Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
Running time: 116 minutes
The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954)
“Academy Award winners Elizabeth Taylor and Donna Reed star with Van Johnson in this sweeping romance loosely based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘Babylon Revisited’, a story of love and dreams found and lost in The City of Lights—The Last Time I Saw Paris. When reporter Charles Wills (Johnson) travels to Paris to cover the Allies’ victory in World War II, he falls in love with and marries the stunningly beautiful Helen Ellswirth (Taylor). The young newlyweds choose to stay in Paris, where Charles tries to make his way as a writer. But years of struggle, rejection and poverty take their toll on the Wills’ marriage, and the two drift into affairs with others as their love and dreams fade. Now, after years of disillusion and tragedy, Charles returns to Paris. But can he rediscover the passion and dreams that once came so easily?” [From the Blu-ray]
Cast
Helen Ellswirth: Elizabeth Taylor
Charles Wills: Van Johnson
James Ellswirth: Walter Pidgeon
Marion Ellswirth: Donna Reed
Lorraine Quarl: Eva Gabor
Maurice: Kurt Kasznar
Claude Matine: George Dolenz
Paul: Roger Moore
Vicki: Sandy Descher
Mama: Celia Lovsky
Barney: Peter Leeds
Campbell: John Doucette
Singer: Odette
Crew
Director: Richard Brooks
Producer: Jack Cummings
Screenwriters: Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, and Richard Brooks
Based on the Story “Babylon Revisited” by: F. Scott Fitzgerald
Cinematographer: Joseph Ruttenberg
Art Directors: Cedric Gibbons and Randall Duell
Set Decorators: Edwin B. Willis and Jack D. Moore
Special Effects: A. Arnold Gissespie
Musical Score: Conrad Sallinger
Song: “The Last Time I Saw Paris” by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II
Editor: John Dunning
Costumes: Helen Rose
Did You Know?
The film, directed and co-written by Richard Brooks (who, a few years later, would be at the helm of one of Elizabeth’s most iconic films, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), is loosely based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1931 short story, Babylon Revisited. Elizabeth said the decision was made to call the film The Last Time I Saw Paris so audiences didn’t think the film had a biblical subject matter. It instead borrows its title from the song by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II, which features in the film.
Legendary MGM costume designer Helen Rose would later recall a run-in with a studio censor, one of the notorious so-called “Bust Inspectors” (BI for short), that threatened to ruin one of the most pivotal scenes. In those days, everything associated with a film was vetted by the studio censors, including the wardrobe. Rose explained that every costume “had to pass their inspection, and if even a tiny bit of cleavage showed, we would be told we would have to change the dress before shooting.”
Toward the end of filming, a BI was called in to check out the red chiffon dress Elizabeth was set to wear during the film’s climax. The BI “was tall, slender, wore horn rimmed glasses and a no-nonsense air. She took one look at Elizabeth in that dress and immediately requested a tall ladder. Working her way up to the top rung, she adjusted her glasses and peered down into that gorgeous bosom. She informed all of us standing silently around that the dress would have to be changed, the decolletage filled in, or we would have to replace the dress with something more modest.
“I was devastated! I wanted to weep and I knew Richard Brooks was very disappointed for he thought the dress was perfect. The assistant director was speechless. Elizabeth just stood there. Meanwhile, the Bust Inspector calmly descended the ladder, she had spoken and that was that! For a few minutes not a sound was heard. I had expected some sort of a blow-up from Richard, but he just walked slowly toward a brick wall at the end of the stage and bowed his head. I thought, ‘He’s praying!’ This was not at all like him. Richard was a fighter and was never at a loss for words. But he wasn’t praying. Suddenly, he began to bang his head against the wall and let go with a string of oaths that would have made his old Marine buddies proud. We all froze in awe. But the Bust Inspector burst into tears, flew off the stage, quit her job and got married.”
The dress remained in the picture.
Due to a copyright error, The Last Time I Saw Paris has languished in the public domain for more than half a century. Inferior home video releases flooded the market for decades, although MGM released the film officially on VHS and laserdisc, and the Warner Archive later issued a DVD and, finally, a Blu-ray in 2023. The Blu-ray boasts a 4K scan of Original Technicolor Camera negatives, finally giving The Last Time I Saw Paris the first-class treatment it deserves.