It is a rather nice comedy, though by no means a masterpiece. Even the credits are promising much, with young Paul Newman and Joan Woodward playing the main characters, Maurice Chevalier playing himself and Frank Sinatra singing a title song.
The movie starts very funny. Paul Newman’s voice is commenting on the opening of the Neumann Marcus’s store on the day of great sale. Scores of women are waiting outside the closed doors of the store waiting for the doors to open in the morning. Finally, the doors open and crowds of women are pouring into the store, the sound of stampede and bull roars on the background. The stage is set for the appearance of Sam, the character played by Joan Woodward, the Mata Hari of the fashion world, a rather masculine young woman in dark glasses sneaking around the windows of famous shops, making clandestine pictures. Between them and her photographic memory there is no problem with stealing designs of the best fashion houses, which is exactly Samantha’s forte in business. Paul Newman’s voice brands her a semi-virgin and indeed it does not seem she has a drop of feminine left in her.
Meanwhile, Steve, Paul Newman’s character, is called on the carpet by his boss, who found out about an affair Steve had with his wife. On top of that Steve left the sports game he was supposed to be covering, because he got involved in a different kind of game with a voluptuous blonde in the press box somewhere in the middle of the match and decided to take her home. The boss wants to fire Steve on the spot, but he gets an unpleasant surprise. Steve’s contract has been drawn up in a way that makes firing him virtually impossible. The boss is forced to send Steve to Paris as a temporary measure, just to remove him as far from him and his wife as he can. Meanwhile, Samantha and her boss are also going to Paris, where they intend to make the best of the endless fashion shows in the city. Her boss’s motto is “We buy everything we can and what we can’t buy – we steal!†and Samantha’s the best spy.
She and Steve bump into each other on the plane and are struck by the immediate feeling of antipathy towards each other. When in Paris everyone in her entourage seemed to be affected by the virus of love, even the elderly Leena and Joe, her boss, while Samantha seems only more entrenched in her semi-virgin way of life, until she takes part in Saint Patrick’s day celebrations.
During that very strange day first Maurice Chevalier and then the statue of St Catherine (Sam did drink a lot of champagne that day!) both promise her that her love is around the corner. St. Catherine even goes as far as to suggest that to achieve that Sam goes to Elizabeth Arden beauty salon and works on her appearance. Samantha does that and emerges transformed into a gorgeous blonde. In a hilarious scene following her transformation a little crook introduces Samantha (without her knowledge) to Steve as a high class call-girl Mimi, who entertained Danish Crown Prince as well as the top guy in France (i.e. De Gaulle).
Steve is struggling with the idea for his column, the sports don’t do much for him, and Samantha is only happy to oblige, regaling him with the stories about her frolicking with the world elite. The column is getting hotter and hotter by the day, as do Steve’s visions featuring Samantha, until Samantha finally figures out she’s in love with Steve and Steve realizes the same. The mischief is uncovered and the final vision has Samantha in a wedding dress.
I liked the young Paul Newman in the movie, with his nonchalant attitude and the usual dry humor. I was to some degree appalled by what they did to Joan Woodward, who is a lovely actress, she looked almost ugly as Samantha before the visit to Elizabeth Arden. The blonde wig they’ve erected on her later in the movie was not a great invention either, but I supposed it was done to approximate her appearance to the “fille de joieâ€.
Lovely work by Eva Gabor, who is playing a rapacious French lady out to get Joe to marry her. The scene where she gets dumped by Joe and immediately sets her sights on another target is priceless. Thelma Ritter was also great as an old assistant of Joe hopelessly in love with him for years, who is so influenced by the enchanting atmosphere of Paris, that she finally lets her secret out. And the main thing to me was Paris itself, a great romantic city featuring prominently in the movie – and funny how it looked almost same as I’ve seen it last time a year ago (of course, the people were dressed differently, but that’s about it!)