Sort of a nifty mystery about a woman, Jean Simmons, whose brother, David Tomlinson, vanishes from their hotel at the Paris Exposition of 1896. As in Hitchcock's "The Lady Vanishes," the concierge and staff deny having seen him. They claim Simmons arrived alone. Simmons pokes around but all the signs of Tomlinson's visit has disappeared. Even his room is gone. The British Consul, Felix Aylmer, would like to help but, he tells her, without any evidence, he's helpless. He advises her to find someone who has met both of them during their one night in Paris.
That person exists, in the person of the English artist Dirk Bogarde. Bogarde had borrowed some money from Tomlinson the night before and they'd had a brief, polite conversation. Bogarde is determined to discover what happened to Tomlinson. Together, Bogarde and Simmons do in fact find his whereabouts and the reason for his disappearance.
This isn't a psychological mystery along the lines of "Bunny Lake is Missing" or "The Turn of the Screw." There's never any doubt that Tomlinson is a real human being. And it isn't long before we see the manager of the hotel and her staff toasting his absence, so we know they're in cahoots.
It's a genteel mystery, not a sinister one. There isn't any physical action and nobody is genuinely evil.
The problem I have is with the concierge, played by Cathleen Nesbitt. Jean Simmons keeps poking around, bringing in the police and generally disrupting the operations of the hotel, and the concierge is consistently polite, suggesting in a friendly way that perhaps Mademoiselle is a little mad.
This runs contrary to my experience with concierges. They are uniformly rude to guests. And money grubbing too. And when they write the number 1 it always comes out looking like a 7. They do this quite deliberately to confound visiting Americans. Oh, there's a conspiracy all right but it involves EVERY concierge in Paris, and now, not just in 1896. No "politesse", if you know what I mean! (I hope no one takes this riff seriously.)
It's an enjoyable movie. It's always nice to see mysteries unraveled piece by piece. I suppose that's why Agatha Christie has always been a best seller, and the Sherlock Holmes stories before her. In the best of them, we flood out with relief at the end. In that respect, this climactic reveal is a bit of an anti-climax. I won't give away the reason why Tomlinson disappeared but it's pretty prosaic.
Still, Jean Simmons is a handsome young lady. Interesting to see her play a scene with Felix Aylmer. This movie was released in 1950. Two years earlier Simmons had been Ophelia and Aylmer was her father, Polonius, in Olivier's "Hamlet." The Brits certainly had a pool of accomplished players to fill the roles in their films.
That person exists, in the person of the English artist Dirk Bogarde. Bogarde had borrowed some money from Tomlinson the night before and they'd had a brief, polite conversation. Bogarde is determined to discover what happened to Tomlinson. Together, Bogarde and Simmons do in fact find his whereabouts and the reason for his disappearance.
This isn't a psychological mystery along the lines of "Bunny Lake is Missing" or "The Turn of the Screw." There's never any doubt that Tomlinson is a real human being. And it isn't long before we see the manager of the hotel and her staff toasting his absence, so we know they're in cahoots.
It's a genteel mystery, not a sinister one. There isn't any physical action and nobody is genuinely evil.
The problem I have is with the concierge, played by Cathleen Nesbitt. Jean Simmons keeps poking around, bringing in the police and generally disrupting the operations of the hotel, and the concierge is consistently polite, suggesting in a friendly way that perhaps Mademoiselle is a little mad.
This runs contrary to my experience with concierges. They are uniformly rude to guests. And money grubbing too. And when they write the number 1 it always comes out looking like a 7. They do this quite deliberately to confound visiting Americans. Oh, there's a conspiracy all right but it involves EVERY concierge in Paris, and now, not just in 1896. No "politesse", if you know what I mean! (I hope no one takes this riff seriously.)
It's an enjoyable movie. It's always nice to see mysteries unraveled piece by piece. I suppose that's why Agatha Christie has always been a best seller, and the Sherlock Holmes stories before her. In the best of them, we flood out with relief at the end. In that respect, this climactic reveal is a bit of an anti-climax. I won't give away the reason why Tomlinson disappeared but it's pretty prosaic.
Still, Jean Simmons is a handsome young lady. Interesting to see her play a scene with Felix Aylmer. This movie was released in 1950. Two years earlier Simmons had been Ophelia and Aylmer was her father, Polonius, in Olivier's "Hamlet." The Brits certainly had a pool of accomplished players to fill the roles in their films.