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Undescribable Perfection

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Here's the thing. Scott Fitzgerald died in 1940. He published his first novel in 1920 and his last in 1934. In the twenties and early thirties he turned out some fifty or so short stories for which, initially, he earned top dollar but when his wife, Zelda, was diagnosed as schizophrenic and hospitalized he turned to the bottle and apart from a series of pot-boilers about a Hollywood hack named Pat Hobby and a series of essays, The Crack-Up, published in Esquire magazine around 1936, he produced little of any merit, albeit he was working on a novel when he died. He owed his success, particularly where short stories were concerned, to his gift of both understanding and interpreting the 'voice' of young people in the 'Jazz' Age. Bablyon Revisited is one such story dating from his peak years so the minute MGM chose to 'update' it to some thirteen or fourteen years AFTER his death its uniqueness i.e. the 'voice' of the Jazz Age, was totally destroyed. Even the central sequence, a flashback that begins in 1945 can't do much to help as that was still five years after Fitzgerald died. That being said it is, of course quite possible that movie buffs who couldn't care less about Fitzgerald would have checked this out on the strength of Elizabeth Taylor - who had grown up at MGM - Van Johnson, who had starred in several big-budget MGM movies in the forties and Walter Pigeon, who had likewise appeared in some top grossing MGM fodder (and had, ironically, just appeared in The Bad And The Beautiful, also from MGM which lifted a few rocks in the tide-pool that is Hollywood to reveal the unsavory marine life scrabbling around there). These people may well have come away content and serenely oblivious to Fitzgerald's ending, diametrically opposed to the one on offer here. The bad news is that even as I write the semi-amateur Baz Luhrman has got his claws into The Great Gatsby and is no doubt even now attempting to outdo the joke he entitled Moulin Rouge.

Van Johnson was fantastic in his role as a World War II veteran who returns to Paris, France where he seeks to be a writer in the post-World War era. He meets and falls in love with Helen (played by Dame Elizabeth Taylor). Donna Reed has a supporting role as Marion, Helen's sister. This film was shot in the early days of using color instead of black and white. The Parisian shots could have been better. The storyline is quite typical. Helen and Jimmy fall in love and get married and have a child, a beautiful daughter, Victoria. They remain in Paris, France where the living is good and the partying is non-stop. Well, Jimmy's writing career consists of constant rejection. Helen's unhappy as well in their marriage. The story is a bit outdated and melodramatic to involve acting but it's Van Johnson's film and not his co-star Elizabeth Taylor. Eva Gabor has a supporting role in it as does Walter Pidgeon playing Helen's father. It's decent, old film to watch at least once.

In my humble opinion, Van Johnson was a vastly underestimated actor. He excelled at playing everyman and was as good playing sardonic characters who fall into the trap of self-loathing as in this movie as he was in playing guys who could take whatever life dished out and come back bloodied but unbowed.He and Taylor have marvelous chemistry in this movie. Pidgeon is marvelous playing Taylor's wry scoundrel of a father. The seductiveness of the bohemian life is well portrayed. Peter Leeds, John Doucette, Kurt Kasznar and Celia Lovsky are also excellent in their supporting roles - and young Roger Moore is a lot of fun as a tennis bum. Also, a standout is George Dolenz as Johnson & Taylor's silently suffering and devoted brother-in-law married to self-righteous Donna Reed - perhaps the one supporting role that seemed miscast or a bit flat to me.If you want to wallow in tears at a well-done schmaltzy love story, this one's for you.

How anyone could indicate that Van Johnson is "wooden" or miscast in this film is an incredible conumdrum. With his usual innocent charm, he builds the character with an authenticity which is totally suited to the screenplay. He is totally credible and authentic. If no other success can be perceived, surely the later scenes with his concern for both wife and daughter are amazingly touching; his tears are touching and beautifully demonstrated as no actor in my memory. The breadth of his performance stands out, with this character being fleshed out and fully developed. I hope that in his later years at the nursing home he did not read some of the uncharitable reviews of his performance. A highly underrated actor who deserved better. This is his very best role which he embraced fully, sensitively and beautifully. What a guy!