So Long at the Fair (1951)

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Fantastic!

brilliant actors, brilliant editing

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Not for the first time and very probably not for the last it would appear that the majority of viewers who have posted reports on this film watched a different movie to the one I watched. For one thing I was unable to detect any chemistry between Bogarde and Simmons whilst several posters praised the superabundance. This brings us to the plot; Simmons arrives in Paris with brother David Tomlinson. Having registered at their hotel albeit Tomlinson conveniently omits to sign the register, they spend a day at the Exposition, which is the main reason they have come to Paris. This means that we, the audience, have been watching Tomlinson for a little over one reel, so when the next morning not only Tomlinson but also his very hotel room have completely vanished and the hotel staff swear to a man that Simmons arrived alone, we know very well this is a lie. The plot thus falls at the first hurdle. How much more effective if we ourselves never actually see Tomlinson but see Simmons talking to an offscreen brother so that we find it much easier to doubt Simmons sanity. The denoument is equally risible as rather than denying his existence to the authorities the hotel owner wuld be conspiring with the authorities in order to avoid panic.

Set in Paris in 1889 on the eve of the Great Exhibition. Victoria (Jean Simmons) and her brother Johnny (David Tomlinson)arrive in the packed city for the event. On the following morning, Victoria awakes to find that her brother and his hotel room have completely disappeared and everybody denies his existence. The police refuse to believe her story, but she finds help from an English artist, George (Dirk Bogarde), who was at the hotel on the day they checked in and he specifically remembers Johnny because he asked him for change for a one hundred franc note in order to pay a cab driver. George and Victoria check into the hotel and tries to solve the mystery behind Johnny's disappearance...A handsomely mounted period mystery thriller from Rank, which is of interest because it is one of the first major films to be directed by Terence Fisher who, following a subsequent spell making routine b-pics, was to go on to become a key player in the British horror wave of the late fifties and sixties via Hammer making such classics as Dracula, The Curse Of Frankenstein and The Mummy among others.The plot offers the ideal training ground for his subsequent excursions into the horror genre and his best films had a strong emphasis on character and a feeling for place and period. On the former it is not entirely successful as the potential romance between Bogarde - here looking like the perfect matinée idol he was intended to be - and Simmons is poorly developed. Yet, the feel for 1880's Paris is extremely well conveyed thanks to superb costume, set design and Reginald Wyer's atmospheric black and white cinematography. Fisher does display his knack for a well knit storyline and succeeds in generating some tension from a storyline that would have been right up Hitchcock's street. Some reviews that I read for this noted similarities with The Lady Vanishes but, naturally, as they themselves pointed out this of course comes nowhere near as good as that film.An excellent supporting cast includes Cathleen Nesbitt, Honor Blackman and Marcel Poncin as well as Andre Morell who would later turn up in several of Hammer's better films such as The Hound Of The Baskervilles - the latter for Fisher in which he gave a superb portrayal of Dr Watson.The reasons behind Johnny's disappearance and why everybody goes to great pains to deny that he was ever in Paris will keep you hooked right up until the end. But, for me, the final revelation when it came was something of a disappointment as it was nowhere near as dark and sinister as I was expecting. In fact, for 82 minutes I was expecting so much from it and when the words The End appeared on the screen I was left thinking: 'Well, is that it'?!

I doubt that many people these days have ever heard of this movie but IMO it's one of those absolute classic films which is practically flawless and holds your attention from beginning to end. The sense of period is marvellous and all the cast are fully professional in their roles. The one character that really stood out for me was Mde.Herve played by Cathleen Nesbitt. I was probably only around 17/18 when I saw this on t.v. but her portrayal was the one I remembered most vividly for years after. It was great to be reacquainted via YouTube and as a mark of a truly great production it was every bit as good as I remembered which, as we all know, is so often not the case after the passing of many years.

A misleading first act suggests a Henry James-esque tale of an upper class British brother and sister visiting Paris for the Exposition. Alas this is pure deception, giving no indication of the shift that will occur about 20 minutes in, when a character simply vanishes without a trace, leaving the other stranded and slowly driven to hopelessness. The one brief scene at the Fair is a cruel, brilliant moment that further dashes audience expectations. The film could easily have boxed itself into a scenario that only the most far-fetched of explanations would have solved, but instead the resolution is completely logical, and--if you know your history--disturbingly possible. Not to be missed!