SO THIS IS PARIS
Starring Patsy Ruth Miller, Monte Blue and Lilyan Tashman
MOTION PICTURE MAGAZINE
October, 1926
Herr Lubitsch has descended to the American level, and given us a picture as full of forced situations, crude humor and poor taste as our very worst native product. He has even sunk a little below the American standard of light comedy which has been raised considerably in the past year. "So This Is Paris" is a social comedy, a quadrangle, a light affair of marriage and flirtation and jealously, which must depend entirely on the clever handling of situations for its humor and interest. It aspires to equal "The Marriage Circle" in complexity and ingenuity. But it does not do this. Where Lubitsch was risqué, he is now merely vulgar.
There are some interesting technical effects in the dance sequence, and one or two bright moments when you smile in spite of yourself. Monte Blue, who has behaved like a gentleman in so many Lubitsch pictures, reverts to type under the influence of Lilyan Tashman. And Patsy Ruth Miller, however, behaves credibly and with appeal in a dreadful role. This is, as the title indicates, a tale of Paris. But Lubitsch sets out to tell it with a most terribly American cast, and a set of slangy subtitles calculated to destroy the last shred of illusion. Even to one who has never been there, it is quite obvious that this is not Paris.
SO THIS IS PARIS
Starring Monte Blue and Patsy Ruth Miller
PICTURE PLAY
November, 1926
Ernst Lubitsch offers another example of his comedies of marital
philandering and calls it "So This Is Paris." It is
suave, sophisticated and somewhat subtle. That is, there is a
great deal of skating on the thin ice of sexual intrigue without
breaching the proprieties, although there is nothing the average
imagination cannot grasp and embellish to suit individual requirements.
Monte Blue and Patsy Ruth Miller are one married couple and Lilyan
Tashman and André de Beranger the other. The ménages
are across the street from each other, so when Monte Blue calls
to protest against the scantiness of de Beranger's attire glimpsed
at the window, he is confronted by his former inamorata. At once
they connive to resume their intrigue, while de Beranger meets
Miss Miller and is comically smitten. There is considerable novelty
of incident in the development of the plot with shrewd touches
of characterization, and if I consider the whole thing oversexed
I am sure no one will give a whoop.
But at last Patsy Ruth Miller plays a mature role.