VividSimon Simply Perfect

ChanBot i must have seen a different film!!

SpunkySelfTwitter It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Curt Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

touser2004 If you love romantic comedies then this passes as easy watching.Douglas and Colbert gel but the script lacked sparkle . When I analyse Colberts career it has to be said that she really isn't in many that you would describe as classics,that have stood the test of time.Her performances are generally excellent but often in mediocre films

SimonJack My heading above much more accurately describes this movie. Maybe they didn't want to give away the plot, for some strange reason. I think this is just one of those instances when the producers stuck with an early title and didn't think to change it. Anyway, this movie is an entertaining, if far-fetched, story about a love triangle. Or, more like a love quadrangle at the start and finish.Claudette Colbert is the focus of the triangle, and her two main suitors vying for her affections are wonderfully played by Melvyn Douglas and Robert Young. The humor comes mostly in the sparring between the two competitors. "I Met Him in Paris" isn't one of the wittier comedy romances that Colbert made; but it has its occasional clever or really goofy line that will cause a laugh. Kay (Colbert) is a New York fashion designer who has been saving and planning a three-week trip to Paris for five years. Early in the movie after her arrival in Paris, she goes into the American Restaurant in the high-class hotel where she's staying. She asks the maître d' if he speaks English, and he calls for a particular waiter. The waiter's line floors Kay: "Madam. You have the ask to wish for me you pleasure." After Kay's recovery and a couple questions about his English, he says he learned English from a Japanese house boy from America. Later, after she has met George (Douglas) and Gene (Young), she dances with George who is admittedly a terrible dancer. As they walk back to their table, George says, "Did I do that?" Kay says, "Oh, no. I was limping when I came in."The best humor, and most of it in this film, comes from a number of escapades. The trio leaves Paris for Switzerland, with George to act as chaperon of Gene and Kay. There is a nice long scene of Kay and George ice skating. Another long humorous adventure has Kay and Gene skiing downhill. A third has all three them bobsledding. Naturally, with all this winter activity, the film has some beautiful scenery. The outdoor stuff was shot at Sun Valley, Idaho, with scenes that could pass for the Swiss Alps. I mentioned that the plot was pretty far-fetched; but one must remember that the majority of people were very proper with relationships in that time. So, it's conceivable, but not very likely, that a single attractive woman (she is obviously playing a mature young woman – not a teenager or young girl), would go off for a week of fun in the snow with two men. Of course, the language barrier aspect was needed in this film to get the one funny situation with the waiter who knew a bunch of English words but not how to use them to make sense. The film was made in 1937, and most upscale restaurants in Paris would have had English- speaking waiters and maître d's then. Their English cousins across the Channel would have been going to Paris for decades to vacation, shop, do business or for entertainment. And, since WWI especially, many Americans would be traveling to "gay Paree" for the same reasons. But then, maybe that was another subtle funny of the film – since it was the American Restaurant.

mark.waltz In a variation of Noel Coward's "Design For Living" (minus the sex), this so-called romantic comedy focuses on an American girl (Claudette Colbert) who has saved money for years to take a trip to Paris where she is approached by playboy Robert Young and agrees to travel with him and his friend Melvyn Douglas to Switzerland, albeit "platonically". Even though she has shared a kiss with Young, it is apparent her only motive is to have fun, not find love. Douglas is his rather dour friend who acts as "chaperone", which causes her to explode at him in frustration over his too serious attitude towards their trip. He reveals a softer side to her, and from there, she begins to spend half her time with one, and half with the other. Each one tries to outdo the other in an effort to spend time with her and win her affections.Only part of the first quarter and part of the conclusion actually take place in Paris; More than 50% of the film takes place in Switzerland. The film's energy comes and goes, and when it does (particularly a scene on a speeding toboggan and later a skiing sequence), it is fully alive. But the majority of the time, it lays there, flat as Douglas's personality throughout most of the film. Even with some great art decco sets and breathtaking snowy scenery, it is not as amusing as it should have been. For the most part, comedies set in snowy settings (such as "Snowed Under", "The Goose and the Gander" and "Petticoat Fever") are rather mediocre; Snow seems to do better with action or adventure ("Island in the Sky", "Mrs. Mike"). Wesley Ruggles, while a fine director, was not as adept as Ernst Lubitsh, Preston Sturges or Mitchell Leissen when it came to romantic comedy. Ironically, Douglas would end up skiing in another romantic comedy several years later with someone named Garbo. Fritz Feld is amusing as a Franklin Pangborn like hotel clerk. But with the film long on talk and short on humor, it sadly misses the mark.

HeathCliff-2 Two clunkers in a row - first Bluebeard, then I met him in Paris. The clothes are great, the settings lovely, and the script - a mind-boggling inane conglomeration of improbable and contrived situations that must have contributed to the demise of the screwball comedy. A series of wealthy people with too much time on their hands, acting juvenile (or madcap, as they used to call it). Everyone here has been better elsewhere. Douglas and Young are both in love with Colbert, and three high-tail it off to Switzerland, as the question surfaces: who will Claudette end up with? Of course, Melvyn Douglas is billed above Robert Young, so we know what the outcome must be. As much as I love old films, and Colbert, and Douglas, and Young, I stuck this one out, but it never really gelled for me.