On paper no one sets out to make a clinker but someone in the background got it woefully wrong in the planning stage of this one. In film terms Paris is its own reward and how hard do you have to work to make it sing. Harder by far than anyone on both sides of the camera was prepared and/or able to in this case. For reasons that don't really hold water Alec Guiness plays a gotrocks who takes his totally insipid twenty year old son to Paris. Without anything added you have a viable idea right there. On paper. In fact all concerned contrive to snatch a suet pudding from the jaws of a soufflé'. The chemistry on display between ANY two members of the cast would struggle to illuminate a Toc H lamp. The only reason I can think of for producing this is someone needed a tax write-off.

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".

In the 1950s, Alec Guinness made a long string of some of the most wonderful comedies ever made. However, it's very sad that most of you have probably never seen them and only remember this actor for his work in STAR WARS. THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT, THE HORSE'S MOUTH and KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS (among many others) are all fabulous Guinness films and I would heartily recommend just about every film Guinness made in the 50s--except for this somewhat dull film. Unfortunately, TO Paris WITH LOVE isn't particularly funny nor is it particularly distinguished. If it hadn't been for Guinness in the lead, I truly doubt I would have ever bothered watching it--it's just so mediocre.The story is about a man and his 20-something son going on a holiday to Paris and both are intent on setting the other up with a lady. The problem is, Guinness ends up with the young one and the son gets the older girlfriend--and you know that both would really be better off switching partners.Despite being so ordinary, there's nothing bad about the film or the acting. I think the problem mostly is that with such high expectations, the film was bound to disappoint.

"To Paris with Love" starts off with a good premise for a romantic comedy: a middle-aged widower and his 20-year-old son both decide to play matchmaker for each other, but each one soon finds himself falling for the woman he'd picked out for the other. Unfortunately, the potential of this idea is never realized. The story and direction are bland, and there's no perceptible chemistry between the couples in any of their permutations. The charm of Alec Guinness provides some appealing moments (particularly in one sequence where he attempts to impress his young lady friend by retrieving a lost shuttlecock), but too often, the script is just too flat for even Guinness to liven up.