To Paris with Love

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.

"To Paris with Love" starts off with a good premise for a romantic comedy: a middle-aged widower and his 20-year-old son both decide to play matchmaker for each other, but each one soon finds himself falling for the woman he'd picked out for the other. Unfortunately, the potential of this idea is never realized. The story and direction are bland, and there's no perceptible chemistry between the couples in any of their permutations. The charm of Alec Guinness provides some appealing moments (particularly in one sequence where he attempts to impress his young lady friend by retrieving a lost shuttlecock), but too often, the script is just too flat for even Guinness to liven up.

In the 1950s, Alec Guinness made a long string of some of the most wonderful comedies ever made. However, it's very sad that most of you have probably never seen them and only remember this actor for his work in STAR WARS. THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT, THE HORSE'S MOUTH and KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS (among many others) are all fabulous Guinness films and I would heartily recommend just about every film Guinness made in the 50s--except for this somewhat dull film. Unfortunately, TO Paris WITH LOVE isn't particularly funny nor is it particularly distinguished. If it hadn't been for Guinness in the lead, I truly doubt I would have ever bothered watching it--it's just so mediocre.

The story is about a man and his 20-something son going on a holiday to Paris and both are intent on setting the other up with a lady. The problem is, Guinness ends up with the young one and the son gets the older girlfriend--and you know that both would really be better off switching partners.

Despite being so ordinary, there's nothing bad about the film or the acting. I think the problem mostly is that with such high expectations, the film was bound to disappoint.

Ealing Studio's output deteriorated noticeably when in the 1950s they increasingly worked in colour. Similarly the modesty that characterised Hamer's films at Ealing is here notable for its absence; especially as Alec Guinness isn't exactly obvious casting as a romantic lead.

Which accounts for why this rather trivial romantic comedy - despite the use of Parisian locations - provides further evidence that during the fifties a director was likely to make his least interesting work in colour.