So Long at the Fair ***½ (1950, Jean Simmons, Dirk Bogarde, David Tomlinson, Marcel Poncin, Cathleen Nesbitt, Honor Blackman, Felix Aylmer, Austin Trevor) – Classic Movie Review 4,600

Jean Simmons stars as Vicky Barton, a British visitor to France who is naturally frantic when her brother Johnny (David Tomlinson) disappears without any kind of trace from their Parisian hotel during the Paris Exposition in 1889.

The 1950 British film noir So Long at the Fair is an attractive, well-crafted filming of Anthony Thorne’s once famous 1947 mystery thriller story. It is rather too gently and discreetly directed by Terence Fisher and Antony Darnborough, but it is brought to the screen with appealing performances and a handsome production.

Jean Simmons stars as Vicky Barton, a British visitor to France who is naturally frantic when her brother Johnny (David Tomlinson) disappears without any kind of trace from their Parisian hotel during the Paris Exposition in 1889. They sleep in separate rooms, but when Vicky gets up, her brother and his room have disappeared and no one will acknowledge that he was there.

Neither the hotel staff, nor the British consul (Felix Aylmer) nor the police inspector (Austin Trevor) can shed any light on the dark matter. But luckily a handsome English artist called George Hathaway (Dirk Bogarde) is there to help Ms Simmons’s Vicky.

So Long at the Fair (1950, Jean Simmons, Dirk Bogarde).

Also in the cast are Marcel Poncin, Cathleen Nesbitt, Honor Blackman, Betty Warren, Felix Aylmer, André Morell, Zena Marshall, Eugene Deckers, Michael Ward, Nelly Arno, and Natasha Sokolova.

The title is of course the fourth line of a well-known nursery rhyme folk song, ‘Johnny’s so long at the fair’  that can be traced back to 1770s England: ‘O what can the matter be, And what can the matter be O what can the matter be, Johnny bydes lang at the fair.’

The premise derives from a 19th-century urban legend, known as The Vanishing Hotel Room or The Vanishing Lady, which has inspired several works of fiction. The first published was Nancy Vincent McClelland’s A Mystery of the Paris Exposition in The Philadelphia Inquirer 14 November 1897.

Antony Darborough was held up making The Astonished Heart so Betty Box found herself appointed producer at the last minute.

The Astonished Heart was considered a commercial failure, taking £93,000 (by 1953), but So Long at the Fair was judged to have performed solidly at the box office, taking £132,000 (by 1953).

It was shot at Pinewood Studios on sets were designed by Cedric Dawe and George Provis with costumes designed by Elizabeth Haffenden.

The Paris Exposition was the world’s fair held in Paris from 6 May to 31 October 1889, held to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the storming of the Bastille. It featured 237 acres of art, architecture, music and belly dancing.

In the film, an advertisement for the Paris Exposition wrongly states that it will run to 6 November 1889 (though the closing ceremony was on that date).

On TV, an episode of the anthology series Alfred Hitchcock Presents Into Thin Air (1955) is based on the same tale. Alfred Hitchcock’s daughter Patricia Hitchcock (credited as Pat Hitchcock) starred as Diana Winthrop in Season 1 Episode 5: Into Thin Air [aka The Vanishing Lady] (30 October 1955).

The cast are Jean Simmons as Vicky Barton, Dirk Bogarde as George Hathaway, David Tomlinson as Johnny Barton, Marcel Poncin as Narcisse, Cathleen Nesbitt as Madame Hervé, Honor Blackman as Rhoda O’Donovan, Betty Warren as Mrs. O’Donovan, Zena Marshall as Nina, Eugene Deckers as Day Porter, Felix Aylmer as British Consul, André Morell as Doctor Hart, Austin Trevor as Police Commissaire, Natasha Sokolova as Charlotte  Nelly Arno as Madame Verni, and Michael Ward.

Release dates: 31 May 1950 (UK) 29 March 1951 (US).

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4,600

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