Colorful, sweet and tender, often lightly funny, this English romantic comedy deals with a widowed British father and his son who visit the city of lights and find a new kind of love that only Maurice Chevalier could sing about. The wonderful Alec Guennis is a perfect lady lover, quite different than the cad he played in the same year's "The Lady Killers". Vernon Gray is his much more serious son who has a more nervous reaction to romance, especially when his father begins to spend time with a much younger woman (Odile Versais) who has more in common with father than son. Gray, needing to lighten up, begins to see an older woman (Elina Labourdette) who has her hands full in loosening him up, while Sir Alec really gets his groove back.
Among the funny moments are Sir Alec and Odile soaked by a street cleaner then trying to slink back into his hotel, Sir Alec caught outside the door wearing suspenders locked on the inside, and Sir Alec being caught in a tree by his finger wagging son. Sir Alec proves that it takes real talent to be funny, reminding me how certain lines he said years later while playing Hitler made me laugh because it sounded like his blind Butler from "Murder By Death" saying them. The film takes a twist near the end that comes out of nowhere, but I managed to just grin and bare it even if I didn't believe it. Even though I have no interest in traveling overseas, this at least did take me there again temporarily, just as I did a few weeks ago with the very different "Paris Blues", and as I have many times through "Funny Face", "Silk Stockings", "Gigi" and of course "An American in Paris".
Among the funny moments are Sir Alec and Odile soaked by a street cleaner then trying to slink back into his hotel, Sir Alec caught outside the door wearing suspenders locked on the inside, and Sir Alec being caught in a tree by his finger wagging son. Sir Alec proves that it takes real talent to be funny, reminding me how certain lines he said years later while playing Hitler made me laugh because it sounded like his blind Butler from "Murder By Death" saying them. The film takes a twist near the end that comes out of nowhere, but I managed to just grin and bare it even if I didn't believe it. Even though I have no interest in traveling overseas, this at least did take me there again temporarily, just as I did a few weeks ago with the very different "Paris Blues", and as I have many times through "Funny Face", "Silk Stockings", "Gigi" and of course "An American in Paris".