On the web since 1997
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On the web since 1997 |
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Movie: The Last Time I Saw ParisW.J. Rayment / Conservative Bookstore --Elizabeth Taylor was stunningly attractive in the heyday of her movie career, and director, Henry King, made exceptional use of the fact in his film, "The Last Time I Saw Paris". Although many action shots seem posed, the viewer doesn't mind so much. The remarkable thing about Taylor was that she could act well even in the face of this dramatic exploitation of her charming facade. The film is based on the work of F. Scott Fitzgerald, and my how it shows. We have the usual artistic figure (in this case a writer) feeling sorry for himself because his work is rejected. The viewer gets generally tired of the self-pity and the whininess of Van Johnson. Even so, he does a creditable job acting the part of the rejected author, who ends up taking out his professional problems on his family, but the whole time I watched this movie, I kept mumbling to myself, "What an idiot; what an idiot." This has always been my complaint about Fitzgerald, all his characters are whiners and fools. They never seem to understand how good they've got it. There are several more stars in this film that will be familiar to classic movie buffs, Walter Pigeon, who as Taylor's father, ably handled the comic relief. Donna Reed looked good and delivered the cold shoulder at the same time. Eva Gabor played herself quite well. And Roger Moore was suave and shallow, very much a prop an obligatory bit of deus ex machina to keep the story going. In spite of the whiny nature of the story, this movie is not a bad way to spend an evening, with a bowl of popcorn on your lap and a cold glass of your favorite soda on your left. (The redeeming qualities being watching Taylor move about the screen in color, and Walter Pigeon's smooth but arching delivery of some well crafted wit.) |
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