Deux Anglais à Paris

While this gentle romantic film To Paris With Love (1955) is admittedly no masterpiece it does provide you with a nice cast, irreplaceable views of post-War Paris in 1955, including the grand old cars, stylish fashions men and women wore back then, the kind of music they listened to, how clean everything looked and how polite people were with one another in that era. All in Technicolor (it says Technicolor on the print itself right on the title frame, not Eastman Color as someone else stated, which is different and tends to diffuse more with time).

Alec Guinness is sweet in the film as he visits Paris with his 20 year old son (Vernon) in the hopes of finding a nice French girl for him. Little does he know that his son also hopes to find a nice older French woman for him. What occurs instead is that the son falls for an older woman and the father falls for a younger woman! I thought that both situations were understandable -- both women were attractive -- but still one senses early on they will merely end up being temporary flirtations and not the real thing.

If you are a romantic person you will probably enjoy the film. If you're not you're probably better off watching something else more realistic. I liked it. To each their own.

There are a number of British films from the 1950s about Brits going on holiday to France.most of them are shot in black and white,studio bound with average casts.However this film is different in that it is shot in colour with Alec Guiness starring and is clearly shot in Paris.One other difference the films in black and white were entertaining but this one is dreadfully dull.You get the impression that the producers were relying a bit too much in the different personality traits of the French as if France is an exotic country despite being only 21miles away.The Eastman Colour photography is very pleasant and that is about as good as it gets for this rather dull affair.

"To Paris With Love" fails to deliver what it ostensibly promises. First of all Paris gets only a few token frames of film, so this story could have been shot anywhere. Also, there is very little romantic love in this film.

A father and son visit Paris, where each plans to search for the other's mate. The father, a widower, is a nearly prehistoric forty- two years old. This characterization is one of the film's biggest problems. The son needs some experience. Well, fortunately for them, the two female subjects fall into their laps within the first few seconds of the film.

This simple--yet intriguing--storyline could have been magical in the hands of Shakespeare (or Woody Allen). Here, it's all predictable and transparent.

Alec Guiness, terrific in roles like "The Bridge on the River Kwai", falls flat here. The premise that he is such an old fuddy duddy only serves to magnify the mismatching of his character with a much younger French woman. The dialogue and the plot provide few interesting moments for him or his fellow actors. When the story is over, little has happened--certainly nothing of consequence.

Alec Guinness starred in an impressive number of very good comedies in the 1950s, and most of these are now sadly quite obscure. The obscurity of Robert Hamer's 'To Paris with Love' *isn't* such a tragedy, however. There are one or two genuinely funny lines in this film, but the laughs are far too infrequent to justify watching it, even in light of its rather forgiving 78 minute runtime. The performances are not too bad and Guinness's is predictably solid, but when the film's problems are situated in the writing and directing even a legion of A-listers would probably fail to elevate it out of mediocrity. To the fans of 'Kind Hearts and Coronets' who've found their way to this later pairing of Hamer and Guinness: don't get your hopes up.

I love Alec Guinness. And that's saying a lot after this film. Actually, he is not bad in it. He just seems to stand aside, be urbane and his usual delightful self, but invest nada. It is obvious the girl he is matched with is a featherweight, even as an inexperienced young French girl. Sir Alec wouldn't have chosen her when he was young and very obviously isn't too happy about it now.

The interesting character is the brooding brother of the odd "Suzanne", another twit. "Donald" aspires to be a French Heathcliffe and I waited in vain for the source of his mystery. What deep dark secret was he hiding behind that forehead? Was he in love with the father's mistress? Why did he jerk Suzanne's hair when she plotted to bring the disparate parts of this turkey together on the country estate? Or perhaps he had simply had enough of her obnoxious acting.

The film would have been charming with Guiness and the "older woman" reminiscing and seeing Paris together. THAT would have been a great story! Two lovely experienced people in a beautiful city after the destruction of World War II. Why didn't somebody come up with that? I suggest watching Alec Guiness in "The Card", a little known but worthwhile film.