Review of The Ambassador's Daughter

It is certainly not true that because a film has as its central character a female protagonist that it must be a "woman's picture". But in an era when the novel market in cheap-minded fiction seems hopelessly divided between mindless male violent thrillers and mindless female Gothic romanciful fantasies, the viewer must expect this debate to spill over into films. Fortunately for moviegoers, as late as the 1950s, films such as "The Ambassador's Daughter" were still being made and these were films with enough realistic characters, intelligent dialogue and interesting action to please adult viewers. This is a very fine script indeed by veteran writer-director Norman Krasna. It was directed very ably and beautifully mounted. The noteworthy cast included Edward Arnold, Myrna Loy, Adolph Menjou, Frances Lederer, Tommy Noonan plus Olivia de Havilland and John Forsythe as the romantic leads. The setting is postwar Paris, and the sets are beautiful to behold. This is a film about upper crust folk; and as such we are treated to costumes by Christian Dior, impeccable lighting and gorgeous art direction. But the fact that these are members of the wealthy set does not stop the scriptwriters from devising lively and challenging involvements for all. The very good idea for the story involves de Havvilland trying to prove to her ambassador father, professionally and personally worried about such matters, that all French-based American soldiers are not "wolves". She picks on Forsythe to prove her point--and discovers she may have picked too well for her own safety, since she finds herself falling for the shy G.I. Arnold and Loy are particularly good, Menjou is his usual charming self; and de Havilland is superb. Only Forsythe seems a bit low-voltage, as he sometimes did early in his career, before "The Trouble With Harry". The film's technical elements, such as lighting, sets, art direction and all else provide the usual first-rate MGM realization. The color is lovely as well, adding to the gemlike quality of this underrated and very intelligent comedy. In an era devoted to Medieval character flaws, misbehaviors and irresponsible folk floundering in a sea of surrealistic bad writing and worse thinking, this earlier work stands out as a cinematic delight, one to be watched many times over.