PARIS WHEN IT SIZZLES [1964 / 2022] [Blu-ray] [USA Release]
William Holden and Audrey Hepburn sparkle in Paris!
William Holden and Audrey Hepburn reunite 10 years after ‘SABRINA’ to star in this irresistible romantic comedy. William Holden plays Richard Benson, a screenwriter pressured by a movie producer Alexander Meyerheim [Noël Coward] to finish his script. Richard Benson hires a live-in secretary, Gabrielle Simpson [Audrey Hepburn] to help him, and soon they're falling in love, enacting scenes from an unwritten screenplay. Unfortunately, the deadline to deliver a script is fast approaching. Beautifully shot on location in Paris by famed cinematographer Claude Renoir.
FILM FACT: The film's title derives from the Cole Porter song “I Love Paris.” In addition to the uncredited role played by Tony Curtis, dressed in a red jumper, white pants and riding a Vespa, and the film also features uncredited cameo appearances by Marlene Dietrich as herself, dressed in white, stepping out of a white Bentley, and Mel Ferrer, Audrey Hepburn's real-life husband at the time, who plays a party guest dressed as Dr. Jekyll. In one scene, William Holden's character remarks that the film-in-the-film could have a theme song by Frank Sinatra whose voice is heard singing the laughable lyric, “The girl who stole the Eiffel Tower also stole my heart” over the fictional credit sequence. ‘My Fair Lady’ is mentioned as being the same story as “Frankenstein.” This line comes moments after a reference to a prostitute with "a heart of gold," which can be seen as an allusion to Audrey Hepburn's character, Holly Golightly, in the film ‘Breakfast at Tiffany's.’
Cast: William Holden, Audrey Hepburn, Grégoire Aslan, Raymond Bussières, Christian Duvaleix, Michel Thomass, Dominique Boschero, Evi Marandi, Noël Coward, Tony Curtis (uncredited), Marlene Dietrich (uncredited), Mel Ferrer (uncredited), Orestis Ganakis (uncredited), Henri Garcin (uncredited), Frank Sinatra (singing voice) (uncredited) and Dominique Zardi (uncredited)
Director: Richard Quine
Producers: Carter De Haven Jr., George Axelrod, John R. Coonan and Richard Quine
Screenplay: Henri Jeanson (story), Julien Duvivier (story) and George Axelrod (screenplay)
Composer: Nelson Riddle
Costume and Wardrobe Department: Hubert de Givenchy (wardrobe: Miss Hepburn), Jean Zay (wardrobe coordinator) and Joan Joseff (costume jewellery) (uncredited)
Miss Hepburn’s Perfume: Hubert de Givenchy
Special Photographic Effects: Paul K. Lerpae, A.S.C.
Cinematography: Charles Lang Jr., A.S.C. (Director of Photography) and Claude Renoir (Director of Photography)
Image Resolution: 1080p (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 (Anamorphic)
Audio: English: 2.0 Dolby TrueHD Stereo Audio
German: 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo Audio
French: 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo Audio
Subtitles: English, English SDH, German, Spanish [Latin America], French and Japanese,
Running Time: 110 minutes
Region: All Regions
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: ‘PARIS WHEN IT SIZZLES’ [1964] stars Audrey Hepburn and William Holden reunite a decade later for the delirious romantic comedy. The Hollywood stars have a ball in Audrey Hepburn’s most clever and underrated film, poking fun at themselves and their images. A playful, fun screenplay by George Axelrod mocks the filmmaking process with a dazzling array of Hollywood in-jokes and intelligent gags. As a box office draw, the picture has a great star combination — William Holden and Audrey Hepburn create a light comedy and is a sly send-up of Audrey Hepburn’s earlier films and the film business itself. ‘PARIS WHEN IT SIZZLES’ is actually a remake of the 1952 French film ‘Holiday for Henrietta.’
Richard Quine and George Axelrod produced ‘PARIS WHEN IT SIZZLES.’ George Axelrod did the screenplay from a story by Julien Duvivier and Henri Jeanson and Richard Quine was of course the director. William Holden is the hero, the movie writer, who engages a secretary, Gabrielle Simpson [Audrey Hepburn], as his accessory in writing a screenplay. The simple facts of the picture are that in the course of their work they eventually fall in love, but the contrived vehicle for the film gets considerably more complicated.
The film met with mixed reaction upon its release, both critically and commercially. ‘PARIS WHEN IT SIZZLES’ was ahead of its time as a satire working on multiple levels. That didn’t sit well with audiences of the 1960’s, expecting a straight romantic opus starring the popular Audrey Hepburn. Nominally a romantic comedy, the film’s complex and whimsical structure took many of her fans by surprise. The romance is sweet but feels like an afterthought if you don’t buy the banter between Audrey Hepburn and William Holden, its two main stars in the film.
What Carter De Haven Jr., George Axelrod, John R. Coonan and Richard Quine are doing is to take a fairly routine story and attempt to enliven it by all manner of cinema tricks. When William Holden outlines his plot to Miss Audrey Hepburn, the plot takes visual form and William Holden and Miss Audrey Hepburn become the hero and heroine of the film. This allows for exceptional range of camera ideas and setups unrestricted by the customer plot dimensions. It allows for jokes about films themselves. It allows use of uncredited stars like Marlene Dietrich, Tony Curtis and Mel Ferrer in big and rewarding brief roles.
A decadent Hollywood film producer Alexander Meyerheim [Noël Coward] demands a film script from Richard Benson [William Holden] within three days. The overpaid, alcoholic screenwriter has a title, “The Girl Who Stole The Eiffel Tower” and little else has been written down. The studio sends him the sweet ingénue Gabrielle Simpson [Audrey Hepburn] a typist who takes down Richard Benson’s fevered script ideas.
Locked together in Richard Benson’s Paris apartment for three days, and Richard Benson bounces preposterous plots off of Gabrielle Simpson as they start working closely together. Richard Benson’s under creative stress and Gabrielle Simpson is totally exasperated by his outlandish behaviour. Gabrielle Simpson is often placed in the centre of his wild ideas, imagined on the screen in elaborate set pieces. They start matching wits as the two grow ever closer and closer together, concocting insane outrageous film plots.
Audrey Hepburn and William Holden have immense fun in their roles. William Holden even shows up at one point playing a b-movie vampire. It’s clear as day that their characters are growing in love, playing out an amazing variety of characters as Richard Benson’s film-within-a-film keeps mutating from musical to comedy to thriller to even monster flick. Based on an earlier French film, but the film ‘PARIS WHEN IT SIZZLES’ is an unqualified gem.
Shot on location in Paris, the film is a gloriously decadent Hollywood production with cameos galore. Tony Curtis plays himself, Marlene Dietrich shows up for a split second; they even get Frank Sinatra singing a few unaccredited bars. It’s a testament to Hollywood’s studio system, though the film’s box office failure helped erode the system’s credibility and paved the way for more maverick filmmaking as Paramount Pictures started losing money.
Charles Lang’s Technicolor photography gives fresh beauty to the beautiful city of Paris, and his interiors have the distinctive warmth of Charles Lang’s lighting. Jean d’Eaubonne’s sets are rich and meaningful. Nelson Riddle’s composed film score is light and amusing. Sound by Joe de Bretagne and Charles Grenzbach is really good. Archie Marshek’s editing does a really slick job of making the many photographic tricks smooth and illusory. So all in all, the film to my mind is a great success and the two main stars William Holden and Miss Audrey Hepburn work their romantic and comedy magic up there on the silver screen
PARIS WHEN IT SIZZLES FILM TRACK LIST
THAT FACE (Music by Lew Spence) (Lyrics by Alan Bergman) [Performed by Fred Astaire] (Courtesy of Ava Records) [Played on the photograph as Gabrielle Simpson is going through her morning routine]
THE GIRL WHO STOLE THE EIFFEL TOWER (uncredited) (Music by Nelson Riddle) (Lyrics by Richard Quine) [Performed by Frank Sinatra] [Played when Richard Benson imagines the opening to his movie]
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Blu-ray Image Quality – Paramount Pictures presents the film ‘PARIS WHEN IT SIZZLES’ with a 1080p anamorphic image that is from a 4K scan with gorgeous palette retention and incredible definition. The 1080p video consistently honours the original celluloid feel of the film with excellent grain reproduction. Detail fares better in Richard Benson’s swanky apartment. Exteriors favours very bold palette and more saturated primary colours. The film is shown in the anamorphic 1.85:1 aspect ratio. Almost certainly struck from the original camera negative, and the Technicolor elements are in fine shape with a solid contrast and even wonderful black levels. Flesh-tones maintain a healthy appearance. Colour fidelity is very pleasantly subtle. The best news here is that Paramount Pictures has employed a transfer devoid of any filtering and very rare for this upgraded High Definition Blu-ray effort.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – Paramount Pictures brings us the film ‘PARIS WHEN IT SIZZLES’ with the original theatrical soundtrack comes off fairly well in pleasant 2.0 Dolby TrueHD Stereo Audio. It’s a very dialogue-driven film with a wonderful composed film score by master composer and arranger Nelson Riddle. It’s not an overly dynamic recording but the dialogue is sharply delivered without any problems. The dialogue is very clear and easy to understand at all times, a more than solid overall audio presentation.
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Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Theatrical Trailers: Here we get to view three Original Theatrical Trailers and they are as follows:
‘PARIS WHEN IT SIZZLES’ [1964] [1080i] [1.78:1] [2:47]
‘Breakfast At Tiffany’s’ [1961] [1080i] [1.78:1] [2:37]
‘My Fair Lady’ [1964] [1080i] [1.78:1] [2:58]
Finally, ‘PARIS WHEN IT SIZZLES’ is absolutely silly, but totally enjoyable, but also very charming and delightful and only works because of the chemistry between the gorgeous Audrey Hepburn and the ironic William Holden. There are many jokes with the cinema refrences, with many stories within the lead story, and the most hilarious scenes have the uncredited participation of Tony Curtis. Marlene Dietrich and Mel Ferrer have also uncredited participation. ‘PARIS WHEN IT SIZZLES’ is an attempt to cash-in on the popularity of Audrey Hepburn, the heart-winning starlet who rose to fame in a series of light romantic comedies in the 1950’s and 1960’s. In addition to Audrey Hepburn and William Holden, Noël Coward turns in a very funny cameo as the head of the studio. Witty and elegant as ever, and I would have liked to have seen more of Noël Coward in the film. Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
