Were it not for the presence of a luminous Elizabeth Taylor, The Last Time I Saw Paris would be a well-made but instantly forgettable little weepie. Taking an F. Scott Fitzgerald story as its basis but turning it into a full-fledged soap opera, the Epstein brothers fill the screenplay with clichés and ask the actors to deliver dialogue that is sometimes cringe-inducing. Director Richard Brooks, not usually associated with romantic melodramas of this sort, does a very credible job with this material, making sure that the picture has the high-gloss look and feel common to the genre,\ and giving costumer Helen Rose ample opportunity to strut her stuff. More importantly, he guides Taylor past the more dangerous parts of the script, enabling her to turn in a solid, powerful performance that was her best work since A Place in the Sun. As her paramour, Van Johnson doesn't quite measure up, turning in a performance that is somewhat mechanical and surface-oriented, but Donna Reed does an excellent job as the vile but sympathetic sister. Throw in some sharp set designs and tasty cinematography and the Paris comes out as a fairly decent way to spend the afternoon, especially if you're in the mood to shed a couple of tears.
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