overseer-3 While this gentle romantic film To Paris With Love (1955) is admittedly no masterpiece it does provide you with a nice cast, irreplaceable views of post-War Paris in 1955, including the grand old cars, stylish fashions men and women wore back then, the kind of music they listened to, how clean everything looked and how polite people were with one another in that era. All in Technicolor (it says Technicolor on the print itself right on the title frame, not Eastman Color as someone else stated, which is different and tends to diffuse more with time).Alec Guinness is sweet in the film as he visits Paris with his 20 year old son (Vernon) in the hopes of finding a nice French girl for him. Little does he know that his son also hopes to find a nice older French woman for him. What occurs instead is that the son falls for an older woman and the father falls for a younger woman! I thought that both situations were understandable -- both women were attractive -- but still one senses early on they will merely end up being temporary flirtations and not the real thing.If you are a romantic person you will probably enjoy the film. If you're not you're probably better off watching something else more realistic. I liked it. To each their own.

mark.waltz Colorful, sweet and tender, often lightly funny, this English romantic comedy deals with a widowed British father and his son who visit the city of lights and find a new kind of love that only Maurice Chevalier could sing about. The wonderful Alec Guennis is a perfect lady lover, quite different than the cad he played in the same year's "The Lady Killers". Vernon Gray is his much more serious son who has a more nervous reaction to romance, especially when his father begins to spend time with a much younger woman (Odile Versais) who has more in common with father than son. Gray, needing to lighten up, begins to see an older woman (Elina Labourdette) who has her hands full in loosening him up, while Sir Alec really gets his groove back.Among the funny moments are Sir Alec and Odile soaked by a street cleaner then trying to slink back into his hotel, Sir Alec caught outside the door wearing suspenders locked on the inside, and Sir Alec being caught in a tree by his finger wagging son. Sir Alec proves that it takes real talent to be funny, reminding me how certain lines he said years later while playing Hitler made me laugh because it sounded like his blind Butler from "Murder By Death" saying them. The film takes a twist near the end that comes out of nowhere, but I managed to just grin and bare it even if I didn't believe it. Even though I have no interest in traveling overseas, this at least did take me there again temporarily, just as I did a few weeks ago with the very different "Paris Blues", and as I have many times through "Funny Face", "Silk Stockings", "Gigi" and of course "An American in Paris".

blanche-2 Paris - Alec Guinness - color - one might think that would be enough, but alas, it isn't. "To Paris, With Love" is a 1955 Rank film about a father and son (Guinness as Col. Fraser and Vernon Gray as John Fraser) going to Paris in order to matchmake for one another. Plus, Col. Fraser wants more time with his son.They meet women, all right, but it seems that Col. Fraser is attracted to a young woman closer to John's age, and vice versa. A widower, he wasn't necessarily looking for love, either, but his quiet lifestyle bothers his son. "At 42," the Colonel says, "one has a few good years left." The perception of age has really changed.Unfortunately for all parties, the film moves like lead and is about as dull as a movie can get, except for the beautiful shots of Paris. Alec Guinness is marvelous but wasted. There is one very funny scene at the door of their hotel room, but it's not enough.Very hard to concentrate and stay interested in this film.

annmason1 I love Alec Guinness. And that's saying a lot after this film. Actually, he is not bad in it. He just seems to stand aside, be urbane and his usual delightful self, but invest nada. It is obvious the girl he is matched with is a featherweight, even as an inexperienced young French girl. Sir Alec wouldn't have chosen her when he was young and very obviously isn't too happy about it now.The interesting character is the brooding brother of the odd "Suzanne", another twit. "Donald" aspires to be a French Heathcliffe and I waited in vain for the source of his mystery. What deep dark secret was he hiding behind that forehead? Was he in love with the father's mistress? Why did he jerk Suzanne's hair when she plotted to bring the disparate parts of this turkey together on the country estate? Or perhaps he had simply had enough of her obnoxious acting.The film would have been charming with Guiness and the "older woman" reminiscing and seeing Paris together. THAT would have been a great story! Two lovely experienced people in a beautiful city after the destruction of World War II. Why didn't somebody come up with that? I suggest watching Alec Guiness in "The Card", a little known but worthwhile film.