''To Paris with Love'' is a 1955 British

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

directed by

Robert Hamer Robert Hamer (31 March 1911 – 4 December 1963) was a British film director and screenwriter best known for the 1949 black comedy ''Kind Hearts and Coronets''. Biography Hamer was born at 24 Chester Road, Kidderminster, along with his twi ...

and starring

Alec Guinness Sir Alec Guinness (born Alec Guinness de Cuffe; 2 April 1914 – 5 August 2000) was an English actor. After an early career on the stage, Guinness was featured in several of the Ealing comedies, including ''Kind Hearts and Coronets'' (194 ...

Odile Versois Odile Versois (born Étiennette de Poliakoff-Baydaroff; 15 June 1930 – 23 June 1980) was a French actress who appeared in 47 film and television productions between 1948 and 1980. Versois was the sister of actresses Marina Vlady, Hélène ...

and Vernon Gray.

Premise

A father and son play matchmaker for each other during a trip to Paris.

Cast

as Col. Sir Edgar Fraser *

as Lizette Marconne *Vernon Gray as John Fraser *

Elina Labourdette Elina Labourdette (1919–2014) was a French film actress An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as fil ...

as Sylvia Gilbert *

Jacques François Henri Jacques Daniel Paul François (16 May 1920 – 25 November 2003), known as Jacques François was a French actor. During a sixty-year career (1942–2002) he appeared in more than 120 films and over 30 stage productions. In 1948 he we ...

as Victor de Colville *

Austin Trevor Claude Austin Trevor Schilsky (7 October 1897 – 22 January 1978) was an Irish actor who had a long career in film and television. He played the parson in John Galsworthy's ''Escape'' at the world premiere in London's West End in 1926 an ...

as Leon de Colville *

Jacques Brunius __NOTOC__ Jacques B. Brunius (born Jacques Henri Cottance, 16 September 1906 – 24 April 1967) was a French actor, director and writer, who was born in Paris and died in Exeter, UK. He was cremated in Sidmouth, with a tribute by Mesens. Assista ...

as Aristide Marconnet *Claude Romain as Georges Duprez *Maureen Davis as Suzanne de Colville *Mollie Hartley Milburn as Madame Alvarez *Michael Anthony as Pierre *Pamela Stirling as Madame Marconnet *Claude Collier as Solo Drummer, Cabaret Act *George Lafaye Company as Cabaret Act

Production

Though the release prints received the credit 'Color by Technicolor', the production was filmed on location in

Eastmancolor Eastmancolor is a trade name used by Eastman Kodak for a number of related film and processing technologies associated with color motion picture production and referring to George Eastman, founder of Kodak. Eastmancolor, introduced in 1950, was on ...

and at Pinewood Studios in 3-strip

Technicolor Technicolor is a series of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films ...

. This was at a time when the photographing of British films in colour was moving from 3-strip Technicolor to Eastmancolor. Such films are considered hybrids, another being ''

The Purple Plain ''The Purple Plain'' is a 1954 British war film directed by Robert Parrish, with Gregory Peck playing a Royal Canadian Air Force pilot serving in the Royal Air Force in the Burma campaign in the closing months of the Second World War, who is b ...

'', made by the same production company the previous year.

Reception

Critical reception

In a contemporary review, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' wrote, "the screen play by Robert Buckner about a Scottish gentleman and his son who visit Paris and have mild infatuations, the son with an older woman and the father with a girl, is an obvious and strained stab at humor, almost empty of wit or irony. And the performance of Mr. Guinness in it is perhaps the most pallid and listless he has ever turned in. These are hard words to utter about Mr. Guinness and one of his films, but the lack of his customary vigor is so evident that the words cannot be withheld. Except for occasional moments, when Mr. Guinness takes sudden spurts at farce—such as getting his suspenders caught in a hotel-room door or finding himself entangled in a badminton net—he walks through his slight romantic pretense as though he were either ill or bored. His director, Robert Hamer, must share the responsibility, too, for the pace and invention in creation are conspicuously slow and undefined". More recently, the ''

Radio Times ''Radio Times'' (currently styled as ''RadioTimes'') is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, with other features such as interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Founded in May 1923 by J ...

'' applauded the film as "An amiable, light-hearted exercise in postwar "naughtiness"...enlivened by Guinness's engaging performance, reunited as he is with his ''

Kind Hearts and Coronets ''Kind Hearts and Coronets'' is a 1949 British crime black comedy film. It features Dennis Price, Joan Greenwood, Valerie Hobson and Alec Guinness; Guinness plays nine characters. The plot is loosely based on the novel ''Israel Rank: The Autob ...

'' director Robert Hamer, and a screenplay of sweet charm from

Warner Bros Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Di ...

veteran Robert Buckner. Both the leading lady, lovely Odile Versois, and Paris itself are delightful in mid-1950s Technicolor, and this movie, though slight, is often shamefully underrated."

Box Office

The film earned $700,000 in the US, a strong figure for a British movie at the time.

References

External links

* * 1955 films Films directed by Robert Hamer Films shot at Pinewood Studios British comedy films 1955 comedy films 1950s English-language films 1950s British films {{1950s-UK-comedy-film-stub