This film is based on a true event and it was a remake of another film but definitely not one that many people would have seen. Mayfair Pictures released a film called "Midnight Warning" (1932). Instead of the French Exposition, it was set in a luxury New York Hotel and starred Claudia Dell and William "Stage" Boyd. I was just amazed when I saw it - I thought "this was the original!!!". It was an okay film, but not a patch on this beautifully produced 1950 version that starred Jean Simmons and Dirk Bogarde.
A bubbling, enthusiastic Victoria Barton (Jean Simmons) is accompanying her brother Johnny (David Tomlinson) on a trip to the Paris Exposition of 1889. The first night Johnny takes her to a cafe and the Moulin Rouge but he is strangely tired. The next morning he has disappeared and the hotel staff deny any knowledge that he was ever there. Room 19 is now a bathroom!! Jean Simmons is marvellous in this early role and showed the acting ability that she would be noted for in her later career.
There is a conspiracy against her - she goes to the British Consel and is urged to find the lady's maid that met her brother but Nina (Zena Marshall) is going up with her fiancée in a hot air balloon and is involved in a ghastly accident mid air. The hotel manager is following her and he and his wife are able to convince the chief of police that she is not well. Catherine Nesbitt is very convincing as the inscrutable concierge.
But somebody has met Johnny Barton. George Hathaway (Dirk Bogarde) had borrowed cab fare off him the first night and the next day tries to return it. Victoria finds a letter from him just before she is due to go to the station - asking if Johnny and his sister would join him for a meal. Victoria goes to George's studio (he is an artist) to beg his help. George decides to do some detective work - he books into the hotel and snoops around. He thinks the room numbers have been swapped and although he finds the real Room 19, it has been completely boarded up. Victoria does find her brother's pipe on the mantle - now she is beginning to be believed.
"So Long at the Fair" is a superlative mystery - you will not guess the outcome but it is completely believable.
Highly Recommended.
A bubbling, enthusiastic Victoria Barton (Jean Simmons) is accompanying her brother Johnny (David Tomlinson) on a trip to the Paris Exposition of 1889. The first night Johnny takes her to a cafe and the Moulin Rouge but he is strangely tired. The next morning he has disappeared and the hotel staff deny any knowledge that he was ever there. Room 19 is now a bathroom!! Jean Simmons is marvellous in this early role and showed the acting ability that she would be noted for in her later career.
There is a conspiracy against her - she goes to the British Consel and is urged to find the lady's maid that met her brother but Nina (Zena Marshall) is going up with her fiancée in a hot air balloon and is involved in a ghastly accident mid air. The hotel manager is following her and he and his wife are able to convince the chief of police that she is not well. Catherine Nesbitt is very convincing as the inscrutable concierge.
But somebody has met Johnny Barton. George Hathaway (Dirk Bogarde) had borrowed cab fare off him the first night and the next day tries to return it. Victoria finds a letter from him just before she is due to go to the station - asking if Johnny and his sister would join him for a meal. Victoria goes to George's studio (he is an artist) to beg his help. George decides to do some detective work - he books into the hotel and snoops around. He thinks the room numbers have been swapped and although he finds the real Room 19, it has been completely boarded up. Victoria does find her brother's pipe on the mantle - now she is beginning to be believed.
"So Long at the Fair" is a superlative mystery - you will not guess the outcome but it is completely believable.
Highly Recommended.