The Last Time I Saw Paris

What a terrible case of bad casting. Van Johnson has the emotional range of Herbie the Love Bug. There is no chemistry between him and Taylor, who is as gorgeous as ever and makes you wonder why SHE could fall so hard for HIM. Why in the HELL is HE in this movie!!

The rest of the cast is near perfect by comparison. The story... er, well... it's terribly contrived and predictable. Aside from Johnson making his character a big baby, I could follow most of it with my disbelief suspended. This role calls for someone who 1) is loveable, 2) is a rake, 3) is a believeable drunk, 4) is physically at least half as attractive as Taylor, and lastly, 5) can act worth a damn. Needless to say, the person they chose fits none of these characteristics. William Holden would have been perfect in this role. I'd like to hear the back story of how Johnson got the part, because he must have been blackmailing someone.

The Last Time I Saw Paris was the second of two films that Elizabeth Taylor and Van Johnson co-starred. What a difference in four years from The Big Hangover where Johnson was billed ahead of Taylor.

Which is odd in this case because the film is really about Johnson. It's based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's story, Babylon Revisited which takes place in Paris after World War I. MGM apparently thinking that the audience would be more amenable to a story taking place after World War II, so the plot was updated for France of the Fourth Republic.

It doesn't quite work though, France of that era was a whole lot different than France of the Roaring Twenties. They partied then also when Paris was liberated and the Germans chased out of their country, but on the whole it was a time for more sober reflection of what France's role in the post war world would be. The Roaring Twenties that Fitzgerald wrote about were not the Roaring Forties.

Van Johnson is a GI who comes upon a family of expatriates who lived in Paris right through the occupation. Walter Pidgeon and his two daughters, Donna Reed and Elizabeth Taylor. They both are interested, but Johnson has eyes only for Liz. And the film is their story.

It's a tragic story, you can see Fitzgerald himself in Van Johnson, the would be writer who becomes a dissolute playboy. Partying right along with him is Taylor who is the image of Fitzgerald's party girl wife Zelda.

MGM did this one on the cheap. There are some shots of Paris, but on the whole the Paris you see is the Paris that was created by the studio for their classic musical An American in Paris. View the films side by side and you'll have no doubt.

Look for Eva Gabor as a divorcée who likes Johnson and a very young Roger Moore as a tennis pro who'd like to be a kept man by Taylor.

It's a nice story, but it could have been a whole lot better if MGM had actually shot the film in Paris completely and really set in the period it was written.

Though downbeat and sometimes sad, this is a generally well-crafted human drama that explores several aspects of family life and relationships. Elizabeth Taylor is the standout in a good cast, with Van Johnson also getting some good scenes. The postwar Paris setting is used in a number of well-conceived ways in the story.

Johnson plays the main character, a reporter and would-be novelist who begins the movie with a trip back to Paris, and begins reminiscing about the past. The character's career disappointments and family crises give much of the story a markedly pessimistic (if not depressing) tone, yet Johnson plays the part believably, and the story brings out some worthwhile thoughts, as his character gradually loses his perspective on things.

As his wife, Taylor's appeal and energy stand out every time she is on screen, but more importantly, she develops the character consistently throughout the story, often in interesting contrast to Johnson's character. She starts out as a rather spoiled, fun-loving young woman, then gradually takes on more depth and character. Her performance adds considerable meaning to the rest of the movie, and it also help in making the other characters more believable.

Walter_Pidgeon (sorry, otherwise can't get it past the spell-checker) seems to be having fun as the easygoing father, and Donna Reed does a solid job in a rather thankless role as Taylor's more serious, sometimes envious sister. Eva Gabor and a young Roger Moore play characters who are one-dimensional yet important to the plot.

Overall, everything works pretty well. The pace is just a bit slow at times, which occasionally makes for heavy going during the sadder stretches. But these always have a point, and as a whole it is a worthwhile drama with some interesting characters.

At the end of the war years his character, Charles, is a writer for the Stars and Stripes, and wants to continue a career in journalism. He meets James Ellswirth (Walter Pidgeon), an aging member of the lost generation, and his two grown daughters. There is level headed Marion (Donna Reed) and frisky flirtatious Helen (Elizabeth Taylor).

Charles and Marion are first an item, but then Helen steals him away from her own sister. Marion settles down with somebody else. That is to say, she settles for someone else. Houses tend to settle, and it's usually no fun to watch. But I digress.

Then the barren worthless oil fields that James gave Charles and Helen as a wedding present come in big time and suddenly Charles and Helen are fabulously wealthy and they transform into a second lost generation in the tradition of dear old dad, except this time with the money to make a really big mess of their lives. Charles quits his job and just becomes a huge drunken womanizing jerk, feeling sorry for himself because all of his rejection from publishers. This is where we get to the hard to believe part. I just don't buy Van Johnson as this tortured yet shallow soul. Louis B. Mayer, when he was redecorating MGM after Irving Thalberg's death, specifically hired Johnson because of his easy, song and dance man's likability and uncomplicated face. The part cries out for Kirk Douglas or maybe even better - Montgomery Clift.

A huge tragedy ensues, and Marion, taking time off from settling, comes back into the picture to make things even worse. Who do I really feel sorry for in this film full of unlikeable characters? Marion's husband, who at the end, finally figures out he's been settled for all of these years. You can see it in his face. And if that face looks familiar, it's because the actor is the father of Monkee Mickey Dolenz.

Come on, IMDb-ers! Check the credits for a film before you embarrass yourselves. It was Eva Gabor, not her sister, Zsa Zsa, who had a small role in this film. Mama Jolie and her glamorous daughters are a part of the American celebrity/entertainment scene that so many of us remember rather fondly and Eva, among them, was quite a charming actress. (Check out her appearances in Minnelli's "Gigi" and the Paul Newman/Joanne Woodward clunker, "A New Kind of Love," in which Eva almost stole the show, despite the presence of Thelma Ritter who usually carried off that particular prize.)

"The Last Time I Saw Paris" was typical mid-Fifties high gloss soap opera from M-G-M, and it's a bit of a surprise that Richard Brooks was the director, since he's noted for somewhat more topical and/or hard-hitting stuff. But, as a look back at the gorgeous Elizabeth emoting most fetchingly at the peak of her camera-worthiness, this one can hardly be beat.