Alec Guinness is usually regarded as a serious actor due to his roles in The Bridge on the River Kwai, Tunes of Glory and Star Wars, but he was primarily a star of light comedies throughout the 1940s and 1950s and he made a number of entertaining films... one of which was To Paris with Love, released in 1955. In this film, Guinness plays Sir Edgar, a middle-aged Scotsman who is on holiday in Paris with his grown son John (Vernon Gray). He is secretly hoping that his son would find romance in Paris with a young pretty Parisian, while John is hoping his father would find romance with a rich middle-aged woman. They meet Lizette (Odile Versois), a salesgirl at a fashionable boutique, the first day they arrive and Sir Edgar thinks she is ideal for John so he arranges a meeting with her for lunch the next day. Meanwhile, John meets Sylvia (Elina Labourdette), the owner of the same boutique, and thinks that she is ideal for his father so he, too, arranges a meeting with her for lunch the next day. Before they know it, John is dating Sylvia who is twenty years his senior and Sir Edgar is dating Lizette, who is twenty years younger than he! Both found romance in Paris in an unexpected way and how the twosome work out their mixed-up affairs makes up the remainder of this short and delightful Parisian holiday.
To Paris with Love is another one of those classic British comedies that in recent decades has somehow been overlooked stateside, yet at the time of its release it was quite popular in the U.S. The film was shot in Eastmancolor on location in Paris and the city looked lovely. The characters kept referring to "springtime in Paris" although it was clearly shot in the autumn with the color changes of the trees evident.
Alec Guinness didn't show much display of emotion in this film yet his feelings for young Lizette seemed genuine and one can easily see how she can find him attractive. He was especially good in his little bits of humor, such as when he got his badminton birdie up in a tree and thought he was agile enough to climb up and get it. That he did...but getting down was a different story! Vernon Gray was the likeable young chap in Now and Forever and he played a similar character here, although this time he found an older woman more attractive than Janette Scott.
Odile Versois made several good comedies in the early 1950s and this wasn't her first British production. The following year she starred in the entertaining crime drama Checkpoint (1956) with Stanley Baker. In To Paris with Love there is a secondary romance between her and a young postman who is enamored with her and a nice side comedy about her father being a taxi-driver. Also in the cast is Austin Trevor, Jacques Francois, and Claude Romain.
To Paris with Love is currently available on DVD and it is worth checking out. It is one of those amusing light-hearted comedies that has such a relaxing pace and beautiful Paris setting that you'll end up rewatching it every few years.
