become: a sharp, successful businesswoman wouldn't be shamed by her extra-marital affair, she'd be applauded! It isn't believable in the slightest, though producer Ross Hunter's penchant for luxurious suffering reaches almost an unparalleled peak here. The only thing Hunter can't quite fix is the chemistry between Hayward and Gavin; the stars have a comfortable, kiss-on-the-forehead type of love relationship (no big sparks), while Susan treats smitten Charles Drake so badly he completely vanishes from the scene! Vera Miles is a hoot as Gavin's alcoholic wife ("I almost forgot we had kids!"), while the screenplay pulls one astounding melodramatic event after another from its hat. For lovers of these woozy romantic pleasures, "Back Street" would be hard to top. *** from ****

Try to understand that 1961 was the dawn of the sexual revolution predicated on the birth control pill; therefore everything in this movie reflects the pre-1961 era when people were often locked into marriages -- good or bad.

This glamorized version opens the story up from simple people in the 1932 and 1941 versions and makes them self-assured, very good-looking, and easy-street rich. This allows the cameras to give us beautiful vistas of Rome, Paris and London --- as they were before the Great Tourist Invasion which began in 1965 when Pan American World Airways broke with the IATA cartel and slashed fares to Europe, allowing folks like us to join the rich and go there. Now I can tell you that Susan Hayward's Paris hotel was definitely the RITZ -- the Rue Cambon entrance -- the back street entrance near the Ritz Bar where Hemingway evicted a rich woman's pet lion by throwing said lion out on the sidewalk.

Under David Miller's able direction, the narrative is kept solid; even though it's hard to find sympathy for the romantic problems of two persons who otherwise have it all.

Not available on DVD, you can find a VHS on eBay; but it won't be cheap.