I Met Him in Paris

Two clunkers in a row - first Bluebeard, then I met him in Paris. The clothes are great, the settings lovely, and the script - a mind-boggling inane conglomeration of improbable and contrived situations that must have contributed to the demise of the screwball comedy. A series of wealthy people with too much time on their hands, acting juvenile (or madcap, as they used to call it). Everyone here has been better elsewhere. Douglas and Young are both in love with Colbert, and three high-tail it off to Switzerland, as the question surfaces: who will Claudette end up with? Of course, Melvyn Douglas is billed above Robert Young, so we know what the outcome must be. As much as I love old films, and Colbert, and Douglas, and Young, I stuck this one out, but it never really gelled for me.

Claudette Colbert stars with Robert Young and Melvyn Douglas in "I Met Him in Paris" from 1937. The beautiful Colbert, as Kay Denham, is en route to Paris via ship, and it's her dream trip, her trip of a lifetime. She can't get her fiancé (Lee Bowman) out her stateroom fast enough. Ah, Paree.

We next see her miserable face when she's been in Paris for three days. She's realizing that she should not have come alone, and no one speaks English. Worse than all of that, no one has written to her. I lived in Europe and it's hard when you don't get mail.

Then, in the American Bar of the hotel, she meets two men, George Potter (Douglas) and Gene Anders (Young). They start spending time together, and while she likes Gene, she's not so sure about Potter.

The fact is, Potter disapproves of Anders. We soon learn why. When Anders invites Kay to Switzerland, Potter insists on coming along as chaperon.

I would say the film picks up once they reach Switzerland, because some of the scenes where they try different sports were hilarious. My favorite is when Kay falls off a luge and she's trying to get off the track, but the walls are curved and slick -- and another luge is coming. It was hysterical. They try another activity where they are on skis behind horses and each person holds the reins of their horse as the horses are galloping and they are screaming "Whoa!" They also ice skate and ski.

Directed by Wesley Ruggles, the film doesn't have any pace or much humor, again, until they reach Switzerland, and it's based on kind of a dumb premise. If Potter disapproves of Gene, why doesn't he tell Kay why? Why would he agree to go along as Gene tries to romance Kay?

Screwball comedies were on their way out when this was made, though there would still be some good ones, Bringing Up Baby and Merrily We Live coming to mind. They would find new life later on television. Unfortunately this falls short, despite a wonderful cast and beautiful scenery.

Paramount imported two of MGM's second line leading men to appear opposite Claudette Colbert in I Met Him In Paris. This film finds Claudette as a buyer for a New York department store on a holiday in France trying to decide whether she wants to marry staid and established Lee Bowman.

But of course the last place you want to go to make decisions like that is Paris because too many temptations will find you. In this case two too many temptations in the form of cynical Melvyn Douglas and romantic Robert Young.

Young decides to invite Colbert on a skiing holiday in Switzerland and Douglas decides to invite himself along. The best scenes in the film involve all three of our protagonists learning winter sports. In fact the scene involving Claudette Colbert falling off a toboggan and being in harm's way of another racing toboggan is a great example of a really dangerous situation being played for laughs and quite successfully.

I Met Him In Paris which has the bulk of its scenes in Hollywood recreated Switzerland is a great example of a nice comedy which really could have been better if an Ernest Lubitsch or a Leo McCarey had done it. Mona Barrie has a small, but very important part that occurs toward the end of the film which I cannot say more about lest I spoil things.

Definitely fans of Claudette Colbert will appreciate this film which holds up very well after over 70 years.

Poor Lee Bowman! There's nothing wrong with his appearance or acting, but he always plays the guy who gets thrown over for another guy. In I Met Him in Paris, he's engaged to Claudette Colbert, but she's not sure she wants to settle down for someone so steady and reliable. Off she goes to Paris to make up her mind and have one last fling. The one last fling turns into two as she gets wooed by both Robert Young and Melvyn Douglas.

If you like romantic ski lodge movies, like Last Holiday, rent this black-and-white version for a real treat. I absolutely love Claudette, and even though she's an incredible dramatic actress, she's best well known for her cutesy comedies. She's just as adorable as she always is in this one, and this time around, she gets to prance around in the snow and take a toboggan ride! And as far as the love triangle goes, it's very hard to choose between Robert and Melvyn's characters. Robert is charming, glib, and romantic, but since he comes across as being too good to be true, you can't help but want to give Melvyn a fair chance. He's dead-set against his rival and a bit of a downer sometimes, so you can't help but want to give Lee another chance! My, my, who will Claudette pick?

Claudette Colbert stars in one of her most underrated romantic comedies (though it was a big hit at the time and so acclaimed that The New York Times listed it as one of the ten best films of the year) as an aspiring American fashion designer who is off to see Paris and leave her dull fiancé Lee Bowman behind for at least a temporary separation. Alas, Claudette is a lost babe in the woods in France, speaking no French but she runs into two young Americans who take her under her wing and have more than a little interest in taking her romantically. Moderately successful novelist Robert Young is the one who is the more spirited and to Claudette's taste; his playwright buddy Melvyn Douglas is a little too stodgy and dour for her. She thinks Douglas is a spoil sport nosing in on their fun, unaware he is actually watching out for her since Bobby boy is not yet divorced and has a habit of romancing innocent young ladies. Eventually she warms up a little to Douglas but when she learns that the boys have hidden Young's marital status from her she's enraged and none too pleased either with her old beau Bowman who clearly doesn't trust her and has shown up to check up on her. (Claudette's character herself isn't that much of an angel given she's open to being wooed even while she is promised to another). This delightful piece of fluff moves faster than the runaway bobsled Claudette finds herself on at one point and while the plot has holes (shouldn't she have been checking out the fashion scene in Paris on her vacation rather than venturing off to Switzerland with the boys?) the movie is a lot of fun and the queen of romantic comedy, Miss Colbert, gives one of her most delightful performances.