Reviews (12)

Tracy returns in a quickie sequel to "Father of the Bride"
After the success of "Father of the Bride," M-G-M produced this sequel the following year. This time around Stanley Banks (Spencer Tracy) learns that his daughter Kay (Elizabeth Taylor) and son-in-law Buckley Dunstan (Don Taylor) are going to have a baby. Father is no more thrilled with the idea of being a grandfather than he was about Kay getting married in the first place. Joan Bennett as his wife Elllie and Billie Burke and Moroni Olsen as the other soon-to-be grandparents do their best to help poor Stanley through this latest trauma. A cute film, but certainly not as charming as the original, mainly because it is taking the same approach, albeit with a slightly different topic. It seems Stanely is no more interested in becoming a grandfather than he was in letting his daughter get married. Still, there are nice moments between Tracy and Taylor, who always called the actor "Pops" until the day he died. This 1951 film was also directed by Vincent Minnelli and Frances Goodrich & Albert Hackett again did the screenplay using the characters first created in Edward Streeter's novel. "Father's Little Dividend" was remade, in a round about way, in the recent Steve Martin vehicle "Father of the Bride II."

Tracy returns in a quickie sequel to "Father of the Bride"
After the success of "Father of the Bride," M-G-M produced this sequel the following year. This time around Stanley Banks (Spencer Tracy) learns that his daughter Kay (Elizabeth Taylor) and son-in-law Buckley Dunstan (Don Taylor) are going to have a baby. Father is no more thrilled with the idea of being a grandfather than he was about Kay getting married in the first place. Joan Bennett as his wife Elllie and Billie Burke and Moroni Olsen as the other soon-to-be grandparents do their best to help poor Stanley through this latest trauma. A cute film, but certainly not as charming as the original, mainly because it is taking the same approach albeit with a slightly different topic. Still, there are nice moments between Tracy and Taylor, who always called the actor "Pops" until the day he died. This 1951 film was also directed by Vincent Minnelli and Frances Goodrich & Albert Hackett again did the screenplay using the characters first created in Edward Streeter's novel. "Father's Little Dividend" was remade, in a round about way, in the recent Steve Martin vehicle "Father of the Bride II."

Decent sequel but ultimately forgettable
I'm sure it seemed a good thing to do -- follow up on the success of "Father of the Bride" with a chapter two. There are a few fun moments here and it is nice to see the entire cast reunited, but the sequel lacks the strength of the original. It's decent but far from memorable.

In this case, the Steve Martin remake, which diverges almost completely from the plot of the original (for good reasons), is more enjoyable. I found the end of this version, with Stanley misplacing the baby, a bit dark and not treated comically enough.

Many reviewers have lamented the poor sound quality of the DVD. Well, with a decent sound system it ends up sounding like most VHS copies. What is more embarrassing, at least on this DVD packaging are errors in the trivia game -- they don't even get Ellie's name right! Did they even watch this movie?

I'd actually like to see this reissued with a decent sound-track someday, but there are more important older movies to be revived first...

Spencer Tracy in a quickie sequel to "Father of the Bride"
After the success of 1950's "Father of the Bride," M-G-M produced this sequel the following year. This time around Stanley Banks (Spencer Tracy) learns that his daughter Kay (Elizabeth Taylor) and son-in-law Buckley Dunstan (Don Taylor) are going to have a baby. Father, of course, is no more thrilled with the idea of being a grandfather than he was about Kay getting married in the first place, and even when the baby arrives and insists on crying every time he is in Stanley's arms, his worst fears seem to be confirmed.

Joan Bennett as his beautiful and encouraging wife Elllie, along with Billie Burke and Moroni Olsen as the other soon-to-be grandparents, all do their best to help poor Stanley through this latest trauma, but Tracy's best moments are when he his daughter comes over to see "Pops" (Taylor called Tracy "Pops" the rest of his life and treated him like a real father figure). "Father's Little Dividend" is a cute film, but certainly not as charming as the original, mainly because it is taking the same approach, albeit with a slightly different topic. Even Tracy's performance really comes across as being a little less of the same as the original.

This 1951 film was also directed by Vincent Minnelli and Frances Goodrich & Albert Hackett once again did the screenplay using the characters first created in Edward Streeter's novel. "Father's Little Dividend" was remade, in a round about way, in the recent Steve Martin vehicle "Father of the Bride II," which puts some twists on the story that offer some further complications.

Use your cash as toilet paper.
If you are thinking of getting this dvd, you might as well use your cash as toilet paper, because that is what you will be getting when you buy this, if you get my drift. ... Read more

Reviews (12)

Tracy returns in a quickie sequel to "Father of the Bride"
After the success of "Father of the Bride," M-G-M produced this sequel the following year. This time around Stanley Banks (Spencer Tracy) learns that his daughter Kay (Elizabeth Taylor) and son-in-law Buckley Dunstan (Don Taylor) are going to have a baby. Father is no more thrilled with the idea of being a grandfather than he was about Kay getting married in the first place. Joan Bennett as his wife Elllie and Billie Burke and Moroni Olsen as the other soon-to-be grandparents do their best to help poor Stanley through this latest trauma. A cute film, but certainly not as charming as the original, mainly because it is taking the same approach, albeit with a slightly different topic. It seems Stanely is no more interested in becoming a grandfather than he was in letting his daughter get married. Still, there are nice moments between Tracy and Taylor, who always called the actor "Pops" until the day he died. This 1951 film was also directed by Vincent Minnelli and Frances Goodrich & Albert Hackett again did the screenplay using the characters first created in Edward Streeter's novel. "Father's Little Dividend" was remade, in a round about way, in the recent Steve Martin vehicle "Father of the Bride II."

Tracy returns in a quickie sequel to "Father of the Bride"
After the success of "Father of the Bride," M-G-M produced this sequel the following year. This time around Stanley Banks (Spencer Tracy) learns that his daughter Kay (Elizabeth Taylor) and son-in-law Buckley Dunstan (Don Taylor) are going to have a baby. Father is no more thrilled with the idea of being a grandfather than he was about Kay getting married in the first place. Joan Bennett as his wife Elllie and Billie Burke and Moroni Olsen as the other soon-to-be grandparents do their best to help poor Stanley through this latest trauma. A cute film, but certainly not as charming as the original, mainly because it is taking the same approach albeit with a slightly different topic. Still, there are nice moments between Tracy and Taylor, who always called the actor "Pops" until the day he died. This 1951 film was also directed by Vincent Minnelli and Frances Goodrich & Albert Hackett again did the screenplay using the characters first created in Edward Streeter's novel. "Father's Little Dividend" was remade, in a round about way, in the recent Steve Martin vehicle "Father of the Bride II."

Decent sequel but ultimately forgettable
I'm sure it seemed a good thing to do -- follow up on the success of "Father of the Bride" with a chapter two. There are a few fun moments here and it is nice to see the entire cast reunited, but the sequel lacks the strength of the original. It's decent but far from memorable.

In this case, the Steve Martin remake, which diverges almost completely from the plot of the original (for good reasons), is more enjoyable. I found the end of this version, with Stanley misplacing the baby, a bit dark and not treated comically enough.

Many reviewers have lamented the poor sound quality of the DVD. Well, with a decent sound system it ends up sounding like most VHS copies. What is more embarrassing, at least on this DVD packaging are errors in the trivia game -- they don't even get Ellie's name right! Did they even watch this movie?

I'd actually like to see this reissued with a decent sound-track someday, but there are more important older movies to be revived first...

Spencer Tracy in a quickie sequel to "Father of the Bride"
After the success of 1950's "Father of the Bride," M-G-M produced this sequel the following year. This time around Stanley Banks (Spencer Tracy) learns that his daughter Kay (Elizabeth Taylor) and son-in-law Buckley Dunstan (Don Taylor) are going to have a baby. Father, of course, is no more thrilled with the idea of being a grandfather than he was about Kay getting married in the first place, and even when the baby arrives and insists on crying every time he is in Stanley's arms, his worst fears seem to be confirmed.

Joan Bennett as his beautiful and encouraging wife Elllie, along with Billie Burke and Moroni Olsen as the other soon-to-be grandparents, all do their best to help poor Stanley through this latest trauma, but Tracy's best moments are when he his daughter comes over to see "Pops" (Taylor called Tracy "Pops" the rest of his life and treated him like a real father figure). "Father's Little Dividend" is a cute film, but certainly not as charming as the original, mainly because it is taking the same approach, albeit with a slightly different topic. Even Tracy's performance really comes across as being a little less of the same as the original.

This 1951 film was also directed by Vincent Minnelli and Frances Goodrich & Albert Hackett once again did the screenplay using the characters first created in Edward Streeter's novel. "Father's Little Dividend" was remade, in a round about way, in the recent Steve Martin vehicle "Father of the Bride II," which puts some twists on the story that offer some further complications.

Use your cash as toilet paper.
If you are thinking of getting this dvd, you might as well use your cash as toilet paper, because that is what you will be getting when you buy this, if you get my drift. ... Read more

Description

The director's son put together this outstanding documentary of his father's life and work. In addition to interviews with actors and contemporaries (Fred Astaire, Warren Beatty, Frank Capra, Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn, John Huston, Joel McCrea, Alan Pakula, Ginger Rogers, Elizabeth Taylor, and others), the film features behind the scenes home movies. Stevens was also assigned by Eisenhower to film WWII and the documentary contains highlights from this spectacular footage - the only color footage shot of D-Day, the march through Paris, and the liberation of Dachau. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

stevens on stevens
When the son of a director makes a film about his father, you have certain expectations. Bias, yes, but also insight and facts that are otherwise unknown. George Stevens Jnr provides us with his father's behind the scenes footage and also the World War 2 film he shot of D-day, the liberation of Paris, and Dachau, since he was in the special coverage unit. (The war footage is actually badly edited, or is it that the material is still subject to the censorship of the military?, and accompanied by a Hollywood-type saccharine score by Carl Davis). Jnr tells us that he was bequeathed his father's memorabilia, yet when it comes to covering his Hollywood career, we get hardly anything new. Even the behind the scenes home movies are mostly tedious images of the actors waving to the camera. So then we are left with the movies Snr made, complemeted by present day interviews with some of the actors involved. Of these, Katharine Hepburn is particularly entertaining. George Stevens is admired in the same way as John Ford, a point driven home by iconic profile stills of Snr in a cowboy hat. Like Ford, Stevens style was simple. He boasted that he could manage any genre, though he never tried a thriller, and his contemporaries Howard Hawks, William Wyler or John Huston were just as versatile and also managed to add some individuality. So there hangs an air of suffocating self-importance to the films we see. What is interesting is that this air evolved. His career in Hollywood began as a cameraman and gag writer for Laurel and Hardy, and Hal Roach. The story of how he overcame the blue eyes of Stan Laurel that the camera didn't register is the promise of detail unfulfilled. And the action of Gunga Din looks fun. Hepburn may have hit upon the reason for Stevens loss of humour. She comments that she had fierce arguments over his abandoning comedy, which she felt was his true gift, and turning to more serious subjects, though Jnr makes the point that it was his war experience which contributed to this decision. I guess after Dachau, nothing is funny anymore. Jnr also tells us that his father watched Triumph of the Will alone in a screening room and then said it was the most influential of his life. (Interpret that as you may). What is mentioned in this doco but passed over quickly is Snr's notorious reputation for shooting multiple takes of the same scene at different angles, so that he could make decisions when editing, which the studios balked at because of the cost of film exposed. (In this way, he was the opposite of Hitchcock, who shot so that the film could only be edited one way - ie the way Hitch had storyboarded it.) However all this seems worth it when you consider the one-take long-shot of The Way You Look Tonight from the Astaire/Rogers Swing Time (a lesson in how to shoot a dance number), and the beautiful extreme closeups of Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift in A Place in the Sun. Millie Perkins from The Diary of Anne Frank tells us that during their shoot, Stevens always wore dark sunglasses and treated the actors in the way he wanted them to perform. Since they were all meant to be frightened, that doesn't sound too positive. Luckily for Perkins, her character was to be loved. The perceived failure of The Greatest Story Ever Told also deprives us of anything of his later film, The Only Game in Town, though the discussion of his disagreement with Cecil B DeMille over Joseph L Mankiewicz and the Directors Guild during McCarthyism is fascinating.

a son's tribute
When the son of a director makes a film about his father, you have certain expectations. Bias, yes, but also insight and facts that are otherwise unknown. George Stevens Jnr provides us with his father's behind the scenes footage and also the World War 2 film he shot of D-day, the liberation of Paris, and Dachau, since he was in the special coverage unit. (The war footage is actually badly edited, or is it that the material is still subject to the censorship of the military?, and accompanied by a Hollywood-type saccharine score by Carl Davis). Jnr tells us that he was bequeathed his father's memorabilia, yet when it comes to covering his Hollywood career, we get hardly anything new. Even the behind the scenes home movies are mostly tedious images of the actors waving to the camera. So then we are left with the movies Snr made, complemented by present day interviews with some of the actors involved. Of these, Katharine Hepburn is particularly entertaining. George Stevens is admired in the same way as John Ford, a point driven home by iconic profile stills of Snr in a cowboy hat. Like Ford, Stevens style was simple. He boasted that he could manage any genre, though he never tried a thriller, and his contemporaries Howard Hawks, William Wyler or John Huston were just as versatile and also managed to add some individuality. So there hangs an air of suffocating self-importance to the films we see. What is interesting is that this air evolved. His career in Hollywood began as a cameraman and gag writer for Laurel and Hardy, and Hal Roach. The story of how he overcame the blue eyes of Stan Laurel that the camera didn't register is the promise of detail unfulfilled. And the action of Gunga Din looks fun. Hepburn may have hit upon the reason for Stevens loss of humour. She comments that she had fierce arguments over his abandoning comedy, which she felt was his true gift, and turning to more serious subjects, though Jnr makes the point that it was his war experience which contributed to this decision. I guess after Dachau, nothing is funny anymore. Jnr also tells us that his father watched Triumph of the Will alone in a screening room and then said it was the most influential of his life. (Interpret that as you may). What is mentioned in this doco but passed over quickly is Snr's notorious reputation for shooting multiple takes of the same scene at different angles, so that he could make decisions when editing, which the studios balked at because of the cost of film exposed. (In this way, he was the opposite of Hitchcock, who shot so that the film could only be edited one way - ie the way Hitch had storyboarded it.) However all this seems worth it when you consider the one-take long-shot of The Way You Look Tonight from the Astaire/Rogers Swing Time (a lesson in how to shoot a dance number), and the beautiful extreme closeups of Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift in A Place in the Sun. Millie Perkins from The Diary of Anne Frank tells us that during their shoot, Stevens always wore dark sunglasses and treated the actors in the way he wanted them to perform. Since they were all meant to be frightened, that doesn't sound too positive. Luckily for Perkins, her character was to be loved. The perceived failure of The Greatest Story Ever Told also deprives us of anything of his later film, The Only Game in Town, though the discussion of his disagreement with Cecil B DeMille over Joseph L Mankiewicz and the Directors Guild during McCarthyism is fascinating. ... Read more

Reviews (16)

Fine Elizabeth Taylor Performance In Excellent Romance Story
"The Last Time I Saw Paris", was a very important film in a number of ways for Elizabeth Taylor and she herself has commented in interviews that it was the first of her adult acting roles where she had a character to work with that wasn't just surface glamour but had deeper more interesting dimensions to it. Certainly her character of Helen Wills does reveal a new depth in her acting and most certainly helped pave the way for her great triumphs in the coming years in top class films like "Giant", and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" that elevated her to super stardom. Interestingly this was Elizabeth's second teaming with leading man Van Johnson having already worked with him in a trite little comedy called "The Big Hangover". This time around Elizabeth Taylor is first billed in the credits over veteran MGM performer Johnson which illustrates clearly her growing worth with MGM who were now seriously grooming her for more meaty adult roles.

Based on a short story called "Babylon Revisited" by none other than F. Scott Fitzgerald, the screen writers have fashioned a tragically poignant love story that tells the story of two star crossed lovers who seemed to have "missed the boat", in obtaining a meaning in their lives in Post War Paris. Van Johnson plays Charles Wills a young reporter for the "Stars and Stripes" in Paris. He secretly dreams of writing the great novel that is in his head and in the midst of the celebrations for VE Day he encounters two very different sisters, Helen Ellswirth a flighty, beautiful fun loving girl not used to any responsibilty and her older sister Marion (Donna Reed),the down to earth emotionally repressed one. Both women are like night and day and while Marion falls for Charles it is Helen who captures his eye and his heart. They marry and Charles enters the unorthodox world of the Ellswirth family presided over by Helen and Marion's lovable but laid back father James (Walter Pidgeon in a delightful performance). They lead the gilded life of young carefree Americans in Paris and eventually have a daughter Vicki however as time goes on and the book rejections pile up for Charles the glow goes out of their marriage and the two begin to drift apart. Continually rejected by her increasingly embittered husband, Helen captures the attention of free loading tennis pro Paul Lane (Roger Moore) while Charles, beginning to slide into a drinking problem finds himself attracted to the carefree life offered by socialite Lorraine Quarl (Eva Gabor), another member of the lost generation aimlessly wandering through life's pleasures. All looks lost for the couple who have gone off in different directions and it takes a tragedy where Helen dies of pheumonia and Vicki is placed in the custody of an embittered Marion and her husband Claude (George Dolenz) for Charles to start to pick up the pieces of his life again. The story concludes with a sober Charles returning to all the old scenes of his former happiness with Helen in Paris in an effort to reclaim his daughter and begin afresh.

The film may be viewed by some as glossy romance and not much more however it is the sensible writing and outstanding acting by the principles that bring it to life. Elizabeth Taylor as stated displays a new maturity to her acting here and her chemistry with a very different performer as Van Johnson is surpringly honest and touching in particular in the more emotionally charged second half of the film. Van Johnson in a more mature role than usual delivers some of his best work in my belief and shows that he can be effective in poignant drama such as here. Donna Reed plays against her usual type as the embittered sister who misses out on the real love of her life and being normally associated with sweet characters her performance here does come across as quite startling. Walter Pidgeon, succeeds in stealing every scene he is in in a terrific later day performance. His carefree and perpetually broke aristocrat is a delightful character and he makes the most of his screen time. He displays a wonderful chemistry with Elizabeth Taylor and the two seem like two peas in a pod, both free spirits, in the opening scenes of the film. Pidgeon had already played Taylor's father once before in one of his teamings with Greer Garson in "Julia Misbehaves", in 1947. Eva Gabor rounds out the cast and displays her often underestimated talent in the role of the glamourous man trap who drifts from one husband to the next with little concern. Her ultimately sad character epitomises the "lost generation" that Fitzgerald captured so well in his short stories. Being after all a romance the film has a beautiful visual look to it with terrific on location photography around Paris used for many of Van Johnson's exterior shots. The recreation of the VE Day celebrations where real footage is intermingled with studio created scenes is first rate and really sets an accurate picture of the time and the place. Ably directed by Richard Brooks, the sterling work he got from Elizabeth Taylor here was bettered again by their next teaming in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", for which Elizabeth received an Oscar nomination.

For lovers of romance in beautiful locations, "The Last Time I Saw Paris", is wonderful entertainment however this film is more than just that. It vividly recreates the feeling of a time in our fairly recent history and of the people who seemingly lost their way amid all the effort and heartbreak of reestablishing their lives in a post war world. Elizabeth Taylor went on to top stardom after this role and much of the credit for this film's quality acting wise must go to her. Highly recommended.

How Original--A Frustrated Writer!
Uh-oh, here we go again with the "if only I could write the novel that's in me" character, this time played by Van Johnson, who can't really seem to make a go of his marriage to free-spirited Elizabeth Taylor. He drinks, she's a little too free-spirited. Had a hard time believing he would start to mess around with that Gabor woman when there's a Liz in his life. Walter Pidgeon shambles about as Liz's dad, Donna Reed looks pained and pinched as Liz's sister who sort of lost Van to Liz. Cloying child actress as the daughter of Van and Liz annoying. There's also something about the quality of the film they've been showing on NYC's Channel 13/PBS that makes me wonder whether it was recovered from a safe on the Andrea Doria.

I hope this was "The Last Time I Saw" this movie.

From Victory to Success
This film is a beautiful achievement about several issues. First about WW2, the liberation of Paris and the role the Americans played in that event. Some Americans stayed behind and made Paris their « capital », their regular living quarters because of the artistic and easygoing atmosphere of the city, because of what they thought was the permanent celebrating calvacade. No surprise that George fell into the trap, married a young beauty and tried to live up to this city. But he failed. And that is the second achievement. It is a perfect love affair and lifelong love for a woman that he idolizes and yet is unable to equal and even to come close to. He fails his own love and he destroys himself in alcohol to forget his failure. She will die because of it, leaving him and their daughter stranded behind. This is a lesson about achieving anything in life : achievement is a lot harder than striving for it, a lot more haphazard and unguaranteed and when the illusion disappears there is nothing left but frustration and selfdestruction. Then George is torn apart by his love for the departed woman, his wife, and his guilt about it, the jealousy of her sister who grabs the daughter and gets a court order to take care of her, and his desire to recuperate his daughter that finds a similar desire in the girl who wants to live with her daddy. The sister will have to realize that she is chastizing him for her own sister's death, for her own rejection as a possible wife and for her incapability to have a child of her own with her own husband. The end of this film is an absolute tear-shedding scene that should rip the heart of any viewer apart. An amazing Elizabeth Taylor is enhancing the film with the art of one of the best actresses of those times.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

An Actress Comes of Age
Here in The Last Time I Saw Paris an interesting thing happens. Elizabeth Taylor becomes a woman. Before this picture there were really only two other outstanding performances by Miss Taylor. Or I should say where she was allowed to rise above the material. The first being of course the rhapsodic National Velvet and the second the astonishing A Place In The Sun. The films in between those and The Last Time I Saw Paris were mostly along the "Isn't she beautiful?" line of movie making, and, why not? That was the main engine of most Hollywood star vehicles of the day. A Star didn't have to be a talent. But it was essential to possess a presence that reached out from the screen and touched the audience in a primal way. Miss Taylor had that in spades but she had much more that was often eclipsed in the dazzling explosion of her extraordinary almost alien beauty.
But here in the hands of director Richard Brooks (who would later lead her to her triumph in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof) Miss Taylor finds a new level in her abilities as an actress. Her Helen is a woman of many layers and dark corners, of mercurial flights and deep sadness. Elizabeth at the tender age of 22 grasps all the aspects of this tragic woman and illuminates not only the screen with them but the whole enterprise as well. She shows us where she, as an actress is going in the future. And who she will become in her later films, one of the best screen actresses of the twentieth century. This is the real beginning of the Elizabeth Taylor of legend. She fills the role as no one of her generation could. Never again after this film would she sleepwalk through a film, a beautiful shadow to dream over.
She is aided in what is perhaps one of Van Johnson's best performances. Donna Reed scores high in the role of Helen's bitter sister and Walter Pidgon is a delight as her roguish father. A standout cameo is presented by Eva Gabor, (not Zsa Zsa) the only one of the famous sisters who had any real talent. The only false performance in the film comes from child actress Sandy Descher. When you compare her forced and overly cute performance to that of the child Elizabeth Taylor in "Jane Eyre" then you see what a treasure Miss Taylor has always been.
There is something so essentially wonderful in this gem from MGM and it is this. The Last Time I Saw Pairs is the perfect example of the last flowering in the 50's of the "woman's picture". Films where women could be multi faceted and complex and drive the story on under their own steam as whole human beings. This is a window to the 50's and a style of filmmaking that seems gone forever, great stories of strong women who fill the screen with power and grace. But with "Far From Heaven" and "The Hours" I may be wrong about forever.
I recommend this admittedly dated but charming film for anyone who wants to see what screen acting is all about. It is about thinking and Miss Taylor is a master at the craft.

I enjoyed the paris backdrops not much else
Cute and funny when it needs to be. Too drippy and inane when it tries to be sentimental.

Van Johnson is a WW2 correspondent who manages to fall in love with Elizabeth Taylor, in a more amazing move Elizabeth Taylor falls in love with Van Johnson! Walter Pigeon appears as the eccentric father of the bride and Donna Reed is the older sister who tries to run the family with good sense and is often rebuffed.

When everyone is poor and struggling things hold together but when the family falls into money then everything crashes down. The journalist proves he doesn't have the great American novel (or great Paris novel wither in him). Each struggles with problems and they slowly drift apart. He to the bottle and she to another man.

Then things turn sappy and sentimental and whatever charm this movie has evaporates rapidly. All the characters are so self centered I thought at first I was watching a "Thirty-Something" flashback set in the 40s. ... Read more

Reviews (16)

Fine Elizabeth Taylor Performance In Excellent Romance Story
"The Last Time I Saw Paris", was a very important film in a number of ways for Elizabeth Taylor and she herself has commented in interviews that it was the first of her adult acting roles where she had a character to work with that wasn't just surface glamour but had deeper more interesting dimensions to it. Certainly her character of Helen Wills does reveal a new depth in her acting and most certainly helped pave the way for her great triumphs in the coming years in top class films like "Giant", and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" that elevated her to super stardom. Interestingly this was Elizabeth's second teaming with leading man Van Johnson having already worked with him in a trite little comedy called "The Big Hangover". This time around Elizabeth Taylor is first billed in the credits over veteran MGM performer Johnson which illustrates clearly her growing worth with MGM who were now seriously grooming her for more meaty adult roles.

Based on a short story called "Babylon Revisited" by none other than F. Scott Fitzgerald, the screen writers have fashioned a tragically poignant love story that tells the story of two star crossed lovers who seemed to have "missed the boat", in obtaining a meaning in their lives in Post War Paris. Van Johnson plays Charles Wills a young reporter for the "Stars and Stripes" in Paris. He secretly dreams of writing the great novel that is in his head and in the midst of the celebrations for VE Day he encounters two very different sisters, Helen Ellswirth a flighty, beautiful fun loving girl not used to any responsibilty and her older sister Marion (Donna Reed),the down to earth emotionally repressed one. Both women are like night and day and while Marion falls for Charles it is Helen who captures his eye and his heart. They marry and Charles enters the unorthodox world of the Ellswirth family presided over by Helen and Marion's lovable but laid back father James (Walter Pidgeon in a delightful performance). They lead the gilded life of young carefree Americans in Paris and eventually have a daughter Vicki however as time goes on and the book rejections pile up for Charles the glow goes out of their marriage and the two begin to drift apart. Continually rejected by her increasingly embittered husband, Helen captures the attention of free loading tennis pro Paul Lane (Roger Moore) while Charles, beginning to slide into a drinking problem finds himself attracted to the carefree life offered by socialite Lorraine Quarl (Eva Gabor), another member of the lost generation aimlessly wandering through life's pleasures. All looks lost for the couple who have gone off in different directions and it takes a tragedy where Helen dies of pheumonia and Vicki is placed in the custody of an embittered Marion and her husband Claude (George Dolenz) for Charles to start to pick up the pieces of his life again. The story concludes with a sober Charles returning to all the old scenes of his former happiness with Helen in Paris in an effort to reclaim his daughter and begin afresh.

The film may be viewed by some as glossy romance and not much more however it is the sensible writing and outstanding acting by the principles that bring it to life. Elizabeth Taylor as stated displays a new maturity to her acting here and her chemistry with a very different performer as Van Johnson is surpringly honest and touching in particular in the more emotionally charged second half of the film. Van Johnson in a more mature role than usual delivers some of his best work in my belief and shows that he can be effective in poignant drama such as here. Donna Reed plays against her usual type as the embittered sister who misses out on the real love of her life and being normally associated with sweet characters her performance here does come across as quite startling. Walter Pidgeon, succeeds in stealing every scene he is in in a terrific later day performance. His carefree and perpetually broke aristocrat is a delightful character and he makes the most of his screen time. He displays a wonderful chemistry with Elizabeth Taylor and the two seem like two peas in a pod, both free spirits, in the opening scenes of the film. Pidgeon had already played Taylor's father once before in one of his teamings with Greer Garson in "Julia Misbehaves", in 1947. Eva Gabor rounds out the cast and displays her often underestimated talent in the role of the glamourous man trap who drifts from one husband to the next with little concern. Her ultimately sad character epitomises the "lost generation" that Fitzgerald captured so well in his short stories. Being after all a romance the film has a beautiful visual look to it with terrific on location photography around Paris used for many of Van Johnson's exterior shots. The recreation of the VE Day celebrations where real footage is intermingled with studio created scenes is first rate and really sets an accurate picture of the time and the place. Ably directed by Richard Brooks, the sterling work he got from Elizabeth Taylor here was bettered again by their next teaming in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", for which Elizabeth received an Oscar nomination.

For lovers of romance in beautiful locations, "The Last Time I Saw Paris", is wonderful entertainment however this film is more than just that. It vividly recreates the feeling of a time in our fairly recent history and of the people who seemingly lost their way amid all the effort and heartbreak of reestablishing their lives in a post war world. Elizabeth Taylor went on to top stardom after this role and much of the credit for this film's quality acting wise must go to her. Highly recommended.

How Original--A Frustrated Writer!
Uh-oh, here we go again with the "if only I could write the novel that's in me" character, this time played by Van Johnson, who can't really seem to make a go of his marriage to free-spirited Elizabeth Taylor. He drinks, she's a little too free-spirited. Had a hard time believing he would start to mess around with that Gabor woman when there's a Liz in his life. Walter Pidgeon shambles about as Liz's dad, Donna Reed looks pained and pinched as Liz's sister who sort of lost Van to Liz. Cloying child actress as the daughter of Van and Liz annoying. There's also something about the quality of the film they've been showing on NYC's Channel 13/PBS that makes me wonder whether it was recovered from a safe on the Andrea Doria.

I hope this was "The Last Time I Saw" this movie.

From Victory to Success
This film is a beautiful achievement about several issues. First about WW2, the liberation of Paris and the role the Americans played in that event. Some Americans stayed behind and made Paris their « capital », their regular living quarters because of the artistic and easygoing atmosphere of the city, because of what they thought was the permanent celebrating calvacade. No surprise that George fell into the trap, married a young beauty and tried to live up to this city. But he failed. And that is the second achievement. It is a perfect love affair and lifelong love for a woman that he idolizes and yet is unable to equal and even to come close to. He fails his own love and he destroys himself in alcohol to forget his failure. She will die because of it, leaving him and their daughter stranded behind. This is a lesson about achieving anything in life : achievement is a lot harder than striving for it, a lot more haphazard and unguaranteed and when the illusion disappears there is nothing left but frustration and selfdestruction. Then George is torn apart by his love for the departed woman, his wife, and his guilt about it, the jealousy of her sister who grabs the daughter and gets a court order to take care of her, and his desire to recuperate his daughter that finds a similar desire in the girl who wants to live with her daddy. The sister will have to realize that she is chastizing him for her own sister's death, for her own rejection as a possible wife and for her incapability to have a child of her own with her own husband. The end of this film is an absolute tear-shedding scene that should rip the heart of any viewer apart. An amazing Elizabeth Taylor is enhancing the film with the art of one of the best actresses of those times.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

An Actress Comes of Age
Here in The Last Time I Saw Paris an interesting thing happens. Elizabeth Taylor becomes a woman. Before this picture there were really only two other outstanding performances by Miss Taylor. Or I should say where she was allowed to rise above the material. The first being of course the rhapsodic National Velvet and the second the astonishing A Place In The Sun. The films in between those and The Last Time I Saw Paris were mostly along the "Isn't she beautiful?" line of movie making, and, why not? That was the main engine of most Hollywood star vehicles of the day. A Star didn't have to be a talent. But it was essential to possess a presence that reached out from the screen and touched the audience in a primal way. Miss Taylor had that in spades but she had much more that was often eclipsed in the dazzling explosion of her extraordinary almost alien beauty.
But here in the hands of director Richard Brooks (who would later lead her to her triumph in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof) Miss Taylor finds a new level in her abilities as an actress. Her Helen is a woman of many layers and dark corners, of mercurial flights and deep sadness. Elizabeth at the tender age of 22 grasps all the aspects of this tragic woman and illuminates not only the screen with them but the whole enterprise as well. She shows us where she, as an actress is going in the future. And who she will become in her later films, one of the best screen actresses of the twentieth century. This is the real beginning of the Elizabeth Taylor of legend. She fills the role as no one of her generation could. Never again after this film would she sleepwalk through a film, a beautiful shadow to dream over.
She is aided in what is perhaps one of Van Johnson's best performances. Donna Reed scores high in the role of Helen's bitter sister and Walter Pidgon is a delight as her roguish father. A standout cameo is presented by Eva Gabor, (not Zsa Zsa) the only one of the famous sisters who had any real talent. The only false performance in the film comes from child actress Sandy Descher. When you compare her forced and overly cute performance to that of the child Elizabeth Taylor in "Jane Eyre" then you see what a treasure Miss Taylor has always been.
There is something so essentially wonderful in this gem from MGM and it is this. The Last Time I Saw Pairs is the perfect example of the last flowering in the 50's of the "woman's picture". Films where women could be multi faceted and complex and drive the story on under their own steam as whole human beings. This is a window to the 50's and a style of filmmaking that seems gone forever, great stories of strong women who fill the screen with power and grace. But with "Far From Heaven" and "The Hours" I may be wrong about forever.
I recommend this admittedly dated but charming film for anyone who wants to see what screen acting is all about. It is about thinking and Miss Taylor is a master at the craft.

I enjoyed the paris backdrops not much else
Cute and funny when it needs to be. Too drippy and inane when it tries to be sentimental.

Van Johnson is a WW2 correspondent who manages to fall in love with Elizabeth Taylor, in a more amazing move Elizabeth Taylor falls in love with Van Johnson! Walter Pigeon appears as the eccentric father of the bride and Donna Reed is the older sister who tries to run the family with good sense and is often rebuffed.

When everyone is poor and struggling things hold together but when the family falls into money then everything crashes down. The journalist proves he doesn't have the great American novel (or great Paris novel wither in him). Each struggles with problems and they slowly drift apart. He to the bottle and she to another man.

Then things turn sappy and sentimental and whatever charm this movie has evaporates rapidly. All the characters are so self centered I thought at first I was watching a "Thirty-Something" flashback set in the 40s. ... Read more

Product Description

From back cover, "A schizophrenic beautiful spinster travels from her home in London to Rome, on a twisted agenda to find romance with any man, whom she hopes will eventually murder her. Elizabeth Taylor is one of the most beautiful and exciting actresses ever to grace the screen..." ... Read more

Description

3 Classic Family films featuring the queen of the silver screen, Liz Taylor! THE LAST TIME I SAW PARIS - F. Scott Fitzgerald's tragic love story is brought to the screen in this lavish MGM production. FATHER'S LITTLE DIVIDEND - This sequel to "Father Of the Bride" reunites the entire cast for another charming turn as father ecomes an expectant grandfather. LIFE WITH FATHER - Remember the good old days when father ruled the roost, keeping a tight rein on money, kids, and wife? Neither does Clarence Day! ... Read more

Reviews (16)

Fine Elizabeth Taylor Performance In Excellent Romance Story
"The Last Time I Saw Paris", was a very important film in a number of ways for Elizabeth Taylor and she herself has commented in interviews that it was the first of her adult acting roles where she had a character to work with that wasn't just surface glamour but had deeper more interesting dimensions to it. Certainly her character of Helen Wills does reveal a new depth in her acting and most certainly helped pave the way for her great triumphs in the coming years in top class films like "Giant", and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" that elevated her to super stardom. Interestingly this was Elizabeth's second teaming with leading man Van Johnson having already worked with him in a trite little comedy called "The Big Hangover". This time around Elizabeth Taylor is first billed in the credits over veteran MGM performer Johnson which illustrates clearly her growing worth with MGM who were now seriously grooming her for more meaty adult roles.

Based on a short story called "Babylon Revisited" by none other than F. Scott Fitzgerald, the screen writers have fashioned a tragically poignant love story that tells the story of two star crossed lovers who seemed to have "missed the boat", in obtaining a meaning in their lives in Post War Paris. Van Johnson plays Charles Wills a young reporter for the "Stars and Stripes" in Paris. He secretly dreams of writing the great novel that is in his head and in the midst of the celebrations for VE Day he encounters two very different sisters, Helen Ellswirth a flighty, beautiful fun loving girl not used to any responsibilty and her older sister Marion (Donna Reed),the down to earth emotionally repressed one. Both women are like night and day and while Marion falls for Charles it is Helen who captures his eye and his heart. They marry and Charles enters the unorthodox world of the Ellswirth family presided over by Helen and Marion's lovable but laid back father James (Walter Pidgeon in a delightful performance). They lead the gilded life of young carefree Americans in Paris and eventually have a daughter Vicki however as time goes on and the book rejections pile up for Charles the glow goes out of their marriage and the two begin to drift apart. Continually rejected by her increasingly embittered husband, Helen captures the attention of free loading tennis pro Paul Lane (Roger Moore) while Charles, beginning to slide into a drinking problem finds himself attracted to the carefree life offered by socialite Lorraine Quarl (Eva Gabor), another member of the lost generation aimlessly wandering through life's pleasures. All looks lost for the couple who have gone off in different directions and it takes a tragedy where Helen dies of pheumonia and Vicki is placed in the custody of an embittered Marion and her husband Claude (George Dolenz) for Charles to start to pick up the pieces of his life again. The story concludes with a sober Charles returning to all the old scenes of his former happiness with Helen in Paris in an effort to reclaim his daughter and begin afresh.

The film may be viewed by some as glossy romance and not much more however it is the sensible writing and outstanding acting by the principles that bring it to life. Elizabeth Taylor as stated displays a new maturity to her acting here and her chemistry with a very different performer as Van Johnson is surpringly honest and touching in particular in the more emotionally charged second half of the film. Van Johnson in a more mature role than usual delivers some of his best work in my belief and shows that he can be effective in poignant drama such as here. Donna Reed plays against her usual type as the embittered sister who misses out on the real love of her life and being normally associated with sweet characters her performance here does come across as quite startling. Walter Pidgeon, succeeds in stealing every scene he is in in a terrific later day performance. His carefree and perpetually broke aristocrat is a delightful character and he makes the most of his screen time. He displays a wonderful chemistry with Elizabeth Taylor and the two seem like two peas in a pod, both free spirits, in the opening scenes of the film. Pidgeon had already played Taylor's father once before in one of his teamings with Greer Garson in "Julia Misbehaves", in 1947. Eva Gabor rounds out the cast and displays her often underestimated talent in the role of the glamourous man trap who drifts from one husband to the next with little concern. Her ultimately sad character epitomises the "lost generation" that Fitzgerald captured so well in his short stories. Being after all a romance the film has a beautiful visual look to it with terrific on location photography around Paris used for many of Van Johnson's exterior shots. The recreation of the VE Day celebrations where real footage is intermingled with studio created scenes is first rate and really sets an accurate picture of the time and the place. Ably directed by Richard Brooks, the sterling work he got from Elizabeth Taylor here was bettered again by their next teaming in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", for which Elizabeth received an Oscar nomination.

For lovers of romance in beautiful locations, "The Last Time I Saw Paris", is wonderful entertainment however this film is more than just that. It vividly recreates the feeling of a time in our fairly recent history and of the people who seemingly lost their way amid all the effort and heartbreak of reestablishing their lives in a post war world. Elizabeth Taylor went on to top stardom after this role and much of the credit for this film's quality acting wise must go to her. Highly recommended.

How Original--A Frustrated Writer!
Uh-oh, here we go again with the "if only I could write the novel that's in me" character, this time played by Van Johnson, who can't really seem to make a go of his marriage to free-spirited Elizabeth Taylor. He drinks, she's a little too free-spirited. Had a hard time believing he would start to mess around with that Gabor woman when there's a Liz in his life. Walter Pidgeon shambles about as Liz's dad, Donna Reed looks pained and pinched as Liz's sister who sort of lost Van to Liz. Cloying child actress as the daughter of Van and Liz annoying. There's also something about the quality of the film they've been showing on NYC's Channel 13/PBS that makes me wonder whether it was recovered from a safe on the Andrea Doria.

I hope this was "The Last Time I Saw" this movie.

From Victory to Success
This film is a beautiful achievement about several issues. First about WW2, the liberation of Paris and the role the Americans played in that event. Some Americans stayed behind and made Paris their « capital », their regular living quarters because of the artistic and easygoing atmosphere of the city, because of what they thought was the permanent celebrating calvacade. No surprise that George fell into the trap, married a young beauty and tried to live up to this city. But he failed. And that is the second achievement. It is a perfect love affair and lifelong love for a woman that he idolizes and yet is unable to equal and even to come close to. He fails his own love and he destroys himself in alcohol to forget his failure. She will die because of it, leaving him and their daughter stranded behind. This is a lesson about achieving anything in life : achievement is a lot harder than striving for it, a lot more haphazard and unguaranteed and when the illusion disappears there is nothing left but frustration and selfdestruction. Then George is torn apart by his love for the departed woman, his wife, and his guilt about it, the jealousy of her sister who grabs the daughter and gets a court order to take care of her, and his desire to recuperate his daughter that finds a similar desire in the girl who wants to live with her daddy. The sister will have to realize that she is chastizing him for her own sister's death, for her own rejection as a possible wife and for her incapability to have a child of her own with her own husband. The end of this film is an absolute tear-shedding scene that should rip the heart of any viewer apart. An amazing Elizabeth Taylor is enhancing the film with the art of one of the best actresses of those times.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

An Actress Comes of Age
Here in The Last Time I Saw Paris an interesting thing happens. Elizabeth Taylor becomes a woman. Before this picture there were really only two other outstanding performances by Miss Taylor. Or I should say where she was allowed to rise above the material. The first being of course the rhapsodic National Velvet and the second the astonishing A Place In The Sun. The films in between those and The Last Time I Saw Paris were mostly along the "Isn't she beautiful?" line of movie making, and, why not? That was the main engine of most Hollywood star vehicles of the day. A Star didn't have to be a talent. But it was essential to possess a presence that reached out from the screen and touched the audience in a primal way. Miss Taylor had that in spades but she had much more that was often eclipsed in the dazzling explosion of her extraordinary almost alien beauty.
But here in the hands of director Richard Brooks (who would later lead her to her triumph in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof) Miss Taylor finds a new level in her abilities as an actress. Her Helen is a woman of many layers and dark corners, of mercurial flights and deep sadness. Elizabeth at the tender age of 22 grasps all the aspects of this tragic woman and illuminates not only the screen with them but the whole enterprise as well. She shows us where she, as an actress is going in the future. And who she will become in her later films, one of the best screen actresses of the twentieth century. This is the real beginning of the Elizabeth Taylor of legend. She fills the role as no one of her generation could. Never again after this film would she sleepwalk through a film, a beautiful shadow to dream over.
She is aided in what is perhaps one of Van Johnson's best performances. Donna Reed scores high in the role of Helen's bitter sister and Walter Pidgon is a delight as her roguish father. A standout cameo is presented by Eva Gabor, (not Zsa Zsa) the only one of the famous sisters who had any real talent. The only false performance in the film comes from child actress Sandy Descher. When you compare her forced and overly cute performance to that of the child Elizabeth Taylor in "Jane Eyre" then you see what a treasure Miss Taylor has always been.
There is something so essentially wonderful in this gem from MGM and it is this. The Last Time I Saw Pairs is the perfect example of the last flowering in the 50's of the "woman's picture". Films where women could be multi faceted and complex and drive the story on under their own steam as whole human beings. This is a window to the 50's and a style of filmmaking that seems gone forever, great stories of strong women who fill the screen with power and grace. But with "Far From Heaven" and "The Hours" I may be wrong about forever.
I recommend this admittedly dated but charming film for anyone who wants to see what screen acting is all about. It is about thinking and Miss Taylor is a master at the craft.

I enjoyed the paris backdrops not much else
Cute and funny when it needs to be. Too drippy and inane when it tries to be sentimental.

Van Johnson is a WW2 correspondent who manages to fall in love with Elizabeth Taylor, in a more amazing move Elizabeth Taylor falls in love with Van Johnson! Walter Pigeon appears as the eccentric father of the bride and Donna Reed is the older sister who tries to run the family with good sense and is often rebuffed.

When everyone is poor and struggling things hold together but when the family falls into money then everything crashes down. The journalist proves he doesn't have the great American novel (or great Paris novel wither in him). Each struggles with problems and they slowly drift apart. He to the bottle and she to another man.

Then things turn sappy and sentimental and whatever charm this movie has evaporates rapidly. All the characters are so self centered I thought at first I was watching a "Thirty-Something" flashback set in the 40s. ... Read more

Reviews (12)

Tracy returns in a quickie sequel to "Father of the Bride"
After the success of "Father of the Bride," M-G-M produced this sequel the following year. This time around Stanley Banks (Spencer Tracy) learns that his daughter Kay (Elizabeth Taylor) and son-in-law Buckley Dunstan (Don Taylor) are going to have a baby. Father is no more thrilled with the idea of being a grandfather than he was about Kay getting married in the first place. Joan Bennett as his wife Elllie and Billie Burke and Moroni Olsen as the other soon-to-be grandparents do their best to help poor Stanley through this latest trauma. A cute film, but certainly not as charming as the original, mainly because it is taking the same approach, albeit with a slightly different topic. It seems Stanely is no more interested in becoming a grandfather than he was in letting his daughter get married. Still, there are nice moments between Tracy and Taylor, who always called the actor "Pops" until the day he died. This 1951 film was also directed by Vincent Minnelli and Frances Goodrich & Albert Hackett again did the screenplay using the characters first created in Edward Streeter's novel. "Father's Little Dividend" was remade, in a round about way, in the recent Steve Martin vehicle "Father of the Bride II."

Tracy returns in a quickie sequel to "Father of the Bride"
After the success of "Father of the Bride," M-G-M produced this sequel the following year. This time around Stanley Banks (Spencer Tracy) learns that his daughter Kay (Elizabeth Taylor) and son-in-law Buckley Dunstan (Don Taylor) are going to have a baby. Father is no more thrilled with the idea of being a grandfather than he was about Kay getting married in the first place. Joan Bennett as his wife Elllie and Billie Burke and Moroni Olsen as the other soon-to-be grandparents do their best to help poor Stanley through this latest trauma. A cute film, but certainly not as charming as the original, mainly because it is taking the same approach albeit with a slightly different topic. Still, there are nice moments between Tracy and Taylor, who always called the actor "Pops" until the day he died. This 1951 film was also directed by Vincent Minnelli and Frances Goodrich & Albert Hackett again did the screenplay using the characters first created in Edward Streeter's novel. "Father's Little Dividend" was remade, in a round about way, in the recent Steve Martin vehicle "Father of the Bride II."

Decent sequel but ultimately forgettable
I'm sure it seemed a good thing to do -- follow up on the success of "Father of the Bride" with a chapter two. There are a few fun moments here and it is nice to see the entire cast reunited, but the sequel lacks the strength of the original. It's decent but far from memorable.

In this case, the Steve Martin remake, which diverges almost completely from the plot of the original (for good reasons), is more enjoyable. I found the end of this version, with Stanley misplacing the baby, a bit dark and not treated comically enough.

Many reviewers have lamented the poor sound quality of the DVD. Well, with a decent sound system it ends up sounding like most VHS copies. What is more embarrassing, at least on this DVD packaging are errors in the trivia game -- they don't even get Ellie's name right! Did they even watch this movie?

I'd actually like to see this reissued with a decent sound-track someday, but there are more important older movies to be revived first...

Spencer Tracy in a quickie sequel to "Father of the Bride"
After the success of 1950's "Father of the Bride," M-G-M produced this sequel the following year. This time around Stanley Banks (Spencer Tracy) learns that his daughter Kay (Elizabeth Taylor) and son-in-law Buckley Dunstan (Don Taylor) are going to have a baby. Father, of course, is no more thrilled with the idea of being a grandfather than he was about Kay getting married in the first place, and even when the baby arrives and insists on crying every time he is in Stanley's arms, his worst fears seem to be confirmed.

Joan Bennett as his beautiful and encouraging wife Elllie, along with Billie Burke and Moroni Olsen as the other soon-to-be grandparents, all do their best to help poor Stanley through this latest trauma, but Tracy's best moments are when he his daughter comes over to see "Pops" (Taylor called Tracy "Pops" the rest of his life and treated him like a real father figure). "Father's Little Dividend" is a cute film, but certainly not as charming as the original, mainly because it is taking the same approach, albeit with a slightly different topic. Even Tracy's performance really comes across as being a little less of the same as the original.

This 1951 film was also directed by Vincent Minnelli and Frances Goodrich & Albert Hackett once again did the screenplay using the characters first created in Edward Streeter's novel. "Father's Little Dividend" was remade, in a round about way, in the recent Steve Martin vehicle "Father of the Bride II," which puts some twists on the story that offer some further complications.

Use your cash as toilet paper.
If you are thinking of getting this dvd, you might as well use your cash as toilet paper, because that is what you will be getting when you buy this, if you get my drift. ... Read more

Description

This one-of-a-kind program traces the life and career of one of the world's most famous women--actress extraordinaire, Oscar winner, beloved collegue, AIDS activist, humanitarian, and a model of personal fortitude in the face of tragedy and illness. This comprehensive and refreshingly candid program is highlighted by interviews with Dame Elizabeth herself as well as her close friends Shirley MacLaine, Rod Steiger and Angela Lansbury. The ever-glamorous star opens her heart in frank reminiscences of legendary artists Richard Burton, Montgomery Clift, Rock Hudson, James Dean and Mike Todd, the pleasure of three Oscar wins (two for "Best Actress" and one Humanitarian), and her admirable responsibility in tackling the AIDS crisis head-on. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

There's Nothin' Like A Dame
This version was part of a PBS series and features the Dame
herself. She even uses a four letter word (not the "F" one)
and comes across well. She is our last true star and this
is a fine tribute to her. ... Read more

Reviews (12)

Tracy returns in a quickie sequel to "Father of the Bride"
After the success of "Father of the Bride," M-G-M produced this sequel the following year. This time around Stanley Banks (Spencer Tracy) learns that his daughter Kay (Elizabeth Taylor) and son-in-law Buckley Dunstan (Don Taylor) are going to have a baby. Father is no more thrilled with the idea of being a grandfather than he was about Kay getting married in the first place. Joan Bennett as his wife Elllie and Billie Burke and Moroni Olsen as the other soon-to-be grandparents do their best to help poor Stanley through this latest trauma. A cute film, but certainly not as charming as the original, mainly because it is taking the same approach, albeit with a slightly different topic. It seems Stanely is no more interested in becoming a grandfather than he was in letting his daughter get married. Still, there are nice moments between Tracy and Taylor, who always called the actor "Pops" until the day he died. This 1951 film was also directed by Vincent Minnelli and Frances Goodrich & Albert Hackett again did the screenplay using the characters first created in Edward Streeter's novel. "Father's Little Dividend" was remade, in a round about way, in the recent Steve Martin vehicle "Father of the Bride II."

Tracy returns in a quickie sequel to "Father of the Bride"
After the success of "Father of the Bride," M-G-M produced this sequel the following year. This time around Stanley Banks (Spencer Tracy) learns that his daughter Kay (Elizabeth Taylor) and son-in-law Buckley Dunstan (Don Taylor) are going to have a baby. Father is no more thrilled with the idea of being a grandfather than he was about Kay getting married in the first place. Joan Bennett as his wife Elllie and Billie Burke and Moroni Olsen as the other soon-to-be grandparents do their best to help poor Stanley through this latest trauma. A cute film, but certainly not as charming as the original, mainly because it is taking the same approach albeit with a slightly different topic. Still, there are nice moments between Tracy and Taylor, who always called the actor "Pops" until the day he died. This 1951 film was also directed by Vincent Minnelli and Frances Goodrich & Albert Hackett again did the screenplay using the characters first created in Edward Streeter's novel. "Father's Little Dividend" was remade, in a round about way, in the recent Steve Martin vehicle "Father of the Bride II."

Decent sequel but ultimately forgettable
I'm sure it seemed a good thing to do -- follow up on the success of "Father of the Bride" with a chapter two. There are a few fun moments here and it is nice to see the entire cast reunited, but the sequel lacks the strength of the original. It's decent but far from memorable.

In this case, the Steve Martin remake, which diverges almost completely from the plot of the original (for good reasons), is more enjoyable. I found the end of this version, with Stanley misplacing the baby, a bit dark and not treated comically enough.

Many reviewers have lamented the poor sound quality of the DVD. Well, with a decent sound system it ends up sounding like most VHS copies. What is more embarrassing, at least on this DVD packaging are errors in the trivia game -- they don't even get Ellie's name right! Did they even watch this movie?

I'd actually like to see this reissued with a decent sound-track someday, but there are more important older movies to be revived first...

Spencer Tracy in a quickie sequel to "Father of the Bride"
After the success of 1950's "Father of the Bride," M-G-M produced this sequel the following year. This time around Stanley Banks (Spencer Tracy) learns that his daughter Kay (Elizabeth Taylor) and son-in-law Buckley Dunstan (Don Taylor) are going to have a baby. Father, of course, is no more thrilled with the idea of being a grandfather than he was about Kay getting married in the first place, and even when the baby arrives and insists on crying every time he is in Stanley's arms, his worst fears seem to be confirmed.

Joan Bennett as his beautiful and encouraging wife Elllie, along with Billie Burke and Moroni Olsen as the other soon-to-be grandparents, all do their best to help poor Stanley through this latest trauma, but Tracy's best moments are when he his daughter comes over to see "Pops" (Taylor called Tracy "Pops" the rest of his life and treated him like a real father figure). "Father's Little Dividend" is a cute film, but certainly not as charming as the original, mainly because it is taking the same approach, albeit with a slightly different topic. Even Tracy's performance really comes across as being a little less of the same as the original.

This 1951 film was also directed by Vincent Minnelli and Frances Goodrich & Albert Hackett once again did the screenplay using the characters first created in Edward Streeter's novel. "Father's Little Dividend" was remade, in a round about way, in the recent Steve Martin vehicle "Father of the Bride II," which puts some twists on the story that offer some further complications.

Use your cash as toilet paper.
If you are thinking of getting this dvd, you might as well use your cash as toilet paper, because that is what you will be getting when you buy this, if you get my drift. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Four Stars for a fine performance By Miss Taylor
"Divorce His; Divorce Hers" would be a much better film if it were trimmed from three to two hours. In this effort, T.V. producers attempt to milk the then world shaking coup of nabbing the Burton's for a two-night event (Their first Movie made for television). But the cow ran dry at two hours.
The story of a crumbling marriage is told first from the husband's point of view and then in the second half is told from the wife's. Much of the same ground is covered twice and much more interestingly in the second half.
Jane and Martin Reynolds live La Dolce Vita in Rome in the early 70's and after 18 years come to the slow and painful end of their marriage. Rome looks wonderful in the location shots in the Borghese Gardens, along the Via Condotti at night, and Piazza Navona. And attendant with the glamour of Rome the aura of the Burtons is well served in making the Reynolds seem impossibly rich. Notice that Elizabeth wears her Krupp diamond and the famous La Peregrina Peal necklace. No successful business tycoon of Burton's character's income could have afforded such lux baubles for his wife. Still in the early 70's the Liz and Dick glamour machine must be well oiled and the public at the time expected it. Some degree of disbelief would be suspend in anticipation of the Burtons because we somehow felt that what we were seeing less a drama than a simi-documentary about Elizabeth and Richard. And perhaps in some ways those films were just that.
Richard Burton's performance is somewhat stiff and cool with flashes of Welsh temper to pepper his scenes. But, over all, he seems rather distant and not too interested in the proceedings.
But on the other hand Elizabeth's excellent training in film acting over the years by the masters at M.G.M. comes to her aid in creating a warm fully developed and wonderful lady in Jane. She shines in particular in her scenes with the children and in her scene with Carrie Nye when she learns of Miss Nye's relationship with her husband. She is missed when she is not on hand to bring a little life to Mr. Burton's scenes. Miss Taylor shimmers in her own inimitable way and once again shows new comers and old pro's what real screen acting is about.
The film is by no means great but not nearly as bad as some reviewers would lead you to believe. "Divorce His: Divorce Hers" is worth seeing for Elizabeth's solid work.

A CLASSIC B MOVIE WITH LEGENDARY STARS
WORTH THE MONEY TO SEE THIS CLASSIC MOVIE, STRANGE BUT A TRUE CLASSIC

Strangely interesting Burton-Taylor melodrama
This little-known film was Burton and Taylor's first (and only) foray into the "made for TV" genre. Originally airing in 1973 on two successive nights on ABC, the movie is actually rather interesting and not especially dated. Burton achieves the rare feat of *not* overacting, and in fact, sleepwalks throughout most of the movie. Still, this is one of his better performances, devoid of his usual theatrical screaming, ranting and raving. Elizabeth Taylor is bloated and overweight (and clearly unhappy), but is still amazingly beautiful, at the age of 41.

The movie is divided into two separate movies, with the "Divorce His" section infinitely superior to the Liz section, which is boring beyond belief. The Liz segment also repeats many sequences already aired in the Burton first hlf of the movie, though filmed with a different camera. Interesting technique, but one knows why it was only utlized on this one movie!

Burton looks magnificent here, thin, relatively sober and quite striking. No doubt he and Liz made a fabulous-looking couple. This was filmed just a year before their first divorce and remains an interesting piece.

Fatuous beyond belief!
This is the absolute nadir of Burton and Taylor's history together. Originally made a made-for-TV movie in 1973, it was abysmally reviewed then (for good reason) and has been the subject of ridicule ever since. The only reason to watch this turkey is for the campy element. Neither Burton nor Taylor were sober during the making of this bomb, and their inebriation provides a few good laughs. The script is non-existent, the acting is uniformly awful and the plot is ludicrously transparent. A true bomb.

Interesting drama.
If you're a fan of Burton and Taylor, be sure to catch this Made-for-television movie. It's an interesting examination of a crumbling marriage viewed from both sides. Some line deliveries are stilted but all of the performances are sound. The Roman setting is magical. Today, this is a film which could work as a cult-feature, a curiosity or a camp classic. Decide for yourself. ... Read more