La fille de l'ambassadeur

This movie was released in 1956, right in the middle of Hollywood's decade-long fascination with Paris. It was a fascination ignited by the critical and financial success of An American in Paris (MGM 1951), and then stoked by such films as

April in Paris ( Warner Bros. 1952), Moulin Rouge (20th Century Fox 1952), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (20th Century Fox 1954), The Last Time I Saw Paris (MGM 1954), Sabrina (Paramount 1954), Funny Face (Paramount 1957), The Sun Also Rises (20th Century Fox 1957), Love in the Afternoon (United Artists 1957), Gigi (MGM 1958), Paris Holiday (Tolda 1958), Can Can (20th Century Fox 1960), Paris Blues (Pennebaker 1961), Charade (Universal 1963), Irma la douce (MGM 1963), A New Kind of Love (Paramount 1963), Paris When it Sizzles (1964).

Unfortunately, this movie adds nothing to that generally very distinguished and successful list. (Paris Holiday is a bomb, yes.)

Others have recounted the plot, so I won't repeat that. Since this movie is about a group of non-Parisians living in Paris, it never really engages with its setting. It could just as soon have taken place in Vienna, or Rome, or ...

Little thought seems to have been put into the production. The plot is worked out at the end, which takes place in the iconographic Garnier Opera House during a performance of Swan Lake. With a wealth of operas and ballets from which to choose, Krasna picked the Tchaikovsky warhorse for no apparent reason, because he makes no effort to tie what is going on on stage to what is going on in the boxes and corridors (the plot, such as it is).

There's nothing really wrong with this movie, it's just that it's not very interesting. A cast this good should have been given a far better script.

It is certainly not true that because a film has as its central character a female protagonist that it must be a "woman's picture". But in an era when the novel market in cheap-minded fiction seems hopelessly divided between mindless male violent thrillers and mindless female Gothic romanciful fantasies, the viewer must expect this debate to spill over into films. Fortunately for moviegoers, as late as the 1950s, films such as "The Ambassador's Daughter" were still being made and these were films with enough realistic characters, intelligent dialogue and interesting action to please adult viewers. This is a very fine script indeed by veteran writer-director Norman Krasna. It was directed very ably and beautifully mounted. The noteworthy cast included Edward Arnold, Myrna Loy, Adolph Menjou, Frances Lederer, Tommy Noonan plus Olivia de Havilland and John Forsythe as the romantic leads. The setting is postwar Paris, and the sets are beautiful to behold. This is a film about upper crust folk; and as such we are treated to costumes by Christian Dior, impeccable lighting and gorgeous art direction. But the fact that these are members of the wealthy set does not stop the scriptwriters from devising lively and challenging involvements for all. The very good idea for the story involves de Havvilland trying to prove to her ambassador father, professionally and personally worried about such matters, that all French-based American soldiers are not "wolves". She picks on Forsythe to prove her point--and discovers she may have picked too well for her own safety, since she finds herself falling for the shy G.I. Arnold and Loy are particularly good, Menjou is his usual charming self; and de Havilland is superb. Only Forsythe seems a bit low-voltage, as he sometimes did early in his career, before "The Trouble With Harry". The film's technical elements, such as lighting, sets, art direction and all else provide the usual first-rate MGM realization. The color is lovely as well, adding to the gemlike quality of this underrated and very intelligent comedy. In an era devoted to Medieval character flaws, misbehaviors and irresponsible folk floundering in a sea of surrealistic bad writing and worse thinking, this earlier work stands out as a cinematic delight, one to be watched many times over.

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.

This was a very entertaining film from 1956 with some great veteran actors who have had great roles in their careers and this is a rather silly film which seems to go on and on. However, this is a comedy concerning an American Ambassador's Daughter named Joan Fisk, (Olivia De Havilland) who live in France and meets up with a soldier named Danny, (John Forsythe) and Joan is modeling various dresses for an American Red Cross Benefit and Danny becomes very attracted to Joan. Joan does not tell Danny she is the daughter of an American Ambassador and pretends to be a French girl who is a professional model. There are wonderful actors in this film, namely, Myrna Loy, (Mrs. Cartwright); Adolphe Menou, (Sen. Jonathan Cartwright) and Tommy Noonan, (Cpl. Al O'Connor all gave outstanding supporting roles. If you like old time comedy films, this is the film for you.

THE AMBASSADOR'S DAUGHTER is a generally well made film with a great cast. The story and direction though are uninspired and workman-like and robs the story of any vitality. In more capable hands, this film would have been a charmer but the producers were clearly aiming for average. It just doesn't sparkle as it should be and because the pacing or tone, which should have been lightning fast and sharp for this kind of story, is lackadaisical, this big studio production feels and looks exactly like an episode of THREE'S COMPANY. One that takes place in Paris.

The great thing about this movie is Myrna Loy. Whenever she's on screen the movie comes alive. Loy, who starred in the great THIN MAN movies, has a knack for delivering light and funny dialogue and her timing here is perfect. She easily eclipses the whole cast, which includes Olivia De Havilland, John Forsythe, Adolphe Menjou, Tommy Noonan! Thank god Myrna was in this film or else it would have been totally forgettable. Well, the location shooting was also great.

All in all, I enjoyed watching THE AMBASSADOR'S DAUGHTER for what it was but it could have been much better, a classic in fact. Now it's just average.