La fille de l'ambassadeur

The only reason that Olivia de Havilland agreed to appear in this trifle must have been because it was going to be filmed in Paris where she was living at the time. On the positive side, there are great stars supporting de Havilland such as Edward Arnold, Adolphe Menjou and Myrna Loy, and they are very very good, as is the Star, but negatively speaking, the story has been done many times, but it could have been quite good, if a decent leading man had been engaged - there is no doubt John Forsythe was out of his depth, trying to compete with the players listed above. There were some bright moments of comedy, and it was good to see the Stars having a bit of a romp, but at times it is hard going. As lovely as she is, Olivia was too old for the part, but some of the shots of Paris helped a lot.

(1956) The Ambassador's Daughter DRAMA/ ROMANCE

Co-produced, written and directed by Norman Krasna with the set up that has daughter, Joan Fisk (Olivia De Havilland) of a wealthy dignitary making a bet with the general, Andrew Harvey (Minor Watson) and the senator, Jonathan Cartwright (Adolphe Menjou) assumptions on a sergeant (Bill Forsythe) who is on leave, with of course, a predictable ending. Although, I had already knew what the end result was going to be, the real question was what is it going to do to sustain my interest on the center. And as far I know it just doesn't do anything since it contains a lot of cliche jibberish! It does hold some interesting references about what army men used to do during their shore leave, but that is probably it! And as much as I love seeing two- time Oscar winner Olivia De Havilland act on films- this film doesn't really challenge her performance enough, which is like any other actress that can do !

De Havilland made this movie when she was 40 when the role demanded someone about half that age, After all, she was supposed to be appealing to a young soldier stationed in Europe after WW II.

Then, there was the problem of miscasting John Forsythe, who was a handsome sophisticated man of 38 at the time, not a young gullible GI capable of being manipulated into the comedic situation of this movie.

Even as a young boy, I found John Forsythe to be too sophisticated for the TV sitcom, Bachelor Father where he was Kelly's womanizing uncle rather than anything that resembled a father figure to me. Forsythe seems to have found a home on TV in roles like To Rome with Love, Charlie's Angels, and especially, Dynasty. It always seemed to me that he was born handsome and sophisticated.

This movie did bring together some old actors from Hollywood's Golden Age: Myrna Loy and Adolphe Menjou (as a couple???) and Edward Arnold as the American Ambassador and father of de Havilland.

In the final analysis, this movie, made in Paris during the mid 50s, seemed more like a series of fashion shows in search of a situation comedy.

Frothy bit of fluff but with a great deal of charm. The entire cast are expert comedians excepting Forsythe but his role is really that of the straight man anyway.

This was Myrna Loy's first supporting role after years in the star spot but while she is clearly secondary her skillful presence keeps her in mind even when she is off-screen. Tommy Noonan is most amusing as Forsythe's befuddled pal, his gauche hayseed with a good heart makes a nice counterpoint to the sophistication of the other players.

Shot entirely in Paris with clothes by Dior this is a chic soufflé of the type that Hollywood has no idea how to make anymore.

The screenplay is quite derivative and obviously inspired by "Roman Holiday" ; but what is really glowing is Olivia De Havilland's love for France ; the great actress spent years and years in Paris and the country had become her second homeland where she died in 2020,a centenarian..

This trite story is full of joie de vivre : it opens with the old march from the Sun King's reign "Auprès De Ma Blonde " (which is sung by boy scouts on the Eiffel Tower afterwards) , the dialog is full of French lines , the songs include Maurice chevalier's "Valentine "and De Havilland and her co-star Forsythe dance to Charles Trénet 's "l'âme des poètes" ;there's even a night at the opera where they attend "the Swan lake" ballet with danseuse-étoile Claude Bessy .And the young GI loses his wallet in the "blue Pigalle "(ooh la la!)

And they wanted to deprive the enlisted men of the gai paris ? Of les Folies Bergères and Le Lido ? Of the Parisian models the GIs compare to caviar .

It goes without saying that it's not Miss de Havilland 's best and not even among her best ,but she was a wonderful guide for the Americans of yore ( nowadays, they come to Europa en masse ,but in the fifties ,for most of them it was only a dream to see Paris ),in the times before the General de Gaulle withdrew his country from NATO .

The ending is totally implausible ,but call it Olivia's Parisian holiday ;after all the great movies she made with Curtiz, Huston, Fleming (of course!) ,Leisen ,Wyler ,et al ,she did deserve it.