The Last Time I Saw Paris **½ (1954, Elizabeth Taylor, Van Johnson, Walter Pidgeon, Roger Moore, Donna Reed, Eva Gabor) – Classic Movie Review 6412

F Scott Fitzgerald’s 1931 semi-autobiographical short story of Americans in Paris, Babylon Revisited, makes a loose starting point basis for an interesting though shaky 1954 movie under Richard Brooks’s direction. Its setting is shifted from 1929 to post-World War Two Paris.

Apart from Van Johnson, who is not ideally cast in the central key role as reporter and would-be novelist Charles ‘Charlie’ Wills, the movie is greatly and helped by the actors and by the colourful MGM production. Hard as they try though, Johnson and Elizabeth Taylor mostly fail to convince as a couple who love each other but tear each other apart.

Taylor, however, is vivacious and appealing as Helen Ellswirth, the life and soul of the film, even though Johnson plays the main character. Walter Pidgeon as the easygoing father James Ellswirth and Donna Reed as Taylor’s serious, envious sister Marion are excellent.

Director and co-writer Brooks has not brought enough clarity, pace or class to it all, surprisingly so because Brooks and the Epstein twins, Julius J Epstein and Philip G Epstein, are expert writers on a good day.

Also in the cast are Walter Pidgeon, Donna Reed, Eva Gabor, Kurt Kasznar, George Dolenz, Roger Moore (as Paul), Sandy Descher, Celia Lovsky, Peter Leeds, John Doucette, Odette, Tim Cagney, Ann Codee, Harry Cody, Gene Coogan, Josette Deegan, Richard Emory, Gilda Fontana, Mary Ann Hawkins, Jean Heremans, Matt Moore, Ed Hinton, Christian Pasques, Paul Power, Loulette Sablon, Luis Urbina, Bruno VeSota and Steve Wayne.

It is shot in Technicolor by Joseph Ruttenberg, produced by Jack Cummings, scored by Conrad Salinger and designed by Cedric Gibbons.

Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein’s Oscar-winning song The Last Time I Saw Paris is sung by Odette Myrtil.

Roger Moore plays Paul in The Last Time I Saw Paris.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6412

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