Week-end à Paris

A fun little adventure with Alastair Sim on form as usual (always watch Sim closely to get the best from his performances). Margaret Rutherford is her usual dippy, wonderful self and a host of other fifties household British names pop up (including Christopher Lee), in this easy to watch little adventure.

Fifty plus years on, it doesn't really matter what the political motivations of the film were, it's an entertaining little story with a beginning, middle and an end.

There's a lot of dross been made since 1953 and this film by no means takes a back seat. Sit back and enjoy.

Nnocents in Paris is an interesting film, especially for those who are fans of Louis de Funès. This early role gives us a glimpse of the comedic genius that he would eventually become, and his performance is one of the highlights of the movie. The film, directed by Gordon Parry, is a light-hearted comedy that follows a group of British tourists experiencing Paris in their own quirky ways.

While it's delightful to see de Funès in one of his early roles, the film itself doesn't offer much in terms of story. The plot is rather thin and feels more like a series of loosely connected vignettes than a cohesive narrative. There are moments of charm and humor, particularly when de Funès is on screen, but overall, the film lacks the wit and energy that characterize his later works.

For those interested in cinema history or fans of Louis de Funès, Innocents in Paris is worth a watch. However, if you're looking for a film with a strong storyline and memorable characters, this one might not quite satisfy. I give it a 6/10, mainly for the nostalgic value and the pleasure of seeing de Funès in his early days, though the film itself is fairly forgettable.

Unconvincing portmanteau comedy. Sim & Rutherford once again spin gold out of garbage, while the rest of the cast, notably Jimmy Edwards & Ronald Shiner, are defeated by a badly written screenplay. The Scotsman section, with James Copeland, is a good example of a poor performance meeting an inadequate script to produce unmistakable rubbish. Watching these innocents is not bliss!

Half a dozen British subjects board a plane for a weekend flight to France and find themselves innocents in Paris. It's one of those movies in which several individual stories take place at a common venue, here with a mostly humorous theme. With a couple of comedy pros like Alastair Sim and Margaret Rutherford headlining the cast, Claire Bloom (fresh from her role in Chaplin's LIMELIGHT and James Copeland in more romantic plots and lesser stars to fill in the gaps, there's something for everyone.

It's a thoroughly pleasant effort with a script by Anatole de Grunewald and enough actual French talent to lend the necessary Gallic charm to the proceedings. Sim and Rutherford are, as always, delights, and the rest are amusing in their standard stories, although I can understand why the 100-minute movie is usually cut; although the subplot with Laurence Harvey as a French valet de chambre is good, the movie, as a whole, seemed to drag a bit.

Innocents In Paris is several tales interwoven of a few British subjects going over the Channel on a weekend jaunt to gay Paree. For some like stuffy British diplomat Alastair Sim it's business as he's at a European economic conference as the British delegate. Pleasure almost gets forced on him as he arranges a back channel meeting with Russian delegate Peter Illing who shows Sim the pleasures of vodka and champagne and a few other things that Paris offers. They even get a little business done.

Margaret Rutherford is just Margaret Rutherford as an eccentric painter who for a weekend does a Gene Kelly as she paints and sells her product in the streets of Montmartre.

Romance in this film is handled by young Claire Bloom who gets some heavy wooing by Claude Dauphin. That one doesn't go quite on course, still it's a once in a lifetime experience.

That and a few others make Innocents In Paris a delightful experience and a look at post World War 2 Paris. It still holds up well because the experiences are eternal.