Well Deserved Praise

the audience applauded

hyped garbage

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

This so-called comedy seems an over-abundance of smugness that thrives on the mistaken belief that its all-star cast and intelligent screenplay will rise above pretentiousness. There's actually very little in the way of humor and story, a weak plot about two American women who pretend to be French in order to see how two American soldiers on leave will treat them. Olivia de Havilland is the titled character, daughter of ambassador Adolph Menjou who is engaged to the French Francis Lederer but sets her beret for the more appealing John Forsythe. Her sidekick? None other than Myrna Loy, still stunning and every inch the scene-stealer, managing to get laughs where there are none. De Havilland is too dry for modern comedy and seems miscast opposite the dashing Forsythe. Edward Arnold is still hanging on as Loy' s stuffy husband while Tommy Noonan fights for laughs as the other soldier. The snail paced screenplay with allegedly smart dialog is actually extremely highbrow, a dangerous quality for the mid 1950's. Many shots of Parisian tourist spots, while always lovely to look at, end up a detriment to the film as a whole. In spite of some matronly outfits, Loy ends up looking more appealing and younger than the leading lady who had lost much of her appeal at this point in her career. De Havilland doesn't succeed in the type of roles that Jane Wyman was raking in huge success at the box office at the same time.

I encountered this movie again the other evening. This is a quite horrible movie despite a typical but reasonable storyline and a generally wonderful cast. It features great supporting players like Myrna Loy, Adolph Menjou and a longtime favourite Edward Arnold. It could have been a sweet love story had the producers only had the wit to cast a capable young pair as the love interest. But of course two young actors would not have provided the marquee names that some thought necessary to fill those theatre seats. So instead they offered us a 38-year-old John Forsythe as the clever GI and a 40-year-old Olivia de Havilland as the ambassador's daughter; this must rank as one of the worst casting decisions of all time.

When Olivia DeHavilland played the title role in The Ambassador Daughter you have to ask yourself what in the world was she doing with parts that Audrey Hepburn should have played if she wanted it?Back of course in her salad days at Warner Brothers, Olivia would have definitely had a part like this, Jack Warner would have seen to it. Back in those days I could see her being cast with Errol Flynn as the young soldier. Of course back then there was no North Atlantic Treaty Organization and no American soldiers stationed in Europe. But that's indeed another story.John Forsythe is the young GI here and he's being used as a guinea pig in an experiment concocted by United States Senator Adolphe Menjou who's deeply concerned about the behavior of our GIs on leave in Paris. I sure hope Menjou's constituents were watching this movie and sent him packing post haste after the next election. Edward Arnold as the U.S. Ambassador to France and General Minor Watson are all in on this foolishness. This was Arnold's last film, not a good way to exit.Myrna Loy has a supporting part as Menjou's wife and she at least keeps a dignified front. What a shame that two giant cinema icons like Loy and DeHavilland should do this piece ridiculous fluff in their only joint screen effort.

The only reason that Olivia de Havilland agreed to appear in this trifle must have been because it was going to be filmed in Paris where she was living at the time. On the positive side, there are great stars supporting de Havilland such as Edward Arnold, Adolphe Menjou and Myrna Loy, and they are very very good, as is the Star, but negatively speaking, the story has been done many times, but it could have been quite good, if a decent leading man had been engaged - there is no doubt John Forsythe was out of his depth, trying to compete with the players listed above. There were some bright moments of comedy, and it was good to see the Stars having a bit of a romp, but at times it is hard going. As lovely as she is, Olivia was too old for the part, but some of the shots of Paris helped a lot.