Tonight's Movie: The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954) - A Warner Archive Blu-ray Review

The Warner Archive Collection is doing something rather amazing this summer: Rescuing a pair of Elizabeth Taylor films from being available only in terrible public domain prints.

Those films are FATHER'S LITTLE DIVIDEND (1951) and THE LAST TIME I SAW PARIS (1954), both made for MGM. Taylor was 18 when she filmed the first title and 22 when she made the latter movie.

First up for review is THE LAST TIME I SAW PARIS. I'd never seen it in its entirety but can say the Blu-ray looks eons better than random scenes I've seen on TV over the years.

The movie was directed by Richard Brooks, who cowrote the script with Julius and Philip Epstein, based on a story by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

It's the story of Charles Wills (Van Johnson), a Stars & Stripes reporter who marries "wild child" Helen Ellwirth in Paris following World War II.

Charles and Helen love one another but he becomes increasingly depressed by his inability to sell a novel. Helen becomes more responsible as she matures, while Charles spirals and drinks.

They flirt with others (Roger Moore and Eva Gabor), they quarrel, they spend money unwisely, and eventually there's a custody tug of war between Charles and Helen's bitter sister Marion (Donna Reed) over Charles and Helen's daughter Vicki (Sandy Descher). Other sad things happen as well. It's that kind of movie.

I love the cast, which also includes Walter Pidgeon as Helen and Marion's irresponsible father, so I was a bit surprised to find that the movie really didn't work for me. It's listless, slow-moving, and depressing. I virtually always finish a film, but this is one I might have stopped watching if I wasn't reviewing it. I'm a "glass is half full" viewer always looking for what I like in any film, but I just wasn't in the mood to watch a slow-paced story about people living terribly unhappy lives.

It was also odd that Johnson -- who incidentally was born on this date, August 25th -- looks absolutely terrible, with a shiny red face. I've seen him in other Technicolor movies but never noticed him looking like this in scene after scene; it's as though the makeup crew forgot to apply powder.

Taylor looks terrific for the first hour or so, and then she hacks off her hair into a most unfortunate style.

George Dolenz (father of Micky) has a nice turn as Marion's eventual husband and is the most likeable character in the story. The cast also includes Kurt Kasznar, Celia Lovsky, and John Doucette.

The movie runs 116 very long minutes. It was filmed in Technicolor by Joseph Ruttenberg.

The print is a new 1080p HD master from a 4K scan of the original Technicolor camera negatives. I'm pretty sure it has never looked this good in any prior release, so those who wish to own the film should be sure to get this Blu-ray rather than older public domain prints.

The lone extras are the trailer and the widescreen Tom and Jerry cartoon TOUCHE PUSSYCAT (1954).

Thanks to the Warner Archive for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray. Warner Archive Blu-rays may be ordered from the Amazon Warner Archive Collection Store, Movie Zyng, or from any online retailers were Blu-rays are sold.

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