A Filha do Embaixador

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.

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.

(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 !

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 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.