To Paris with Love

"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.

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.

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.

"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.

Paris - Alec Guinness - color - one might think that would be enough, but alas, it isn't. "To Paris, With Love" is a 1955 Rank film about a father and son (Guinness as Col. Fraser and Vernon Gray as John Fraser) going to Paris in order to matchmake for one another. Plus, Col. Fraser wants more time with his son.

They meet women, all right, but it seems that Col. Fraser is attracted to a young woman closer to John's age, and vice versa. A widower, he wasn't necessarily looking for love, either, but his quiet lifestyle bothers his son. "At 42," the Colonel says, "one has a few good years left." The perception of age has really changed.

Unfortunately for all parties, the film moves like lead and is about as dull as a movie can get, except for the beautiful shots of Paris. Alec Guinness is marvelous but wasted. There is one very funny scene at the door of their hotel room, but it's not enough.

Very hard to concentrate and stay interested in this film.