So Long at the Fair

A brother and sister check into a Paris hotel days before the 1889 World's Fair kicks off. But the brother disappears overnight and nobody even remembers seeing him.

Perhaps an appropriate tagline would be: A solid, rewarding mystery with an exceedingly clever solution to a classic riddle. The gaslight theme isn't new at this point, and neither is the, "I know I see/saw this person but everyone else sees nothing" premise. However, the key to this intriguing mystery is that there is no mental illness and, believe it or not, no criminal activity. How, then, does someone disappear and why is everyone lying about it?

This movie helped launch the careers of both Simmons and Bogarde and I think they're both great in just about everything (if you haven't yet, check out Bogarde in a fantastic and similarly intriguing film, Libel, with Olivia de Havilland). There's very little chance you'll guess the reason and motive behind it all, but it makes perfect sense when it's finally revealed.

There can be a small study made of movies set in Worlds Fairs. Start with THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY, where a few scenes appear at Joseph Paxton's Crystal Palace. Then CENTENNIAL SUMMER, where the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition is the center piece. Go on to The STARS AND STRIPES FOREVER, where Clifton Webb (as John Philip Sousa) performs at the 1896 Cotton Exposition in Atlanta. Then go to this film, followed by MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS (the St. Louis Worlds Fair in 1904). There would be others.

SO LONG AT THE FAIR is about the Paris Worlds Fair of 1900. It is based on an incident that has grown into a modern urban legend concerning how a young woman was told that she had no mother (or,in the film, a brother), there was no room in a hotel that she left this party in, and that she has been imagining events and people for the last couple of days (at least). In the original legend, the young woman is so hopelessly lost by this she loses her mind and is put into an asylum. In the movie (and its novel and other versions) eventually the massive conspiracy to cover-up what happened is revealled.

Did it happen? Did a young woman (here played by Jean Simmons) come into Paris, readying itself for the big world's fair, find herself confronted by a conspiracy that claimed she imagined it all? No historical evidence has ever surfaced that this actually happened. Yet the story survives. It is a terrific story, for it is based on the fragility of reality. If everyone doubted us how could we prove what we said was true? Hard to say. You need some people to validate your story in part or whole for people to believe you. In all the retellings of this story, the heroine is isolated once the mother or brother is gone. The very person to prove the story is the person whose absence is deplored but questioned.

As a costumed historical film, SO LONG AT THE FAIR is very good, with Simmons aided by Dirk Bogarde as the one person in Paris who believes her. And together they prove that Cathlene Nesbitt (the hotel owner) is lying - but with powerful friends to assist her.

It is not the best retelling of the story - Hitchcock used the plot, but changed it, in THE LADY VANISHES, where it is the missing spy, Miss Froy, whose existance is questioned by all who hear the heroine (Margaret Leighton), except Michael Redgrave.

I should add that students of this mystery don't know which world's fair is the site of the story: the 1889 French fair (where the Eiffel Tower first appeared), or the 1900 one. However there was also the 1867 fair in Paris, where Tsar Alexander II of Russia arrived. One version of the story tells that the reason for the cover-up deals with an attempt on the life of the Tsar. So it could have been one of three fairs that was the basis for this marvelous yarn.

"So Long at the Fair" manages to fuse the macabre with the swank in a singularly enjoyable nerve wracker set in 1889 Paris.

Director Terence Fisher leads his audience with aplomb from the gaiety of the Moulon Rouge to the lugubrious shadows of a convent hospital with an assurance missing from most modern thrillers.

Production values are first rate from the elegant hotel to the elaborately wrought fair sequences.

One could scarcely ask for a more debonair and attractive couple than Mr. Bogarde, (with his famous pompadour intact), and the exquisite Miss Simmons, who, in her turn provides a welcome reminder of 19th century feminine deportment. And Villainess Cathleen Nesbitt, with her cut glass diction, and rustling black bombazine, defines sinister suavity in a way you won't soon forget.

Kudos also to Honor Blackman who wears a bustle with distinction.

Don't watch this period piece if you're feeling at all frustrated. Because it's about 90-minutes of on-screen frustration as poor Vicki (Simmons) tries to convince everyone that her version of reality is truer than everyone else's. The trouble is she had a brother in the hotel the night before, but in the morning everyone else says she didn't. So, where is her brother and why are the hotel people lying and will the French authorities ever take the word of one small English woman who can't speak their language. It's just one maddening frustration after another. Meanwhile, we're wondering what the heck is going on.

It's a really good suspenser as we accompany Vicki while she tries, with George's (Bogarde) help, to unravel the baffling mystery. The studio does a great job re- creating the appearance of 19th century Paris and its elaborate Exhibition, especially the ballooning episode. Also, I really like the boisterous nightclub scene that overflows with energetic gaiety. David Tomlinson too is perfect as the rather uptight English brother who can't seem to get into the swing of things Parisian. And where did they get that hotel majordomo (Catherine Nesbitt) who's officious enough to intimidate King Kong.

Anyway, the movie's enough to make you appreciate everyday things like a common reality we can all agree on. The riveting premise may have been done more than once, but never better than here.

Wonderful re-creation of the gai Paris of l'exposition universelle with its Eiffel Tower(which was to be destroyed after it,but they did not,certainly wisely).Superb atmosphere in "l'hotel de la licorne" where Cathleen Nesbitt impressed me with her perfect French (I thought she was French).There are probably too many people in Paris 1889 who speak English ,but Terence Fisher makes a welcome frequent use of the Victor Hugo language.

As for the story,it's an absorbing story of a gentleman who vanishes in the grand tradition of "the lady vanishes" but Jean Simmons's character,who's slowly believing she's losing her mind reminds me more of "Gaslight" (1940 and 1944).The scene with the balloon is a great moment:is -it really an accident? Who's behind all that?Spies?Thieves?Murderers?You'll be wondering during the whole movie and the ending,for once ,will not disappoint you:it's so unexpected that it's impossible to guess it .Excellent performances by the whole cast.