Lucybespro It is a performances centric movie

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Aubrey Hackett While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

ChorusGirl A misleading first act suggests a Henry James-esque tale of an upper class British brother and sister visiting Paris for the Exposition. Alas this is pure deception, giving no indication of the shift that will occur about 20 minutes in, when a character simply vanishes without a trace, leaving the other stranded and slowly driven to hopelessness. The one brief scene at the Fair is a cruel, brilliant moment that further dashes audience expectations. The film could easily have boxed itself into a scenario that only the most far-fetched of explanations would have solved, but instead the resolution is completely logical, and--if you know your history--disturbingly possible. Not to be missed!

bkoganbing I've never been able to get into this particular drama which many, including folks here, compare to Alfred Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes. I've never quite figured out why it was necessary to gaslight Jean Simmons the way she was. Maybe if I lived on the continent and had some insight into English and French antagonisms, that might give me a clue.So Long At The Fair takes place in the Paris Exhibition of 1896 and in that peaceful century between Vienna and Versailles when Europe was generally at peace, though the antagonisms were beneath the surface. Brother and sister Jean Simmons and David Tomlinson arrive in Paris and stay at a small hotel run by Cathleen Nesbitt. The two of them check into separate rooms. He complains of feeling fatigued and Jean goes out on the town for a little celebration. The next day not only has he vanished, but so has his room which Nesbitt now claims was just a public bathroom and that she arrived alone. Nesbitt's never even heard of David Tomlinson.Simmons is stonewalled at every turn and she gives a wonderful portrayal of a lovely young girl who is slowly being driven out of her mind. But I seriously can't get into this film. Remember in The Lady Vanishes, Margaret Lockwood makes an acquaintance of Dame May Witty as a couple of perfect strangers who fall into each other's company on a train. She's not a family member so when Witty disappears it's plausible when authorities doubt Lockwood. Here Cathleen Nesbitt has the effrontery to tell her that her own brother doesn't exist and the authorities back her up. Like Margaret Lockwood, Simmons finds one friend in itinerant artist Dirk Bogarde an English expatriate living in the Paris of Toulouse-Lautrec. Bogarde vaguely does remember meeting her with Tomlinson and of course he decides to help this very frightened young woman.I will say though that the nature of the disappearance would have required the authorities to tell Simmons as Tomlinson's closest blood relation. Why they went through this charade I can only attribute to the French way of doing things which is not terribly flattering to the French.The film belongs to Jean Simmons who when you look at her list of credits you'll find she was in the cast of some of the best films of the Fifties and criminally never received an Oscar for anything. She gets good support from the rest of the cast, but for me it's just a film that makes no rational sense to this American.

kidboots 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.

MartinHafer Young Jean Simmons and her brother, David Tomlinson, arrive in Paris for the opening of the 1889 Exposition. Oddly, however, the next morning when Simmons awakens, he is gone. Odder still, the people at the hotel tell her that her brother NEVER checked in and she was alone! Naturally something is amiss, but when Jean looks for his room, it is gone and there is no evidence to prove he was ever there. When she goes to the British Consulate and police, they both understandably think she might be crazy as she cannot prove any of her assertions that he was kidnapped. You really find yourself feeling for Simmons' character and she is about to give up hope when she stumbles upon a person (Dirk Bogarde) who saw Tomlinson and can prove she is not losing her mind. Now here is where the writing falters a bit, as you'd think she'd immediately take Bogarde to the authorities. But due to bizarre movie logic, Bogarde goes under cover and investigates the matter like he's a detective--and puts himself potentially in harm's way. In other words, he's the only proof of a conspiracy and yet he could get himself killed by investigating himself. Regardless, the film does work and the conclusion as to where Tomlinson is and why he was taken works out well--making the film seem rather credible. This is a nice little mystery--worth your time due to good acting and an interestingly original story idea.