Review of Paris When It Sizzles

Introduction

Paris When It Sizzles is a 1964 romantic comedy from director Richard Quine, which stars William Holden and Audrey Hepburn.

The film tells the story of Hollywood producer Alexander Meyerheimer who has hired a drunken writer called Richard Benson to write his latest movie. Benson has been living it up in Paris for months, when he was supposed to be writing the script, and two days before the deadline he hires a temporary secretary to help him get the job done.

Video

The video comes in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen, and given the age of the film is of pretty reasonable quality. Despite being a little grainy and suffering from the occasional flecks of dirt, the image is certainly presented more satisfactorily than many other more recent movies.

The first half of the movie is set inside Benson`s apartment and isn`t particularly appealing from a visual point of view, apart from the pretty Hepburn. The second portion of the movie recreates some part of the script that the pair write, and moves to the movie set, but again the visuals consist almost exclusively of interiors and aren`t especially exciting.

Audio

The soundtrack is presented in Dolby Digital Mono and is perfectly adequate for the age and type of movie, with the dialogue always clear and understandable.

Features

As with too many other Paramount discs, the only extra in sight is the trailer.

The disc is packaged in a black Amaray case, which contains single sheet insert detailing the 17 chapter breaks.

Conclusion

Overall, Paris When It Sizzles is a run-of-the mill romantic comedy, which doesn`t raise much in the way of laughs and didn`t generate much interest despite a good cast and promising plot.

The two main characters are fairly uninteresting, with Hepburn and Holden having not having much sizzle, and in the latter stages the movie relies on a number of cameo appearances (Tony Curtis and Marlene Dietrich plus the voices of Fred Astaire and Frank Sinatra) to keep things going, where in all honesty a 30 minute trim in the editing room would have been much preferable.

The video and sound are well presented given the age of the movie, but Paramount`s customary lack of extras makes this disc poor value for money at the £19.99 asking price.