The city of Paris, as a character in this film, looks chilly and rainy. The leaves are barely budding, and there is snow on the ground in some scenes. Some of the street scenes are dingy and gray, however this plays a role in the story as it develops. By contrast this made the indoor scenes at the cafes, and parties seem bright and homey and gay. This film reminded me a lot of another film, The Snows Of Kilimanjaro with Ava Gardner (another intoxicating brunette) and Gregory Peck. Both films were about a writer who can't get out of his own head, or out of his own way.
In TLTISP, Charles (Van Johnson) is a newspaper man trying to write the great American novel and not having much success. We begin to wonder whether or not he really is a very good writer, or whether he just has a string of bad luck with publishers. Rejection, after rejection piles up and his frustration overflows, and so does the booze. Charles is a loveable lush though, and seems to be forgiven by Helen even as his indiscretions grow more blatant. This hazy behavior just allows Helen to do what she really wants to do, which is to party in Paris all the time. And no one in the movie really blames her either. Except her sister Mary (Donna Reed) who has a pissy, frigid attitude because she fell in love with Charles first. Add to that a dodgy father-in-law, played by Walter Pidgeon, and a bratty ballerina child and you have one helluva dysfunctional family. It's no wonder Charles drank.
Helen (Liz) and her boy toy Paul (Roger Moore). Helen asks herself the eternal F Scott Fitzgerald question, What difference does it make what I do?
Liz had this to say in a 1964 interview with the New York Times:
" A rather curiously not-so-good picture, The Last Time I Saw Paris, first convinced me I wanted to be an actress instead of yawning my way through parts. [My character] was offbeat with mercurial flashes of instability-more than just glib dialogue." (Source: Liz by C David Heymann, Birch Lane Press)
This film is part of a compilation DVD called Great Cinema 15 Films. It includes: The Snows of Kilimanjaro, Anna Karenina with Vivian Leigh, Of Human Bondage and many other films with early roles by great actors and actresses. Some of the movies were made for TV, and are of lesser quality, but still contain good performances such as Jane Eyre with George C Scott. It's a great DVD to pop in on a rainy Sunday and pick one to watch at random.
