Review of The Last Time I Saw Paris

This "adaptation" of one of F. Scott Fitzgerald's greatest short stories is a conglomeration of every bad melodramatic plot twist known to the movies. You have to keep watching just to see what they'll throw in next. Van Johnson is perhaps even more wooden than usual and Donna Reed has little to do in a thankless role. Walter Pigeon does as well as could be expected, considering his one-note bluff and hearty character. But Elizabeth Taylor manages to seem genuine and natural most of the time, despite being saddled with a perplexing character whose ever-changing motivations seem to come out of nowhere. Especially during her serious scenes with Johnson in the first half of the movie, she manages to hint at a believable inner complexity.