Here's a soapy romancer that starts well with Walter Pidgeon as father to two daughters (Elizabeth Taylor and Donna Reed) who compete for the attentions of Van Johnson in Paris after the War. There's lots of the Kerns score and Hollywood=Paris...
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Here's a soapy romancer that starts well with Walter Pidgeon as father to two daughters (Elizabeth Taylor and Donna Reed) who compete for the attentions of Van Johnson in Paris after the War. There's lots of the Kerns score and Hollywood=Paris scenes abound.

Helen (Liz) takes after her dad and is the schemer that drags journalist Charlie (Johnson) under her spell in short order, a little unrealistically. Given the script, it's really difficult to assess how disappointed Helen is after Charlie's novels are rejected, she written as materialistic and madcap (like her father) one minute and supportive and caring the next. But then again Van Johnson is written as just as neurotic - making the suds bubble up.

The situations get more and more psychological after unexpected oil riches make the family wealthy but Charlie still can't get a novel published. Aside from the interest of a really young Roger Moore, the midpoint of the movie is scattershot - trying out any permutation of social ruin for a scene or two. The last twenty minutes are so full of incredible tragedy, weird retribution, and odd redemption that the viewer might be tempted to avoid Paris as a the city of the surreal.