Brilliant and touching

brilliant actors, brilliant editing

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

This film has some VERY strange casting and I am not sure what the producer (Bob Hope) was thinking, nor what the film's writer (once again, Hope) had in mind. After all, why get the great French comic, Fernandel, to appear in the film in a major role...and yet he speaks French the entire time and Hope speaks only English. Often, they just hang out together and you wonder why--what keeps them together?! Couldn't they have gotten a French comic who also spoke English?! There's also another odd casting decision, but it works well and the part is small. For some odd reason, the writer/director Preston Sturges plays a French man. And considering that the film was made in France, I am not sure why they did this--though Sturges was surprisingly good in his small role. One other unusual role went to the lovely Anita Ekberg--who oddly got higher billing than the equally lovely Martha Hyer--even though her role was minuscule in comparison."Paris Holiday" begins on the cruiser, the Ile de France. There, Bob Hope meets Hyer and immediately begins making boorish sexual innuendos towards her. This sort of thing was not uncommon for a Hope film, but he comes on particularly strong here--so strong you wonder how she can fall in love with his character. This occurs thanks to Fernandel--who plays himself and a bit of a cupid. Now I did think it strange that Hope basically played himself, a famous American comic and movie star, yet he was called 'Bob Hunter'--yet Fernandel played himself. This ruse seemed very unnecessary.During the cruise, Ekberg breaks into Hope's room twice to search it. She's looking for something--but what? Later, once they are all in Paris, you learn that she's working with some counterfeiters and that they now are trying to kill Hope. Considering that his one-liners are VERY weak throughout the film, I really couldn't blame them! Can Hope extricate himself AND get the girl? Well, considering he wrote the film, I severely doubted it as I watched! My biggest complaint is not that Hope has such limp lines (which he wrote--so he has no one else to blame) but the complete waste of Fernandel. The Frenchman is cute here--but not all that funny (except when he's in drag late in the film--not THAT's something to see). I've seen him in a few other films and liked him very much and know he's capable of much more. Also, while some die-hard fans might disagree, as Hope aged, the quality of his films declined. His heyday was clearly the 1940s and by the late 50s, the films just weren't that funny. Now "Paris Holiday" isn't bad--it just isn't particularly funny. So, if you are a Hope fan, it's worth seeing--if not, you probably won't be particularly impressed--especially at the horrible scene involving the helicopter and the two ladies in the car (uggh!).

It is unintended irony, I suspect, that the plot of this movie - what little there is of it - centers around Bob Hunter's (Hope) efforts to find a script. This movie could certainly have used a better one. Hope and especially Fernandel were great comedians, but they have virtually nothing to work with here, so the movie drags from one uninteresting scene to the next.How a picture executive could have believed that anyone would pay money to see this, much less, after having seen it, tell anyone else to see it, I can't imagine. It really is one of the worst movies I've seen in a long time.

To give you an idea of how bad this is the highlight is a rip-off from Bluebeard's Eighth Wife, an early (1938) Billy Wilder screenplay. In Bluebeard Edward Everett Horton is attempting to get into a mental hospital to visit Gary Cooper. Twice he knocks at the door; twice the door is opened and shut on him. He tries again. Knocks. The door is opened. He barks like a dog. Ah, come in, m'sieu. This time around Fenandel is trying to get in to see hope but what Wilder and Lubitsch accomplished in under sixty seconds is here parlayed into a few minutes. Trivia buffs are always going to want to check out Preston Sturges playing a French playwright modelled on Sacha Guitry - if Serge Vitry doesn't help you nothing will. Having bombed two years earlier with The Iron Petticoat - a sort of Ninotchka without the style - Hope, who takes credit for the 'idea' tried a similar format again with no better results: in this movie Martha Hyer falls for Hope and winds up with him; the following year she rejected SINATRA in Some Came Running. Nuff said. There are a couple of half-decent one-lines but one liner does not a movie make.

The Mystery is why is this film not as good as it should have been. I've given it a 7, but it had the potential to be even better. Our two comics are good when they are together, but the courtroom scene is dragged out, and several scenes are very dark. However, the beauty of this film is in the viewing of Martha Hyer, Anita Ekberg, and Irene Tunc! All three are drop-dead gorgeous, and really contribute to the movie! Irene should have been given a bigger part! See it in wide-screen if possible.