Paris Holiday (1958) User Reviews

Slight comedy provides glimpse of French funnyman

[philosophymom · 5/10 · 5 December 1998]

It should have been funnier.

It had the right cast: Bob Hope in the sort of part he could believably play, that of clever, self-aware, ham entertainer "Bob Hunter"; Grace-Kelly-esque Martha Hyer as his classy, hard-to-get love interest "Ann McCall"; shapely Anita Ekberg as "Zara," a mysterious spy whose strange interest in Bob complicates (among other things) the hapless comedian's attempts at romancing Ann; and funny-faced Frenchman Fernandel as "Fernydel," Hunter's Gallic counterpart/rival/friend in the story's adventures.

And the plot had potential. There was mystery (why does a spy ring seem determined to keep Bob Hunter from acquiring a script from a famous French playwright?), romance (as endearingly un-suave Hunter slowly wins his sophisticated lady), and comic relief (in the exchange of one-upmanship between friendly rivals Fernydel and Hunter). Throw in the classic cruise-ship setting which begins the film, plus several car (and other vehicle) chases through Paris and its environs at the film's climax, and you have a diverting hour and a half of film, right?

Well, more or less. The film's comic potential is never *quite* realized, in large part because the scenes with real screwball potential simply move too slowly. Case in point: a courtroom scene in which non-Anglophone Fernydel is called to testify to Bob Hunter's sanity. The trial is conducted in English, and as the Frenchman "defends" his American friend by proudly trotting out all the "hep cat" slang the latter has taught him ("crazy," "out of this world," "the living end"), he only makes things worse. But the sort of snappy pace that gives that crucial edge to linguistic-confusion routines (think "Who's on first?") is utterly absent. And in another scene, in which the baddies chase Hope, Hyer, and Fernandel through an amusement park, it's just too dark to properly make out their antics.

Still, the film served its purpose for me: I bought it to see the celebrated Fernandel in his only American movie role of which I am aware. Without English, the Frenchman could not have played many parts accessible to a mainstream American audience, and in this movie his role is perfectly designed to get around that difficulty. He essentially plays a broad caricature of himself, with the usual stereotype of the Frenchman-as-eternal-romantic thrown in for good measure.

Oh, and there's a funny "in joke" for those who know a little bit about Fernandel. The role for which he is best remembered in Europe is that of "Don Camillo," the fiesty priest in a series of well-loved films based on Giovanni Guareschi's stories. And when, in "Paris Holiday," his character dons a cassock in an attempt to sneak into a place where Hope's being held prisoner, it's as if Don Camillo is making a brief cameo here.

This Is Not a Good Mix

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 28 March 2005]

Though this is not a good film for Bob Hope, it has one redeeming feature. It gave American audiences exposure to the great French comedian, Fernandel.

Fernandel almost was given the role of Passepartout the French valet to David Niven in Around the World in 80 Days. In fact he was going to learn English for the role. It fell through and the part was played by Cantinflas whose style was similar to Fernandel. Too bad for Fernandel that Around the World in 80 Days didn't work out for him.

Because Fernandel didn't speak English that presented problems trying to team him with Bob Hope. It was handled rather clumsily, Fernandel's part in the film was completely superfluous to the plot.

Nothing extraordinary about the plot itself. Hope's an American actor in Paris who comes across a nasty gang and he agrees to help both American and French authorities to capture them. Along for female decoration are Anita Ekberg and Martha Hyer. It's a Bob Hope movie, not one of his best, so I'm sure you can figure out the plot from here on in.

Fernandel has a few good moments though. There is a scene where he's trying to get in an insane asylum to rescue Hope and he's trying to convince the guard in front that he's crazy. So a certain amount of craziness follows and he's outstanding.

His biography here says he worked in a bank when he was young. But that long horse-face of his made people laugh, so to use an American expression, Fernandel took a lemon and made lemonade. If they're going to laugh, I'll get paid for it.

I wish some of his films were available here in the USA. I could easily even in this film see why he was such a national treasure in France.

Three Beauties, Two Comics, & a Mystery

[Chazzzzz · 7/10 · 10 November 1999]

The Mystery is why is this film not as good as it should have been. I've given it a 7, but it had the potential to be even better. Our two comics are good when they are together, but the courtroom scene is dragged out, and several scenes are very dark. However, the beauty of this film is in the viewing of Martha Hyer, Anita Ekberg, and Irene Tunc! All three are drop-dead gorgeous, and really contribute to the movie! Irene should have been given a bigger part! See it in wide-screen if possible.

Fraying At the Edges.

[theowinthrop · 2 April 2005]

Bob Hope was, without a doubt, at the height of his film comedy popularity from 1939 through 1951. All of his films were pretty successful, and his cowardly, smart-aleck hit the right notes. His best notes were shared with Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour, but he did well on his own in films like "Where's There's Life", "Monsieur Beaucaire", and "The Princess and the Pirate". The last good films in this series were "My Favorite Spy" and "The Lemon Drop Kid".

Then something happens. It is only beginning to be understood, for Hope's death last year sort of opened some hidden or shut doors. One thing that comes out is his (for want of a better term) "schizzoid" point of view regarding film acting. He saw Bing had won a best actor Oscar for "Going My Way" and could not understand why Bing did it and Bob could not. That Bing was better at straight acting than Bob never entered his mind. Hope felt that his writers could find a script for him that opened the door to an Oscar nomination (and, with luck, Oscar selection). If you notice in his best films there are moments when the writers and Hope do struggle to make his character rise to the surface on the plot line. But these moments are always brief - immediately he makes some snippy, "funny" comment that undercuts it. The reason comes out in his "schizoid" point of view. Hope could not stand leaving any dialog without a humorist zinger to cap it off. Imagine Lawrence Olivier as Hamlet or Othello or MacBeth, topping off a soliloquy with an old jest (possibly from "Joe Miller's Joke Book") and you can approximate this problem. The jokes were usually funny, but they deflated the dramatic moments in the films.

After 1951 Hope still made movies, but his attention was now increasingly involved with television (radio was passing its peak years as THE home entertainment source). He still hoped to get that one elusive part. And to be fair to Hope his three best performances are in the 1950s after 1951: "The Seven Little Foys", "Beau James", "That Certain Feeling". The latter two are probably the best, with the biography of Mayor Walker actually tapping into his film personae almost perfectly for the dapper, funny, seemingly shallow Mayor. "That Certain Feeling" actually gave him a part where his smart alecky comments were compensated in the plot by his having psychological problems (an inferiority complex) and a rival (a superb George Sanders) to play off against (and in this case with - Sanders gives as good as he gets). Hope never rose above these two films (these three with "Foys").

But Hope was approaching the end of his run of movie success with these three films. There had been signs of this even earlier. When he played opposite Hedy Lamarr in "My Favorite Spy", he met a type he was unused to in leading ladies. Most of his leading ladies were easy going and willing to let him carry the comedy for them (such as Virginia Mayo in "The Princess and the Pirate"). In Dorothy Lamour's case in the "Road" films she let Bob and Bing handle the comedy. With Lamarr he found a Hollywood star who insisted on equal time. When you see the film today it is very funny, and Lamarr never had as openly humorous a role in a film. But most of her footage ended up on the cutting room floor. Lamarr was quite angry about that, and never forgave Hope (and never appeared on any of his television specials, as other leading ladies of his did).

In 1955 Hope stumbled again, doing a "Ninotchka" imitation called "The Iron Petticoat". It co-starred Katherine Hepburn. It makes one's eyes blink to see Hepburn's name opposite Hope - most of his leading ladies (even Oscar winners like Joan Fontaine) were not in Hepburn's league. Imagine Oliver Hardy romancing Joan Crawford or Greta Garbo in one of the Laurel and Hardy films. The same casting problem emerges (no problem if he romances Thelma Todd or Mae Busch though). Hope probably thought it was a great casting coup. This film pops up occasionally on British television (it was made in England), but has never appeared here. Both stars died last year, and I wonder if they both pressured American television not to show it. Hepburn, a gifted all around actress, probably did a good job. My guess is Hope tried to do to her what had succeeded with Lamarr. But Hepburn was bigger than Lamarr and it did not work. So, if my suspicion is correct, you really get two films, one starring Hope, one of Hepburn, tacked together. Hepburn, by the way, never showed up on a Hope special either. I wonder if she was even asked.

Then came this disaster.

I watched it once in the 1960s. It was incomprehensible to me, and given what films I had seen with Hope I wondered what had happened to him. Fernandel remained a total mystery for me, but I have seen him in some French films since, so I know he could act and perform very nicely. The plot was like half a dozen other plots reused over and over by Hope's writers - a brash coward is accidentally twisted into a criminal/spy conspiracy. The only thing I recall was that Preston Sturges' appearance as Serge Vitry was unique and short. I think that Hope may have hired him for the cameo because one of Hope's first big successes in movies was as Kidley, the hypochondriac millionaire in "Never Say Die", which Sturges wrote. But that point aside, this film was a bomb - the first really bad film in Hope's career and the one that pointed to the string of loser films of the 1960s and 70s.

"If I saw this in pictures I wouldn't believe it!"

[classicsoncall · 6/10 · 17 May 2009]

I guess Bob Hope figured it out by the time of the Keystone Cop-like finale, hanging from an aerial trapeze suspended from a runaway helicopter. He uttered a similar line near the end of "My Favorite Spy" in another slapdash ending. Hope's partner in crime here is French comedian actor Fernandel, his named shortened by a letter to Fernydel for no apparent reason I can think of, other than it sounding a bit funnier. Hope's character runs to type, that of a somewhat cowardly leading man with an eye for the babes but unsure of himself when the heat really gets poured on, a la his first meeting with Anita Ekberg on board the cruise ship.

The plot of the story was probably more complicated than it had to be. It would have been enough that the villains were attempting to steal a famed writer's new script for a movie, but the story was based on a massive counterfeit scheme that might have ruined the entire European economy. In a sample of art imitating life, Preston Sturges makes a brief appearance as that writer, probably wondering how he got himself into this vehicle.

Not that the film is that bad, if viewed as a random sample of Bob Hope's filmography, it's readily passable. However he did far better films, notably the Road series with Crosby and Lamour. The Hope-Fernandel team up didn't seem to be an inspired combination, as virtually all of the Frenchman's lines were in his own language. His delivery of English slang in the courtroom setting could have been one of the snappier scenes instead of merely adequate. Still, there were a few bits of genuinely funny moments like Bob's hijacking of a pigeon, and Fernandel's shipboard 'sick' routine to free up the lounge chairs. A little over the top to be sure but it worked.

I probably should mention Martha Hyer's reserved but graceful portrayal of State Department employee Ann McCall who Bob proceeds to romance. After a rocky start they manage to become a serious couple, although I never really caught the point where that relationship turned for the better. Anita Ekberg appears as a mysterious spy and gets a lot of obvious profile time in the picture, and just as with Miss Hyer, her character shifts course near the end of the picture for no apparent reason.

Paris When It Fizzles

[jackbuckley-25095 · 6/10 · 26 April 2020]

Actually this Bob Hope movie is better than my review's title-caption indicates--I just couldn't resist using it, though the description is partially accurate. Well, where to begin? I just finished watching this film for the first time in at least 25 years, not recalling much about it, only a little, vaguely. "Holiday" generally is amusing, featuring Hope at his suavest and most appealing, in terms of his physical demeanor and comic-style . He's very smooth in this, as well as fashionably-dressed, quite a pleasure to watch both in his bodily movements and facial expressions. Although some aging is apparent, circa 1958, he remains at this time in his career still quite youthful-looking and energetic. The storyline is confusing and unfocused, mostly lost in the meandering goings-on. When circumstances dictate certain revelations and explanations, the movie becomes totally stagnant and extremely talky, with little-to-no-humor. What humor there is at these moments of verbal plot-exposition is in the way of small touches, i.e., facial expressions conveying this or that, mix-ups over language-translations, etc.--mildy amusing at most but not overly funny. I believe Hope's theory behind this personally-supervised film of his, simply was an attempt to capitalize on popular espionage films of the Cold War era, giving it a comical American-spin with Hope at the center of events, as he'd done before. However, on this go-round, he was trying to turn it into an extravaganza, cramming in way too much stuff, the movie running far longer than the plot, or comedy-potential, merits. Filmed in Technirama, "Holiday" probably was an attempt to compete with TV, to get audiences into theaters, as so many "big" movies of that decade attempted--all the lavish epics, wide-screen effects, etc. This was Ol' Ski-Noses' attempt at really "big comedy", something not truly achieved until the 60's with huge, splashy vehicles like "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad World", "The Great Race", ""The Pink Panther", etc.--films with extensively star-heavy, popular casts, and which exhibited wit, style, and "big", delightfully funny comedy-concepts. None of these huge 60's comedy-movies relied on a single comic-star, like Hope, on which they'd succeed or fail. I'm a huge Hope fan but eventually even I got a little restless and slightly bored with the story, which just seemed to wander on and on--some scenes, even humorous ones, moving at a sluggish snail's pace. Fernandel adds very little to the movie, with very sporadic brief exceptions, and neither does Ekberg. Their marquee-names and presences are largely meaningless today. Martha Hyer, though, always classy, is fine as the State Dept. official whom Hope pursues without much success till late in the film. Bob's lines are pretty good, a few topically-dated, but not many. Several are quite funny indeed. The majority still work as they're primarily situational. While Hope's ambitions with "Holiday" are to be commended, it was just too much to expect for him to carry the entire movie on his name-recognition and popularity alone. Fernandel probably was meant to help carry the burden in this regard but his lack of English cancelled out much of this aspect. Ekberg no longer seems terribly awesome in terms of the kind of dated, statuesque, European sex-appeal she once represented. Although Hope has many lines of sexual-innuendo and double-entendres, no doubt considered cringe-worthy to modern-day women, I imagine many females of the current-era nevertheless would find Bob's cute and harmless lines in this regard to actually be quite funny, spoken in his uniquely delightful way, as this type of male-female humor in contemporary movies and society has totally vanished. Bob's suggestively-impish quips re: attractive women are like a breath of fresh air! Finally, then, what is one to make of "Paris Holiday"? Well, this movie, despite its plot and structural-flaws, remains a treat for admirers of Bob like me. He's a joy and delight to watch and listen to, just as much as ever. Throughout the film, he's engaged and "in-the-moment". There's no sense of boredom, embarassment, simply doing it for a paycheck, or indications that he knows "Paris" is going to be a flop. He performs confidently and most-engagingly in every scene he's in, which is almost all! There genuinely are funny lines and moments but the movie goes on too long, to no real purpose--the espionage/counterfeiting angle is totally muddled and forgettable even while watching, with Fernandel diluting what could've been swifter-pacing and sharper comedy overall. The helicopter-chase finale is wacky and funny but is over-milked, eventually, though regrettably, becoming rather tiresome, though Bob pulls it off with wry, wise-cracking aplomb. I'd say, in conclusion, "Paris Holiday" is for dedicated Hope fans only, such as myself. It won't thrill but manages still mostly to please--an overlong, largely incoherent attempt at late 50's, TV-competitive, "big comedy".

Bob Hope in search of a script--literally.

[Steve-318 · 4/10 · 11 November 1999]

Anita Ekberg's the highlight here in a comedy that needed a real villain for Hope and French clown Fernandel to play off. Instead we get a bunch of black-suited Keystone cops types who chase Hope around for the last half-hour of the picture. Lots of weak slapstick stuff in zis veddy zilly French movie.

Just not up the standards of Hope's earlier films.

[planktonrules · 4/10 · 13 October 2011]

This film has some VERY strange casting and I am not sure what the producer (Bob Hope) was thinking, nor what the film's writer (once again, Hope) had in mind. After all, why get the great French comic, Fernandel, to appear in the film in a major role...and yet he speaks French the entire time and Hope speaks only English. Often, they just hang out together and you wonder why--what keeps them together?! Couldn't they have gotten a French comic who also spoke English?! There's also another odd casting decision, but it works well and the part is small. For some odd reason, the writer/director Preston Sturges plays a French man. And considering that the film was made in France, I am not sure why they did this--though Sturges was surprisingly good in his small role. One other unusual role went to the lovely Anita Ekberg--who oddly got higher billing than the equally lovely Martha Hyer--even though her role was minuscule in comparison.

"Paris Holiday" begins on the cruiser, the Ile de France. There, Bob Hope meets Hyer and immediately begins making boorish sexual innuendos towards her. This sort of thing was not uncommon for a Hope film, but he comes on particularly strong here--so strong you wonder how she can fall in love with his character. This occurs thanks to Fernandel--who plays himself and a bit of a cupid. Now I did think it strange that Hope basically played himself, a famous American comic and movie star, yet he was called 'Bob Hunter'--yet Fernandel played himself. This ruse seemed very unnecessary.

During the cruise, Ekberg breaks into Hope's room twice to search it. She's looking for something--but what? Later, once they are all in Paris, you learn that she's working with some counterfeiters and that they now are trying to kill Hope. Considering that his one-liners are VERY weak throughout the film, I really couldn't blame them! Can Hope extricate himself AND get the girl? Well, considering he wrote the film, I severely doubted it as I watched!

My biggest complaint is not that Hope has such limp lines (which he wrote--so he has no one else to blame) but the complete waste of Fernandel. The Frenchman is cute here--but not all that funny (except when he's in drag late in the film--not THAT's something to see). I've seen him in a few other films and liked him very much and know he's capable of much more. Also, while some die-hard fans might disagree, as Hope aged, the quality of his films declined. His heyday was clearly the 1940s and by the late 50s, the films just weren't that funny. Now "Paris Holiday" isn't bad--it just isn't particularly funny. So, if you are a Hope fan, it's worth seeing--if not, you probably won't be particularly impressed--especially at the horrible scene involving the helicopter and the two ladies in the car (uggh!).

Hope And Gory

[writers_reign · 5/10 · 1 July 2008]

To give you an idea of how bad this is the highlight is a rip-off from Bluebeard's Eighth Wife, an early (1938) Billy Wilder screenplay. In Bluebeard Edward Everett Horton is attempting to get into a mental hospital to visit Gary Cooper. Twice he knocks at the door; twice the door is opened and shut on him. He tries again. Knocks. The door is opened. He barks like a dog. Ah, come in, m'sieu. This time around Fenandel is trying to get in to see hope but what Wilder and Lubitsch accomplished in under sixty seconds is here parlayed into a few minutes. Trivia buffs are always going to want to check out Preston Sturges playing a French playwright modelled on Sacha Guitry - if Serge Vitry doesn't help you nothing will. Having bombed two years earlier with The Iron Petticoat - a sort of Ninotchka without the style - Hope, who takes credit for the 'idea' tried a similar format again with no better results: in this movie Martha Hyer falls for Hope and winds up with him; the following year she rejected SINATRA in Some Came Running. Nuff said. There are a couple of half-decent one-lines but one liner does not a movie make.

Fernandel and Hope are a Great Comedy Team

[jayraskin1 · 10/10 · 18 January 2015]

There were so many spy spoofs in the 1960's that I think people don't get how fresh and original this spy spoof was in 1958.

The great French comedian and Bob Hope play off of each other wonderfully. It is amazing because neither spoke the other's language. Both have to resort to slapstick and pantomime. The first scene where they meet and Fernandel stares at Bob Hope's large nose and calls it "extraordinaire, formidable, and fantastique".

As a bonus, we get to see Anita Ekberg in a pre-La Dolce Vita role. She plays the femme fatale and steals every scene that she is in. A brief appearance by Preston Sturges is also a highlight.

I think a lot of people don't like the swift movement between sophisticated comedy and slap-stick. However I enjoyed the mixture. The hanging from a helicopter ending reminds one of many silent screen Keystone Cops crazy endings. I'm a fan of silent films, so I enjoyed it as an homage, but I can understand people dismissing it as weak and derivative.

Just plain rubbish...

[marknbkk · 3/10 · 24 March 2020]

I love Bob Hope's early films, but from the mid-50s onwards they just became rubbish.

This one is rubbish, rubbish, rubbish. The ridiculous nature of the film is highlighted by the interminable helicopter scene - as Hope's character said himself, "If I saw this in pictures I wouldn't believe it."

With the exception of Fernandel, the film's actors were strong - it was the script that stank. How anyone could have been attracted to contribute finances to the production based on the lame-brain script is beyond me.

Unintended irony

[richard-1787 · 24 August 2011]

It is unintended irony, I suspect, that the plot of this movie - what little there is of it - centers around Bob Hunter's (Hope) efforts to find a script. This movie could certainly have used a better one. Hope and especially Fernandel were great comedians, but they have virtually nothing to work with here, so the movie drags from one uninteresting scene to the next.

How a picture executive could have believed that anyone would pay money to see this, much less, after having seen it, tell anyone else to see it, I can't imagine. It really is one of the worst movies I've seen in a long time.