Paris When It Sizzles (1964) on Netflix
Approved19641h 50mComedyRomance
Richard Benson has squandered months in Paris without writing the screenplay he owes producer Alexander Meyerheim. With two days left, typist Gabrielle Simpson arrives to help him finish it.
- Netflix3.2/5
- IMDb6.2/1010,278 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes60%
Trailer
Plot summary
Producer Alexander Meyerheim has paid in advance for a screenplay by Richard Benson, who sold him on the title The Girl Who Stole the Eiffel Tower. Benson has spent months in Paris living it up instead of writing, and has told Meyerheim he is on the wagon. Meyerheim will arrive from Cannes on Bastille Day expecting pages. With two days left, Benson hires Gabrielle Simpson from a secretarial service to type for him, and she finds almost nothing written. Learning she came to Paris to experience life, Benson proposes imagining the film as one Bastille Day in the life of a woman like her, and the two act out an espionage caper as Rick and Gaby, steering the plot toward what they hope will happen between them.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Paris When It Sizzles (1964)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Paramount exercised an option in its contracts with Audrey Hepburn and William Holden to force them to make the film together, and Holden, who had had an affair with Hepburn on Sabrina a decade earlier, tried and failed to rekindle a romance with the now-married actress.
- William Holden's alcoholism was such a challenge on set that director Richard Quine moved into a rented house next to the actor's during production to keep an eye on him.
- Shooting finished in October 1962, but a screening at Paramount left the studio convinced the film was unreleasable except for the pull of its two stars.
- Tony Curtis was brought into the production to film during a week when William Holden was away being treated for his alcoholism, at the prompting of the director, and Noël Coward worked on the film for three days.
- Audrey Hepburn's first choice of cinematographer, Franz Planer, was ill, so she agreed to Claude Renoir, then insisted he be replaced during production by Charles Lang after she found the dailies unflattering.
