Review of So This Is Paris

This pre-Code, pre-talkie comedy is directed by Ernst Lubitsch, so we might expect clever humor. We are not disappointed, but the style of humor is not highbrow; it plays off physicalities and expressions that range from the juvenile to the mundane to the sensuous.

The cinematic style of Lubitsch is there: concise, creative, and character-based.

There are four main characters: two married couples who live across a Parisian street from each other. Their interaction begins when Suzanne Girard (Patsy Ruth Miller) gets a gander at Maurice Lalle (George Beranger), who is practicing a dance role in front of the intervening window. She swoons for the literature and cinema of the day, which romanticizes Valentino-type sheiks. When her husband catches her gazing toward the window, she acts offended and asks him to defend her honor.

To say more would run the crux of the story, but the lives of the four spouses interact throughout the rest of the film. And the actors give riveting performances that make the viewer want to know what will happen next.

Between the performances, the direction and the story, this is a very enjoyable film that would stand rewatching.