The Ambassador's Daughter (1956)

Simply miserable film starring Olivia de Havilland as the daughter of the American ambassador to France. The trouble is that Edward Arnold, the ambassador, and the visiting senator Adolphe Menjou have very little to do in this hopeless film.It's basically the story of an engaged woman who meets a soldier by chance and the two engage in a whirlwind romance throughout Paris. Tommy Noonan as the friend of John Forsythe, the guy who courts de Havilland, and Myrna Loy, as the senator's wife, are both unable to salvage a poorly written film.At age 39, Miss de Havilland was way too old for the part.The story is nonsensical at best and Forsythe confusing de Havilland as a kept woman of the older Menjou is not written up to the hilt as it should have been.A shame that such a talented cast of thespians were wasted on this nonsense.

It is certainly not true that because a film has as its central character a female protagonist that it must be a "woman's picture". But in an era when the novel market in cheap-minded fiction seems hopelessly divided between mindless male violent thrillers and mindless female Gothic romanciful fantasies, the viewer must expect this debate to spill over into films. Fortunately for moviegoers, as late as the 1950s, films such as "The Ambassador's Daughter" were still being made and these were films with enough realistic characters, intelligent dialogue and interesting action to please adult viewers. This is a very fine script indeed by veteran writer-director Norman Krasna. It was directed very ably and beautifully mounted. The noteworthy cast included Edward Arnold, Myrna Loy, Adolph Menjou, Frances Lederer, Tommy Noonan plus Olivia de Havilland and John Forsythe as the romantic leads. The setting is postwar Paris, and the sets are beautiful to behold. This is a film about upper crust folk; and as such we are treated to costumes by Christian Dior, impeccable lighting and gorgeous art direction. But the fact that these are members of the wealthy set does not stop the scriptwriters from devising lively and challenging involvements for all. The very good idea for the story involves de Havvilland trying to prove to her ambassador father, professionally and personally worried about such matters, that all French-based American soldiers are not "wolves". She picks on Forsythe to prove her point--and discovers she may have picked too well for her own safety, since she finds herself falling for the shy G.I. Arnold and Loy are particularly good, Menjou is his usual charming self; and de Havilland is superb. Only Forsythe seems a bit low-voltage, as he sometimes did early in his career, before "The Trouble With Harry". The film's technical elements, such as lighting, sets, art direction and all else provide the usual first-rate MGM realization. The color is lovely as well, adding to the gemlike quality of this underrated and very intelligent comedy. In an era devoted to Medieval character flaws, misbehaviors and irresponsible folk floundering in a sea of surrealistic bad writing and worse thinking, this earlier work stands out as a cinematic delight, one to be watched many times over.

The only reason that Olivia de Havilland agreed to appear in this trifle must have been because it was going to be filmed in Paris where she was living at the time. On the positive side, there are great stars supporting de Havilland such as Edward Arnold, Adolphe Menjou and Myrna Loy, and they are very very good, as is the Star, but negatively speaking, the story has been done many times, but it could have been quite good, if a decent leading man had been engaged - there is no doubt John Forsythe was out of his depth, trying to compete with the players listed above. There were some bright moments of comedy, and it was good to see the Stars having a bit of a romp, but at times it is hard going. As lovely as she is, Olivia was too old for the part, but some of the shots of Paris helped a lot.

What were they thinking? This movie's script is terrible (cliche after cliche), and it's doubtful that even appropriate actors could have rescued it. Olivia de Havilland looks about 50 here (Myrna Loy is supposed to be decades older, but they look like contemporaries), rather than the ingenue the role calls for. Compare this to Roman Holiday, made about the same time--a wonderful script, marvelously appropriate actors, and enchanting use of its location. This movie represents the worst of 50's film-making--a huge waste of talent.