Paris When It Sizzles

Released Apr 8, 1964

1h 48m

Romance

Comedy

List

55%

11 Reviews

Tomatometer

66%

5,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

Hotshot Hollywood screenwriter Richard Benson (William Holden) is in trouble. He sold a script idea to decadent producer Alexander Meyerheim (Noel Coward), but has wasted all the time he had to finish the screenplay by traipsing around Paris. With just a couple of days left before the deadline, Benson gets a new assistant named Gabrielle Simpson (Audrey Hepburn), who helps him put together a love story by acting out all the possible scenarios. But life eventually beginning to imitate art.

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James Powers

Hollywood Reporter

The trouble is that Paris When It Sizzles seems constantly on the verge of hilarity but it never gets entirely into it.

Apr 9, 2019

Full Review

Nell Minow

Movie Mom

Hopeless script, but lots to look at.

Rated: 3/5

Jul 8, 2004

Full Review

Kat Halstead

Common Sense Media

In Paris When it Sizzles, much of the fun can be found in the meta aspects on the film, which feel quite ahead of their time.

Jan 10, 2024

Full Review

Frank J. Avella

Edge Media Network

...it's actually a sweet and often stingingly funny comedy that pokes fun at many of Hepburn and co-star, William Holden's, previous films.

Rated: B

Jan 21, 2022

Full Review

Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

If nothing else, this dud offers the brief and bizarre sight of Holden portraying a vampire.

Rated: 1.5/4

Oct 23, 2021

Full Review

Dennis Schwartz

Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews

A more appropriate title would have been Paris When It Fizzles.

Rated: C

Jan 31, 2007

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Ashley H

Paris When It Sizzles is an awesome film. It is about the assistant who helps a Hollywood screenwriter overcome his writer's block. William Holden and Audrey Hepburn give terrific performances. The script is good but a little slow in places. Richard Quine did a great job directing this movie. I enjoyed watching this motion picture because of the humor and romance. Paris When It Sizzles is a must see.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

08/06/23

Full Review

Steve M

Just a good rom-com, but an extra half star for a story line I've never seen before, and an extra half star for performances by Hepburn and Holden, cameos by Dietrich and Curtis, and a song by Sinatra.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

06/06/23

Full Review

Nizar N

This is one of the few movies made about moviemaking, if not perhaps the only movie, to take the matter this lightly. What precedes is both a good and a bad thing. The good thing is despite the quirky plot and the even quirkier plot within the plot, the movie still doesn't come off as pretentious or phoney, and that is before the sprinkle of witty remarks and self-critical quips. The bad thing is that the exaggeration of "taking things lightly" results in a form of immaturity, which would be okay hadn't it been portrayed by an iconic duo like Audrey Hepburn & William Holden, who had previously adapted the audiences to more convincing performances. In all, Paris When It Sizzles is still worth the watch, but receives more criticism than it should mainly because of the comparison with the main actors' previous works. However, in this day, it's become more common to see similar movies with similar scripts that don't even pass as half as good as Paris When It Sizzles. Taking that into consideration, the movie can count as one of the classics; in other words, it better be this movie than any other of the "pseudo-remakes."

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/11/23

Full Review

Audience Member

70% rating ... I thought this was a decent rom-com. Possibly biased towards Audrey Hepburn.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/17/23

Full Review

frankie a

Silliness on steroids and a waste of two very talented actors. It tries so hard to be funny that the strain is visible and it simply makes you feel uncomfortably embarrassed for Hepburn and Holden. Of course Hepburn fans will tolerable the inane nonsense, but the script is so bad and the hodgepodge of ideas that are thrown at the storyline in order to get to the end of its hour and fifty minute running time (seems MUCH longer) are so ludicrous, that the casual viewer will find nothing of substance here and will probably bristle at the emasculation done to poor William Holden, making him the butt of every joke and even requiring him to feign being a vampire as if that would somehow redeem his character, which is not even mildly likable. A shout within the darkened room about 20 minutes into the movie from one of my guests says it all: "Can you put something else on?" And then that was followed by the loud agreement in a consensus from the other 10 people; the dislike was palpable. One of the guests who had made his escape earlier, presumably to have a smoke, returned to find the lights up and the movie stopped, quipped: "Oh thank god that thing is off; I could hear that dog barking from outside." At least this one crowd of movie lovers confirms unequivocally that NOTHING sizzles about this nonsensical romantic comedy. Bow-wow.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

I like most old films, even allowing for Hollywood pinch of salt truth in most. The best that I can say for this is the good looking lead actors and Hepburn's talent lost on a bizzare script. Paris ( the good side, not poverty susurbs ) is alwaYs a draw, I decided not to waste any more time after 10 minutes, as I had better things to do. My rating is a nod to Hepburn, both bothe leads do their best with a daft script. Music not too bad, but not worth the wait for a non-story.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

01/31/23

Full Review

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Richard Quine

Director

William Holden

Richard "Rick" Benson

Audrey Hepburn

Gabrielle "Gaby" Simpson

Noël Coward

Alexander Meyerheim

Gregoire Aslan

Police Insp. Gilet

Raymond Bussières

François

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Synopsis

Hotshot Hollywood screenwriter Richard Benson (William Holden) is in trouble. He sold a script idea to decadent producer Alexander Meyerheim (Noel Coward), but has wasted all the time he had to finish the screenplay by traipsing around Paris. With just a couple of days left before the deadline, Benson gets a new assistant named Gabrielle Simpson (Audrey Hepburn), who helps him put together a love story by acting out all the possible scenarios. But life eventually beginning to imitate art.

Director: Richard Quine
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Production Co: Paramount
Genre: Romance, Comedy
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Apr 8, 1964, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 1, 2011
Runtime: 1h 48m

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