The screenplay is quite derivative and obviously inspired by "Roman Holiday" ; but what is really glowing is Olivia De Havilland's love for France ; the great actress spent years and years in Paris and the country had become her second homeland where she died in 2020,a centenarian..
This trite story is full of joie de vivre : it opens with the old march from the Sun King's reign "Auprès De Ma Blonde " (which is sung by boy scouts on the Eiffel Tower afterwards) , the dialog is full of French lines , the songs include Maurice chevalier's "Valentine "and De Havilland and her co-star Forsythe dance to Charles Trénet 's "l'âme des poètes" ;there's even a night at the opera where they attend "the Swan lake" ballet with danseuse-étoile Claude Bessy .And the young GI loses his wallet in the "blue Pigalle "(ooh la la!)
And they wanted to deprive the enlisted men of the gai paris ? Of les Folies Bergères and Le Lido ? Of the Parisian models the GIs compare to caviar .
It goes without saying that it's not Miss de Havilland 's best and not even among her best ,but she was a wonderful guide for the Americans of yore ( nowadays, they come to Europa en masse ,but in the fifties ,for most of them it was only a dream to see Paris ),in the times before the General de Gaulle withdrew his country from NATO .
The ending is totally implausible ,but call it Olivia's Parisian holiday ;after all the great movies she made with Curtiz, Huston, Fleming (of course!) ,Leisen ,Wyler ,et al ,she did deserve it.
This trite story is full of joie de vivre : it opens with the old march from the Sun King's reign "Auprès De Ma Blonde " (which is sung by boy scouts on the Eiffel Tower afterwards) , the dialog is full of French lines , the songs include Maurice chevalier's "Valentine "and De Havilland and her co-star Forsythe dance to Charles Trénet 's "l'âme des poètes" ;there's even a night at the opera where they attend "the Swan lake" ballet with danseuse-étoile Claude Bessy .And the young GI loses his wallet in the "blue Pigalle "(ooh la la!)
And they wanted to deprive the enlisted men of the gai paris ? Of les Folies Bergères and Le Lido ? Of the Parisian models the GIs compare to caviar .
It goes without saying that it's not Miss de Havilland 's best and not even among her best ,but she was a wonderful guide for the Americans of yore ( nowadays, they come to Europa en masse ,but in the fifties ,for most of them it was only a dream to see Paris ),in the times before the General de Gaulle withdrew his country from NATO .
The ending is totally implausible ,but call it Olivia's Parisian holiday ;after all the great movies she made with Curtiz, Huston, Fleming (of course!) ,Leisen ,Wyler ,et al ,she did deserve it.