Customer Reviews

Paris Holiday

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I have been wanting to see this film for years, because I'm a fan of Hope's early films and the ones with Crosby, and this one has the reputation of being better than the losers he began to crank out in the '50s and '60s; because Gerd Oswald directed the superb (long unavailable because of the dreadful remake) A Kiss Before Dying; and because Preston Sturges appears in it as an actor. I should have known when I saw the low price tag and the unknown logo (Brentwood) that this would be a bargain basement ripoff. To begin with, it's pan and scan; just the credits are letterboxed--then you apruptly switch to seeing only a third of the Cinemascope image. The print itself in not good, a lot worse than a decent VHS tape, with drifting colors. As for the movie, I lasted midway; the jokes are definitely late Hope, smirky and obvious, and the action is slowed considerably by the fact that Hope plays opposite Fernandel, who speaks only French--you have to wait while another character translates what he says or watch him looking confused. Still, is the movie really as deadly as it seems? I'm not sure. Oswald proved in his others pictures that he knew how to fill a Cinemascope screen and it's possible that that in the correct aspect-ratio this picture as some style; the letterboxed pre-credit sequence is certainly more watchable than what follows. What's really troubling is that this same company is putting out a bunch of Hope's films, including some of his best (ie The Seven Little Foys). Are all the DVDs in the series as lousy as this? Has anyone made the mistake I made with this one, of actually buying one? Let's hear from you.

Overall, I thought "Paris Holiday" was a very funny movie. It was the first film I'd seen with Bob Hope, and i was very pleased. I could not stop laughing during that ridiculously cheesy helicopter scene!
However, one of the main reasons I got the movie was because I thought Anita Ekberg, of whom I am a big fan, was a main character. She was one of the stars to get top billing, so naturally, I thought she would be in the film quite a bit. This was not the case. Her character is important to the story line, but she is not shown much, which was a little disappointing.
Overall, the movie was very good, VERY funny, but I wouldn't recommend it to someone looking for an Anita Ekberg movie.

After dabbling in drama--first with "The Seven Little Foys", then more deeply with "Beau James"--Bob Hope returned to familiar territory with the comedy "Paris Holiday". Hope produced & penned the original story idea about an American actor-comedian visiting Paris to purchase an important screenplay...and then soon getting involved in counterfeit espionage.
The result? The film seems to plod along until about two-thirds through, when broader comedy elements are introduced. Hope's co-star Fernandel--the French comedian--is more of an "accomplice" for Hope than an actual teaming, since the story clearly revolves around Hope's character. Fernandel offers a pleasing contrast to Hope's comedic style with slightly daffy charm. Although the lovely Anita Ekberg gets second billing, her spy character seems more of a "go-between" as she's only getting close to Hope to get what she wants. It's actually the diplomat (Martha Hyer) whom Hope has eyes for--and Hyer has more screen time than Ekberg as the character caught up in Hope's entanglements. The script is peppered with some terrific Hope jokes, and some moments that are funny throwbacks to earlier Hope comedies: Hope narrowly missing being killed in an elevator; Hope, Fernandel & Hyer posing as dummies in a "tunnel of love" boat ride; Hope wrongly put in a sanitarium (remember "My Favorite Brunette"?), and trying desperately to extradite himself; Fernandel tearing apart his own car to prove to a sanitarium guard he is "wacky"; and a climactic wild helicopter ride that's a real hoot.
Again, Brentwood failed to restore the original print, and although there's plenty of color, the film looks dark in places.
Certainly not Hope's best comedy, but there are flashes of the old Hope formula which make it quite enjoyable.

I really enjoyed watching this movie-again. It's been many years since first watchiing it on tele-b&w! "Who'da thunck it" that I'd pay to watch Bob Hope-NOT! I paid to re-live my boyhood "lust" for the Fine Miss Ekberg! That's when "the Chrome was thick and the women were straight"! I'd like to add, the women were just like I like 'em-thick too!

PARIS HOLIDAY comes at the point (1958) where Bob Hope's film career was just starting to slow down. I like Hope a lot, but watching this film I can see why he basically stopped making films after the mid-60s. It starts out with dull shipboard romance and hijinks, involving Hope (as "Bob Hunter, famous American comedian) and Fernandel (as "Fernydel, famous French comedian) as initial rivals for the affections of Ann McCall, an American embassy employee in Paris (Martha Hyer, who looks uncannily like Grace Kelly and indeed was billed as Universal's "answer" to Ms. Kelly for a few years). Meanwhile spy Zara (Anita Ekberg) is trying to steal something from Bob Hunter.

Turns out Hunter is supposed to have a script by the famous French playwright Serge Vitry (Preston Sturges - yup, the Preston Sturges who was one of Hollywood's great writer-directors a decade or two earlier) which he doesn't in fact have - a script that names a bunch of people who were involved in a counterfeiting scheme after WWII, and spy Ekberg and others are trying to get hold of it. So once the film moves to Paris, it becomes a comic spy caper - but a very, very broad and increasingly dull once, as Hunter gets trapped in a brakeless taxi that's supposed to take him to his death, and then committed to an insane asylum - where of course neither his nor now-close-friend Fernandel's antics help convince anyone that he's sane - and finally we get a very, very extended and ridiculous helicopter escape sequence with Hope dangling from a ladder of the chopper flown by the inexperienced French comic for a solid 10 minutes as gangsters shoot at him and he has to keep avoiding church steeples and chimneys.

Hope wrote the original story that the screenplay is based on, and produced the film, so I think he can take the blame for the lameness here as much or more than director Gerd Oswald. Little of his career after this point looks all that promising; I guess I'll be sticking to his earlier work for now, most of which is much much better. Worth a look for die-hard Bob Hope fans or fans of the other stars I guess, but they've all done much better work.

NOTE ON THE DISC: As some others have mentioned, this is a pan-and-scan (1.33:1) transfer of a widescreen Cinemascope (well, "Technirama" in this case) film. So you're losing over 40% of the image, and what's left isn't that great - dull and washed-out in the colors. The transfer isn't any better on the Legends of Hollywood - Bob Hope Series box set, in fact I think it's the same one, but with that set at least you get 10 films for a good single price, and some of them are much better transfers. I've got both; this disc I'll give away at some point. I don't think in any case that there's a better version out there at the moment.

Bob Hope (1903-2003) co-starred with Famous French Comedian: Fernandel (1902-1971) in Paris holiday . Hope plays Robert Hunter , an actor traveling to Paris to purchase a screenplay , only to find himself mixed up counterfeits . While Hunter has his eye on diplomat Ann McCall (Marta Hyer 1924- ) , a sexy spy named Zara (The luscious Anita Ekberg 1931 - Miss Sweden 1950) has an eye on the screenplay . Hope produced the film penned the original story . The movie are produced on place in paris , Superb and Razor sharp transfer , so dont be afraind to buy this movie! . Higly Recommended

I love Bob Hope movies, but this has to be the worst I ever saw. Maybe Bob was just getting old and slowing down by 1958. This movie has a very slow, confusing, disjointed plot, dreary locations, the action drags, the lighting, camera work, and microphone placement all seemed second-rate, and the only funny thing happens at the very last when Bob Hope dangles for a while from a rope ladder attached to a Korean War-era helicopter, which provides some sight gags. The actors all seemed distracted throughout, and I got bored watching them. I kept wishing it would end. In fact, I got so depressed by it all I was about to abandon it until the helicopter took off. If I were the director of this movie, I would have demanded some energy and focus from these actors. Editing has a lot to do with the finished product, of course, and in my opinion about a third of this movie should have ended up on the cutting room floor, to at least speed things up. No joy for me in this movie. If you get this movie, go straight to the helicopter scene at the end--the rest of it is not worth sitting through.

Ha! People are allowed their own opinion i guess. I, personally, loved Paris Holiday. My 3rd year French class watched it today, and it was perfect. There was just enough French in it to make it extreamly interresting... Plus, the really cheezy story line and special effects really made it worth while.. It's just one of those old crummy flicks that you grow to love.. the bad guys after the good guys... the good guys winning it all in the end.... only to find out that they may not really have won.. Plus all the pretty girls. It's a great movie, if you like the type!!!! :D