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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
This is a very fine and enjoyable love story starring a great actress (Elizabeth Taylor) and a fine actor (Van Johnson), Elizabeth Taylor is not featured as much as I'd like, but you can't have everything I guess, I don't know if there is a re-mastered version of this anywhere, but if there is I'd highly recommend buying it, don't waste your money on this as the transfer on this version is at least poor and whilst the voice sound is good there is a constant hiss throughout the film.
This film may be 55 years old, but I've been watching films today that are as old as 76 years old and they look and sound so much better than this, if they have not already then I really hope that they re-master this soon, I'm off to try to find out if they have or not, if not then I'll have to put up with this video copy for now (it looks like it's been taped from a poor quality video copy).
This film may be 55 years old, but I've been watching films today that are as old as 76 years old and they look and sound so much better than this, if they have not already then I really hope that they re-master this soon, I'm off to try to find out if they have or not, if not then I'll have to put up with this video copy for now (it looks like it's been taped from a poor quality video copy).
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
This transcription to DVD was clearly made from a well worn copy of this film, since it has various streaks, flashes and scratch lines throughout its run. The colour rendering was not the best produced circa 1954.
Nevertheless it is an enjoyable film to watch, romantic, at times sad, and morally challenging. The plot is set at the end of WWII in Paris just after the liberation and victory in Europe. A US officer working as a war journalist meets two sisters in the celebrations, whose father is American, and they are all living in Paris. One of the sisters falls in love with him instantly, but he seems to be attracted to the other. He marries the latter, but her sister then holds a grudge against him long term for spurning her love. They suddenly become wealthy when some potentially oil-bearing land in Texas, which the father gives them as a wedding present, actually begins to produce oil. The hatred of the spurned sister grows worse, when due to their life of carelessness and drunkenness his wife becomes seriously ill after a late winter night out, and he is intoxicated and incapable indoors, and does not open the door for her to get back into the house. His wife then goes to the house of her sister and her husband, but has meantime become cold and ill, and shortly afterwards dies. This results in a dire situation concerning his daughter from the marriage, whose custody is sequestered by the spurned sister.
The journalist then returns to the USA and concentrates on getting his career together, since by this time the wealth has run out. After a few years he decides to return to Paris to see his daughter and to attempt to retrieve custody of her. His return finally exposures that the other sister has held a torch for him for many years ever since their first meeting, and blames him for her sister's death.
The end of the film is a dichotomy of relief tinged with sadness. In a sense all ends well, but the viewer is left with a sense of despair and loneliness.
Nevertheless it is an enjoyable film to watch, romantic, at times sad, and morally challenging. The plot is set at the end of WWII in Paris just after the liberation and victory in Europe. A US officer working as a war journalist meets two sisters in the celebrations, whose father is American, and they are all living in Paris. One of the sisters falls in love with him instantly, but he seems to be attracted to the other. He marries the latter, but her sister then holds a grudge against him long term for spurning her love. They suddenly become wealthy when some potentially oil-bearing land in Texas, which the father gives them as a wedding present, actually begins to produce oil. The hatred of the spurned sister grows worse, when due to their life of carelessness and drunkenness his wife becomes seriously ill after a late winter night out, and he is intoxicated and incapable indoors, and does not open the door for her to get back into the house. His wife then goes to the house of her sister and her husband, but has meantime become cold and ill, and shortly afterwards dies. This results in a dire situation concerning his daughter from the marriage, whose custody is sequestered by the spurned sister.
The journalist then returns to the USA and concentrates on getting his career together, since by this time the wealth has run out. After a few years he decides to return to Paris to see his daughter and to attempt to retrieve custody of her. His return finally exposures that the other sister has held a torch for him for many years ever since their first meeting, and blames him for her sister's death.
The end of the film is a dichotomy of relief tinged with sadness. In a sense all ends well, but the viewer is left with a sense of despair and loneliness.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
This film was based on the story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Return to Babylon, and I think if you hang on to that, you can just about glimpse what a good film it almost is. Unfortunatley, it is hopelessly miscast, with Taylor, who should be playing the jealous sister, a la Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (I always think of her as neurotic and spoilt, but here, she plays a faithful and wronged wife). Swop the two female leads around and it might have made more sense. Van Johnson wrings a lot of overacted emotions out of his unremarkable face, but one is always distracted by his ridiculous proto-quiff. He is too nice to play the straying hubby. The little girl, Vicky, is charming without straying into total sickliness - I thought she was played by a young Jane Birkin, because that's what she looks like, but I was wrong. For me, however, the great pleasure of this film is seeing Paris (and Monte Carlo) in the 1950s - wonderful! You can't imagine them filming some of the scenes there now, and I think the racecourse at Argenteuil is no longer even in use. The clothes are to die for, from Van Johnson's too-wide overcoat shoulders, to Taylor's wasp-waisted, off the shoulder evening dress and Gabor's blue fur wrap. In one scene, Liz, hosting a charity ball, and done up to the nines in satin crinoline and diamonds, offers to rustle up a meal for her frustrated author husband because he has writer's block. Priceless! It's slow, but visually, it's a great treat, in which Elizabeth Taylor's beauty is worthy of the legend.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
But which issue?????
I have not seen this film (I have to give 'stars' to get this published), but I would like to buy it - so when I read reviews commenting on the transfer quality, I really would... Read more
Published 25 days ago by Mr. Charles R. Day
Heartbreaking excellence
I loved this film when I saw it at the age of 14. Forty years later I love it the same. It is a story with many dimensions - love, disillusionment, jealousy, hope, loss and the... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Freedom
Van Johnson surprises me
I was surprised that Van Johnson is much better than I would have thought. Though he is the main actor together with Elizabeth Taylor and EzT is the top of the bill, this is Van... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Peter Thomsen
The Last Time I saw Paris (1954) (DVD)Elizabeth Taylor
This particular version should be viewed as an archive film. The colour is very uneven with Van Johnson often looking like he has a skin problem, the shooting seems to be jerky... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Derek Vernon-morris
HATED THE STORYLINE
I guess F Scott Fitzgerald is a product very much fixed in time (1930s?), so even if you set his book in a 1950s movie, it's still very much a product of its time. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Redbarnchris
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