The Last Time I Saw Paris

Plot synopsis:
As World War II 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 Ellswirth (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 Ellswirth household, and we find that the woman who had kissed Charles is Marion's younger sister Helen (Elizabeth Taylor).
Their father, James Ellswirth (Walter Pidgeon), had survived World War I and promptly joined the Lost Generation. Unlike most drifters, 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 fields 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. Charles tells Marion that he only has one drink a day now. 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.

Tags: romantic, melodrama

Review:
The Last Time I Saw Paris was the second of two films that Elizabeth Taylor and Van Johnson co-starred.
Look for Eva Gabor as a divorcée who likes Johnson and a very young Roger Moore as a tennis pro who'd like to be a kept man by Taylor.It's a nice story, but it could have been a whole lot better if MGM had actually shot the film in Paris completely and really set in the period it was written..
Scott Fitzgerald's Babylon Revisited from the jazz-age Paris of the `Lost Generation' to the late 1940s and early 1950s looks logical enough, one World War being much like another, but a certain piquant period flavor gets lost.
The way the characters ruminate about life back home in the United States, you'd think they'd colonized Mars rather than taken lodgings near the Eiffel Tower.Amid the city-wide orgy of V-E Day, Army correspondent Van Johnson meets two sisters:  Donna Reed, who gives him the eye, and Elizabeth Taylor, who catches his.
But then Taylor, of such delicate constitution that she has been known to contract flu not from microbes but from a gentle rain, gets soaked to the skin when she's locked out of the house at dawn and slogs her way through the slush...Given these melodramatic excesses, Richard Brooks keeps the movie refreshingly low-key; he draws a subdued and affecting performance from Taylor (at the dizzying pinnacle of her young beauty).
The first being of course the rhapsodic National Velvet and the second the astonishing A Place In The Sun. The films in between those and The Last Time I Saw Paris were mostly along the  `Isn't she beautiful?' line of movie making, and, why not?
A successful writer ( Van Johnson) remembers about his love story with a gorgeous American girl ( Elizabeth Taylor ) in post WWII Paris .
Scott Fitzgerald who is well incarnated by Van Johnson and in which Helen played by Elizabeth Taylor represents Zelda , Scott's wife .This interesting movie reminisces the love affair between a wealthy war reporter and a feisty young woman ; it packs romance , drama , and colorful scenarios .
Reed, the rejected third wheel, is actually not rejected, per se, but becomes the "odd man out" none the less when her sister (Liz Taylor) successfully steers the affections of the duped Johnson in her own direction instead.Reed adopts the persona of the rejected party to a relationship that never was, and exacts her revenge later in the film.While the big name actors of the day are no longer influencing moviegoers today, they undoubtedly sold the film in 1954.
Johnson possibly could have done more with the role, but the weakness of the character should not be confused with some partially perceived weakness in Johnson's delivery of the part.Taylor does a nice job as the sly and experienced older sister, the one with the better looks and the Machiavellian technique to get whatever she wants, again at the expense of little sister Reed.
Dolenz marries Reed and in the end does a very nice job of becoming the film's heroic figure.Eva Gabor at the peak of her youthful beauty does a good job as yet another love triangle component for the easily side-tracked Johnson after his marriage to Taylor.
Elizabeth Taylor, Donna Reed, and Walter Pidgeon turn in fine performances in this updated adaptation of F.Scott Fitzgerald's short story, BABYLON REVISITED.
The happy ending constructed for the movie is completely out of line with the story's point of view and makes no sense for the motivations of all the characters as written by Fitzgerald or adapted by the screenwriter.
Other reviewers have analyzed Ms. Taylor's performance, and she does quite well; her father is portrayed by Walter Pigeon as a shallow lothario, Donna Reed is the angelic sister, and Van Johnson the writer/husband.
Scott Fitgerald is not completely manifested, Johnson does a good job of being a conflicted writer, loves his wife, but needs more, eventually spiraling downward into alcoholism.One scene with their young daughter is particularly touching, she is on a merry-go-round in the park, near the Seine, it is cold, Johnson is trying to reconcile with Elizabeth Taylor; He will change, he will stop drinking, he will redeem himself;(he promises, to no avail).The hope and sadness are projected on screen.
The postwar Paris setting is used in a number of well-conceived ways in the story.Johnson plays the main character, a reporter and would-be novelist who begins the movie with a trip back to Paris, and begins reminiscing about the past.
The character's career disappointments and family crises give much of the story a markedly pessimistic (if not depressing) tone, yet Johnson plays the part believably, and the story brings out some worthwhile thoughts, as his character gradually loses his perspective on things.As his wife, Taylor's appeal and energy stand out every time she is on screen, but more importantly, she develops the character consistently throughout the story, often in interesting contrast to Johnson's character.
Her performance adds considerable meaning to the rest of the movie, and it also help in making the other characters more believable.Walter_Pidgeon (sorry, otherwise can't get it past the spell-checker) seems to be having fun as the easygoing father, and Donna Reed does a solid job in a rather thankless role as Taylor's more serious, sometimes envious sister.
Unfortenatly for Donna Reed, Van Johnsson is bound to meet her sister, a young beautiful girl played by Elisabeth Taylor.
After a year he understands where he went wrong and goes back to France for his daughter.The movie features good actors, especially Walter Pidgeon as the father of the two sisters.
If you're like that, do yourself and the world a favor and get some help --- we need more understanding and more happy endings in this world.Look for Zsa Zsa (yes, she actually did act at one time) and a young Roger Moore, and for all you trivia buffs, check out the character named Claude that plays Donna Reed's husband.
(Check out her appearances in Minnelli's "Gigi" and the Paul Newman/Joanne Woodward clunker, "A New Kind of Love," in which Eva almost stole the show, despite the presence of Thelma Ritter who usually carried off that particular prize.) "The Last Time I Saw Paris" was typical mid-Fifties high gloss soap opera from M-G-M, and it's a bit of a surprise that Richard Brooks was the director, since he's noted for somewhat more topical and/or hard-hitting stuff.
If MGM stretching a melancholy, intimate portrait of a flawed man into a feature-length romantic extravaganza was a bad idea, casting Van Johnson as the Fitzgerald character was a worse one.
Charles Wills, the Fitzgerald stand-in, is a journalist who marries a beautiful but impulsive debutante in Paris right after World War II, lapses into drunken self-loathing after writing a few failed novels, and wastes his wife's inheritance on the way to becoming a puffy, alcoholic playboy.
Thus, there's no reason Charles would attract two hot prospects like Liz Taylor and Donna Reed, the expatriate sisters who fight for the pudgy pretty boy's love in post- WWII Paris.
Scott Fitzgerald's "Babylon Revisited" for writer Van Johnson (as Charles Wills), recalling his whirlwind post-World War II encounter with beautiful and curvaceous sisters Elizabeth Taylor and Donna Reed (as Helen and Marion Ellswirth), in Paris.
Alcohol dully plays a role in the story, especially, but unconvincingly, affecting star Johnson.**** The Last Time I Saw Paris (11/18/54) Richard Brooks ~ Van Johnson, Elizabeth Taylor, Donna Reed, Walter Pidgeon.
Elizabeth Taylor is really great and to me she was the one that truly carried the movie, though in screen time it is perhaps Van Johnson who plays the real main role of the movie.
The movie also has a supporting cast to die for; Walter Pidgeon, Donna Reed, Eva Gabor and even a young Roger Moore in his first real notable movie role.
The Last Time I Saw Paris is really bad; I'd even go so far as to say it's one of the worst Liz Taylor movies out there.
Elizabeth Taylor does what she can with the masochistic wifey role, even getting what actresses like to call "a good hospital scene," but Van Johnson has more of an opportunity as a performer to show range and emotion (the writing is slanted that way).
The story is a bit outdated and melodramatic to involve acting but it's Van Johnson's film and not his co-star Elizabeth Taylor.
Scott Fitzgerald novel on which this is based, but can only report that ELIZABETH TAYLOR, VAN JOHNSON, DONNA REED and WALTER PIDGEON do nicely in the leads and the film is given a graceful script by screenwriter Julius J.
VAN JOHNSON could have used more depth as the would-be novelist turned alcoholic and DONNA REED's subdued performance as the bitter elder sister is rather one-note in concept.Richard Brooks has directed this in too leisurely fashion, but fans of Taylor and Johnson should certainly be pleased with the final results.
Van Johnson finding his dream girl in Paris (Elizabeth Taylor) and failing to keep her.
The story is precarious in its delicacy, an American journalist in Paris falls in love with Elizabeth Taylor, they marry, but he is more or less a failed author (autobiographically by Scott Fitzgerald?
There is no way Elizabeth Taylor would ever fall for Van Johnson either on screen or in real life.
Reviewers either greatly admire or totally dismiss Van Johnson's presence and acting ability,never more so than in this movie.In one of his last interviews,he selected this as one of the works he was most proud of and I can understand why.As the story unwinds,over an eight year period,Van's performance takes us on a journey from a keen,love-smitten man through to a repentant,lonely one.His penultimate scene with Donna Reed really hits home,as we measure his helpless pleas against her stubborn bitterness.I'm genuinely moved each time I watch it,just as I am with the following moment when her husband (very nicely played by George Dolenz) awakens her to the sad truth.I don't want to give away any more than that.Donna Reed is very impressive in a role that's not easy to warm to.
Elizabeth Taylor is at the height of her beauty and her performance is quite pleasing.As already mentioned,the only available DVD's of "The Last Time I Saw Paris" are of the poorest quality.With a re-mastered edition,I believe this entertaining movie could attract a whole new following.It's such a romantic title and that can't be denied..
It's an autobiography about nothing.The film is saved from getting a 1 rating by the generally good acting, and especially that of Donna Reed and Walter Pidgeon.When Charles (Johnson) meets the two daughters of another useless wastrel, (Pidgeon) he obviously like Marion (Reed) but then falls for the flashy Helen (Taylor).
Perhaps later, much later, he regrets that choice.The film is set over a time span of eight or more years, but Van Johnson looks exactly the same from the first to the last scenes.
But for all its flaws, The Last Time I Saw Paris has much to like and the good stuff is beautiful and charming indeed.
And The Last Time I Saw Paris is also beautifully cast and beautifully played, especially by a luminous Elizabeth Taylor who brings sublime subtlety and nuances to her role an amusingly eccentric and endearingly roguish Walter Pidgeon.
Also, a standout is George Dolenz as Johnson & Taylor's silently suffering and devoted brother-in-law married to self-righteous Donna Reed - perhaps the one supporting role that seemed miscast or a bit flat to me.If you want to wallow in tears at a well-done schmaltzy love story, this one's for you..
Charles Wills (Van Johnson) is an aspiring American writer, living in Paris for the time being.
Over time, the struggle to become a successful writer alienates his family from him, and threatens to tear apart the family.I usually like Liz Taylor movies, and I have never seen a bad performance from Walter Pidgeon, so I was looking forward to seeing this movie.
The rest of the actors also do very well in this movie, especially Donna Reed, Van Johnson and George Dolenz.
In general, this film has good acting and a well-crafted script.Overall, I wanted to like this movie more than I really did.
There are some great points in the movie, such as Van Johnson's character gazing at a mural of Liz Taylor's character, and then later seeing someone create it.
The scenes with Johnson's character and his young daughter are especially effective, and that makes the end of the film so much better than it would have otherwise been, as you'll see.Donna Reed does a wonderful job in her role.
Elizabeth Taylor and Van Johnson star as a pair of tragic, lovestruck Americans who fall in love in Paris following the end of World War II.
Overall it's a pretty good movie with some quality performances from Van Johnson, Elizabeth Taylor, Donna Reed as Taylor's sister who's disappointed Johnson didn't pick her over Taylor, Walter Pidgeon as the girls' father who also embraces the live every day as though it were your last philosophy and finally Eva Gabor and Roger Moore as infidelity temptation for the married couple..
Van Johnson puts forth a decent performance, but better casting for the lead role would likely have made a more popular film.
Van Johnson and Elizabeth Taylor, among others, made The Last Time I Saw Paris quite enjoyable as a romantic drama.
So it is here that I finally watched this long-in-public-domain M-G-M feature that starred Van Johnson and Elizabeth Taylor with Donna Reed-the second Miss Ellie on that soap-among the supporting cast.
As for Ms. Reed, she doesn't seem much use as Ms. Taylor's sister until her climatic scene with Van Johnson near the end concerning his daughter.
"The Last Time I Saw Paris" converted the author's sensibility downward, to compassion and soap opera The movie therefore betrayed the dry-eyed spirit of the original material The first mistake, though, was in changing the era from the Lost Generation Twenties to post-World War II The jazz age ambiance, recollected in the story, the mystique of Paris in the Twentiesthese key tokens of Fitzgerald's sensibility were missing Even more damaging than the switch in era is the attempt to expand the characters whose motivations are only sketched lightly in the short story Told in flashback, the story centers on a successful American novelist (Van Johnson) who returns to Paris and a reunion with the child he left in the custody of his sister-in-law (Donna Reed), since the death of his wife...The movie and the actors do not move the characters from point A to point B: why, for instance, do husband and wife reverse roles, she transformed from party girl to sober wife who wants to go home to America, he collapsing from serious writer to disappointed drunk Van Johnson lacks the mythic stature to suggest other than a poor man's version of the great, doomed Fitzgerald And Liz was too young and inexperienced at the time to embody an arch-neurotic, part a malicious temptress, and part an aiding angel The role is a cumulation of the Taylor ingénue: the goodtime flirt, cunningly stealing a man from her older sister; the spoiled daughter of a fast living phony; the irresponsible party girl with a good heart underneath it all; the sober young mother and wife; the defiant adulteress; the frail spirit cut down by the forces of nature At each "station," she is on home ground, but the part comes out in bits and pieces rather than a coherent whole: the character, finally, does not add up It may be partly Taylor vapidity (Beverly Hills didn't prepare her for Paris), but it's also the script and the direction: that saintly woman, forgiving all, has very little connection to the blithe spirit who steals her sister's man and parties with non-stop frenzy.
With bright young things such as a very beautiful Elizabeth Taylor (aged 22 years) and Van Johnson taking the lead roles as the poor but vitality filled youths who must, and in the case for poor Charles Wills retrace his paths and once again revisit this Babylon city.
Then, oddly, the last portion of the movie seems to fall apart and is a bit of a confusing and saccharine-like mess.The film begins with Van Johnson meeting and falling in love with Elizabeth Taylor.
Johnson's ambition it to publish a novel, but in the meantime he has married Taylor, has a lovely little girl and a well-paying job in Paris.
Basically you have a pleasingly low-key performance by Van Johnson as a hard-working American G.I. who decides to stay in Paris, under the spell of a lovely bohemian (Liz Taylor) and her anti-pragmatic father (Walter Pidgeon), but his performance eventually veers too deeply into the maudlin as we're expected to believe that his inability to write a successful novel has brought about an existential crisis for the protagonist as well as a marriage crisis for the couple.The most irritating thing about the movie is the way that the writers tried so hard to make sure that the audience wouldn't blame either of the lovers for any of the bad things that are happening, all the while expecting us to buy that each lover blames the other at least at one point or another.
The Last Time I Saw Paris- Starring Elizabeth Taylor and Van Johnson with Walter Pidgeon,Donna Reed,Eva Gabor and Roger Moore- from a story by F.
I couldn't stand her character at all for she seems to hate Van Johnson's character without good reason,though she has one later.I will admit when it comes to scenes of parents and kids,I do get sentimental & a little emotional but then seeing Johnson & daughter reunited is a wonderful touching end to the film.
The movie becomes an endless series of similar scenes that have Van Johnson meeting with Liz Taylor.