The Last Time I Saw Paris
Encyclopedia
The Last Time I Saw Paris is a 1954
romantic drama made by MGM. It is loosely based on F. Scott Fitzgerald
's short story "Babylon Revisited
." It was directed by Richard Brooks
, produced by Jack Cummings and filmed on locations in Paris and the MGM backlot
. The screenplay was by Julius J. Epstein
, Philip G. Epstein
and Richard Brooks.
The film starred Elizabeth Taylor
and Van Johnson
in his last role for MGM, with Walter Pidgeon
, Donna Reed
, Eva Gabor
, Kurt Kasznar
, George Dolenz
, Sandy Descher
and Roger Moore
in his Hollywood debut. The film's title song
, by composer Jerome Kern
and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II
, was already a classic when the movie was made and inspired the movie's title. Though the song had already won an Oscar after its film debut in 1941's Lady Be Good
, it is featured much more prominently in "The Last Time I Saw Paris." It can be heard in many scenes, either being sung by Odette Myrtil
or being played as an instrumental.
The film is in the public domain.
ends in Europe, Stars and Stripes
journalist Charles Wills (Van Johnson
) is on the streets of Paris
, covering the celebrations. He is suddenly grabbed by a beautiful woman, who kisses him and disappears. Charles follows the crowd to Café Dhingo and meets another pretty woman named Marion Elliswirth (Donna Reed
). The mutual attraction is instant and she invites him to join her father's celebration of the end of the war in Europe. Charles, Marion and her persistent French
suitor Claude Matine (George Dolenz
) arrive at the Elliswirth household, and we find that the woman who had kissed Charles is Marion's younger sister Helen (Elizabeth Taylor
).
Their father, James Elliswirth (Walter Pidgeon
), had survived World War I
and promptly joined the Lost Generation
. Unlike most drifter
s, he never grew out of it; raising his two daughters to desire such a lifestyle. Helen takes after her father and uses her beauty to sustain a life of luxury even though they are flat broke. Marion goes the other way and looks for serious-minded and conventional young men such as Claude, an aspiring prosecutor, and Charles, the future novelist.
Charles and Helen fall in love and start dating. After Helen recovers from a near-death case of pneumonia
, they get married and settle in Paris. James good-naturedly joins the happy family of Charles, with Helen eventually having a daughter Vickie (Sandy Descher
). Marion, having lost Charles to Helen, agrees to marry Claude. Charles struggles to make ends meet with his meagre salary, unsuccessfully works on his novels and looks after Vickie.
At about this time, the barren oil field
s in Texas
James had bought years before finally begin to produce. Charles, to whom James had given the oil fields as a dowry
, quits his job, and Helen and James begin to host parties instead of going to them. Sudden wealth changes Helen, who becomes more responsible, while Charles parties his wealth away after quitting his newspaper job and having all his novels rejected by publishers. They also each start to pursue other interests: Helen flirts with handsome tennis player Paul Lane (Roger Moore
), while Charles competes in a local Paris-to-Monte Carlo
race with professional divorcee Lorraine Quarl (Eva Gabor
).
After the race Charles returns to Paris, only to find Helen sitting in Café Dhingo with Paul. A fight breaks out between Paul and Charles, and an angry Charles goes home first and puts the chain on the door, preventing it from being opened all the way. When Helen comes home and tries to enter she can't. She calls out to him, but Charles is in a drunken stupor
on the staircase and we hear the bottle drop from his hands as Helen calls. Helen ends up having to walk all the way to her sister's in the snow and rain. She catches pneumonia again and dies.
Marion petitions for and gets full custody of Vickie, while Charles returns home to America. A few years later, having straightened himself out, published a book, and stopped boozing, Charles returns to Paris, hoping his reform will persuade Marion to give Vickie back to him. Marion refuses, still feeling resentful towards Charles for having fallen for Helen instead of her. Seeing that Charles and Vickie belong together, Claude steps in and tells Marion that she is punishing Charles for his not realizing that Marion loved him. It is painful for him to tell her that he, Claude, could not have all of her love, but Charles should not be punished any more.
Marion goes into Café Dhingo (on whose main wall is a big picture of Helen) to look for Charles (who is gazing at the painting) and tells him that Helen would not have wanted him to be alone. Outside the cafe, Claude is with Vickie. The child runs to Charles and Charles and the child walk off together as the movie ends.
called it an "engrossing romantic drama." According to Bosley Crowther
, "The story is trite. The motivations are thin. The writing is glossy and pedestrian. The acting is pretty much forced. Mr. Johnson as the husband is too bumptious when happy and too dreary when drunk; Miss Taylor as the wife is delectable, but she is also occasionally quite dull. Mr. Pidgeon is elaborately devilish, Sandra Descher as the child is over-cute, Donna Reed as the bitter sister is vapid and several others are in the same vein."
The Time Out Film Guide said "Despite a very corny script from Julius and Philip Epstein which borrows clichés from Casablanca
and countless "American in Paris" yarns, this remains an enjoyable (if heavy-handed) melodrama
....Pidgeon steals the show as ... a penniless chancer who still manages to live the good life."
1954 in film
The year 1954 in film involved some significant events and memorable ones.-Events:*May 12 - The Marx Brothers' Zeppo Marx divorces wife Marion Benda...
romantic drama made by MGM. It is loosely based on F. Scott Fitzgerald
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigm writings of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost...
's short story "Babylon Revisited
Babylon Revisited
"Babylon Revisited" is a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, written in 1930 and first published on February 21, 1931 in the Saturday Evening Post. It was later adapted into a movie called The Last Time I Saw Paris.-Summary:...
." It was directed by Richard Brooks
Richard Brooks
Richard Brooks was an American screenwriter, film director, novelist and occasional film producer.-Early life and career:...
, produced by Jack Cummings and filmed on locations in Paris and the MGM backlot
Backlot
A backlot is an area behind or adjoining a movie studio, containing permanent exterior buildings for outdoor scenes in filmmaking or television productions, or space for temporary set construction....
. The screenplay was by Julius J. Epstein
Julius J. Epstein
Julius J. Epstein was an American screenwriter, who had a long career, best remembered for the adaptation - in partnership with his twin brother, Philip, and others - of the unproduced play Everybody Comes to Rick's that became the screenplay for the film Casablanca , for which its team of writers...
, Philip G. Epstein
Philip G. Epstein
Philip G. Epstein was an American screenwriter most known for his adaptation in partnership with his twin brother, Julius, and others, of the unproduced play Everybody Comes to Rick's which became the Academy Award-winning screenplay of the film Casablanca .Epstein was born in New York City and...
and Richard Brooks.
The film starred Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond "Liz" Taylor, DBE was a British-American actress. From her early years as a child star with MGM, she became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age...
and Van Johnson
Van Johnson
Van Johnson was an American film and television actor and dancer who was a major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios during and after World War II....
in his last role for MGM, with Walter Pidgeon
Walter Pidgeon
Walter Davis Pidgeon was a Canadian actor, who starred in many motion pictures, including Mrs...
, Donna Reed
Donna Reed
Donna Reed was an American film and television actress.With appearances in over 40 films, Reed received the 1953 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as the tramp Lorene in the war drama From Here to Eternity. She is also noted for her role in the perennial Christmas...
, Eva Gabor
Eva Gabor
Eva Gabor was a Hungarian-born socialite and actress. She was widely known for her role on Green Acres as Lisa Douglas, the wife of Eddie Albert's character, Oliver Wendell Douglas, Duchess in the 1970 Disney film The Aristocats, and Miss Bianca in Disney's The Rescuers and The Rescuers Down Under...
, Kurt Kasznar
Kurt Kasznar
-Early life:Kasznar was born in Vienna, Austria as Kurt Servischer. His father left when Kurt was very young, his mother married a Hungarian restaurateur named Ferdinand Kasznar, and Kurt assumed his surname. He emigrated to the United States in the mid-1930s for The Eternal Road in which he...
, George Dolenz
George Dolenz
George Dolenz was an American film actor born in Trieste , in the city's Slovene community.-Biography:...
, Sandy Descher
Sandy Descher
Sandra "Sandy" Descher is an American former child actress of the 1950s.-Biography:Although born in Burbank, California, she was discovered by accident while on vacation. When Descher was about five years old, her family had travelled across country to New York City where the girl fell in love...
and Roger Moore
Roger Moore
Sir Roger George Moore KBE , is an English actor, perhaps best known for portraying British secret agent James Bond in seven films from 1973 to 1985. He also portrayed Simon Templar in the long-running British television series The Saint.-Early life:Moore was born in Stockwell, London...
in his Hollywood debut. The film's title song
The Last Time I Saw Paris (song)
The Last Time I Saw Paris is a song composed by Jerome Kern, with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, published in 1940. It was sung in the 1941 film Lady Be Good by Ann Sothern....
, by composer Jerome Kern
Jerome Kern
Jerome David Kern was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over 100 stage works, including such classics as "Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", "A...
and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II
Oscar Hammerstein II
Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II was an American librettist, theatrical producer, and theatre director of musicals for almost forty years. Hammerstein won eight Tony Awards and was twice awarded an Academy Award for "Best Original Song". Many of his songs are standard repertoire for...
, was already a classic when the movie was made and inspired the movie's title. Though the song had already won an Oscar after its film debut in 1941's Lady Be Good
Lady Be Good (1941 film)
Lady Be Good is the title of an MGM musical film which was released in 1941.The film starred dancer Eleanor Powell along with Ann Sothern, Robert Young, Lionel Barrymore, and Red Skelton. It was directed by Norman Z. McLeod and produced by Arthur Freed...
, it is featured much more prominently in "The Last Time I Saw Paris." It can be heard in many scenes, either being sung by Odette Myrtil
Odette Myrtil
Odette Myrtil was an American actress, singer, and violinist of French birth. She began her career as a violinist on the vaudeville stage in Paris at the age of 14. She expanded out into acting and singing, and had her first major success at the age of 18 on the London stage in the 1916 musical...
or being played as an instrumental.
The film is in the public domain.
Plot
As World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
ends in Europe, Stars and Stripes
Stars and Stripes (newspaper)
Stars and Stripes is a news source that operates from inside the United States Department of Defense but is editorially separate from it. The First Amendment protection which Stars and Stripes enjoys is safeguarded by Congress to whom an independent ombudsman, who serves the readers' interests,...
journalist Charles Wills (Van Johnson
Van Johnson
Van Johnson was an American film and television actor and dancer who was a major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios during and after World War II....
) is on the streets of Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, covering the celebrations. He is suddenly grabbed by a beautiful woman, who kisses him and disappears. Charles follows the crowd to Café Dhingo and meets another pretty woman named Marion Elliswirth (Donna Reed
Donna Reed
Donna Reed was an American film and television actress.With appearances in over 40 films, Reed received the 1953 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as the tramp Lorene in the war drama From Here to Eternity. She is also noted for her role in the perennial Christmas...
). The mutual attraction is instant and she invites him to join her father's celebration of the end of the war in Europe. Charles, Marion and her persistent French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
suitor Claude Matine (George Dolenz
George Dolenz
George Dolenz was an American film actor born in Trieste , in the city's Slovene community.-Biography:...
) arrive at the Elliswirth household, and we find that the woman who had kissed Charles is Marion's younger sister Helen (Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond "Liz" Taylor, DBE was a British-American actress. From her early years as a child star with MGM, she became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age...
).
Their father, James Elliswirth (Walter Pidgeon
Walter Pidgeon
Walter Davis Pidgeon was a Canadian actor, who starred in many motion pictures, including Mrs...
), had survived World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and promptly joined the Lost Generation
Lost Generation
The "Lost Generation" is a term used to refer to the generation, actually a cohort, that came of age during World War I. The term was popularized by Ernest Hemingway who used it as one of two contrasting epigraphs for his novel, The Sun Also Rises. In that volume Hemingway credits the phrase to...
. Unlike most drifter
Drifter
Drifter or The Drifter may refer to:* Drifter , a person who is continually moving from place to place, without any fixed home or job-Film and television:...
s, he never grew out of it; raising his two daughters to desire such a lifestyle. Helen takes after her father and uses her beauty to sustain a life of luxury even though they are flat broke. Marion goes the other way and looks for serious-minded and conventional young men such as Claude, an aspiring prosecutor, and Charles, the future novelist.
Charles and Helen fall in love and start dating. After Helen recovers from a near-death case of pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
, they get married and settle in Paris. James good-naturedly joins the happy family of Charles, with Helen eventually having a daughter Vickie (Sandy Descher
Sandy Descher
Sandra "Sandy" Descher is an American former child actress of the 1950s.-Biography:Although born in Burbank, California, she was discovered by accident while on vacation. When Descher was about five years old, her family had travelled across country to New York City where the girl fell in love...
). Marion, having lost Charles to Helen, agrees to marry Claude. Charles struggles to make ends meet with his meagre salary, unsuccessfully works on his novels and looks after Vickie.
At about this time, the barren oil field
Oil field
An oil field is a region with an abundance of oil wells extracting petroleum from below ground. Because the oil reservoirs typically extend over a large area, possibly several hundred kilometres across, full exploitation entails multiple wells scattered across the area...
s in Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
James had bought years before finally begin to produce. Charles, to whom James had given the oil fields as a dowry
Dowry
A dowry is the money, goods, or estate that a woman brings forth to the marriage. It contrasts with bride price, which is paid to the bride's parents, and dower, which is property settled on the bride herself by the groom at the time of marriage. The same culture may simultaneously practice both...
, quits his job, and Helen and James begin to host parties instead of going to them. Sudden wealth changes Helen, who becomes more responsible, while Charles parties his wealth away after quitting his newspaper job and having all his novels rejected by publishers. They also each start to pursue other interests: Helen flirts with handsome tennis player Paul Lane (Roger Moore
Roger Moore
Sir Roger George Moore KBE , is an English actor, perhaps best known for portraying British secret agent James Bond in seven films from 1973 to 1985. He also portrayed Simon Templar in the long-running British television series The Saint.-Early life:Moore was born in Stockwell, London...
), while Charles competes in a local Paris-to-Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo is an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco....
race with professional divorcee Lorraine Quarl (Eva Gabor
Eva Gabor
Eva Gabor was a Hungarian-born socialite and actress. She was widely known for her role on Green Acres as Lisa Douglas, the wife of Eddie Albert's character, Oliver Wendell Douglas, Duchess in the 1970 Disney film The Aristocats, and Miss Bianca in Disney's The Rescuers and The Rescuers Down Under...
).
After the race Charles returns to Paris, only to find Helen sitting in Café Dhingo with Paul. A fight breaks out between Paul and Charles, and an angry Charles goes home first and puts the chain on the door, preventing it from being opened all the way. When Helen comes home and tries to enter she can't. She calls out to him, but Charles is in a drunken stupor
Stupor
Stupor is the lack of critical cognitive function and level of consciousness wherein a sufferer is almost entirely unresponsive and only responds to base stimuli such as pain. This is often mistaken for delirium and treated with Haldol and or other anti-psychotic drugs...
on the staircase and we hear the bottle drop from his hands as Helen calls. Helen ends up having to walk all the way to her sister's in the snow and rain. She catches pneumonia again and dies.
Marion petitions for and gets full custody of Vickie, while Charles returns home to America. A few years later, having straightened himself out, published a book, and stopped boozing, Charles returns to Paris, hoping his reform will persuade Marion to give Vickie back to him. Marion refuses, still feeling resentful towards Charles for having fallen for Helen instead of her. Seeing that Charles and Vickie belong together, Claude steps in and tells Marion that she is punishing Charles for his not realizing that Marion loved him. It is painful for him to tell her that he, Claude, could not have all of her love, but Charles should not be punished any more.
Marion goes into Café Dhingo (on whose main wall is a big picture of Helen) to look for Charles (who is gazing at the painting) and tells him that Helen would not have wanted him to be alone. Outside the cafe, Claude is with Vickie. The child runs to Charles and Charles and the child walk off together as the movie ends.
Cast
- Source: The New York Times
- Elizabeth Taylor as Helen Ellswirth
- Van Johnson as Charles Wills
- Walter Pidgeon as James Ellswirth
- Donna Reed as Marion Ellswirth
- Eva Gabor as Lorraine Quarl
- Kurt Kasznar as Maurice
- George Dolenz as Claude Matine
- Roger Moore as Paul
- Sandra Descher as Vicki
- Cella Lovsky as Mama
- Peter Leeds as Barney
- John Doucette as Campbell
- Odette as Singer
Reception
VarietyVariety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
called it an "engrossing romantic drama." According to Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther was a journalist and author who was film critic for The New York Times for 27 years. His reviews and articles helped shape the careers of actors, directors and screenwriters, though his reviews, at times, were unnecessarily mean...
, "The story is trite. The motivations are thin. The writing is glossy and pedestrian. The acting is pretty much forced. Mr. Johnson as the husband is too bumptious when happy and too dreary when drunk; Miss Taylor as the wife is delectable, but she is also occasionally quite dull. Mr. Pidgeon is elaborately devilish, Sandra Descher as the child is over-cute, Donna Reed as the bitter sister is vapid and several others are in the same vein."
The Time Out Film Guide said "Despite a very corny script from Julius and Philip Epstein which borrows clichés from Casablanca
Casablanca (film)
Casablanca is a 1942 American romantic drama film directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid, and featuring Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre and Dooley Wilson. Set during World War II, it focuses on a man torn between, in...
and countless "American in Paris" yarns, this remains an enjoyable (if heavy-handed) melodrama
Melodrama
The term melodrama refers to a dramatic work that exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions. It may also refer to the genre which includes such works, or to language, behavior, or events which resemble them...
....Pidgeon steals the show as ... a penniless chancer who still manages to live the good life."
External links
- The Last Time I Saw Paris from Turner Classic MoviesTurner Classic MoviesTurner Classic Movies is a movie-oriented cable television channel, owned by the Turner Broadcasting System subsidiary of Time Warner, featuring commercial-free classic movies, mostly from the Turner Entertainment and MGM, United Artists, RKO and Warner Bros. film libraries...