So Long at the Fair

1950
Approved
1h 26m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Jean Simmons and Dirk Bogarde in So Long at the Fair (1950)

Costume Drama Period Drama Drama Mystery

Vicky Barton visits Paris with her brother Johnny, only to discover the following morning he has gone missing and the hotel staff have no recollection of his presence.Vicky Barton visits Paris with her brother Johnny, only to discover the following morning he has gone missing and the hotel staff have no recollection of his presence.Vicky Barton visits Paris with her brother Johnny, only to discover the following morning he has gone missing and the hotel staff have no recollection of his presence.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.1/10

2.5K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 2 nominations total

Photos11

+ 6

Top cast18

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Jean Simmons

Victoria Barton

Dirk Bogarde

George Hathaway

David Tomlinson

Johnny Barton

Honor Blackman

Rhoda O'Donovan

Felix Aylmer

British Consul

Cathleen Nesbitt

Madame Hervé

Betty Warren

Mrs. O'Donovan

Marcel Poncin

Narcisse

Austin Trevor

Police Commissaire

André Morell

Doctor Hart
(as Andre Morell)

Zena Marshall

Nina

Eugene Deckers

Day Porter

Nelly Arno

Madame Verni
(uncredited)

Arthur Gomez

Gendarme
(uncredited)

Andreas Malandrinos

Hotel Guest
(uncredited)

Frederick Schiller

German Hotel Guest
(uncredited)

Natasha Sokolova

Charlotte
(uncredited)

Michael Ward

Pilkington
(uncredited)

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
This story mimics Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes (1938), which he later filmed for Into Thin Air (1955) in season one of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955). The show starred Sir Alfred Hitchcock's daughter, Patricia Hitchcock. The change to the plot being that the girl arrived in Paris with her mother instead of her brother.

Goofs
At the hospital at the end, there is a statue of St. Therese of Lisieux. The Exposition took place in 1889, eight years before Therese died, and she wasn't made a saint until about 1925.

Quotes
Mrs. O'Donovan: When you were dancing, did he say anything?
Rhoda O'Donovan: He said he loved Paris, he loved his studio, he loved his painting, he loved dancing, but he didn't say anything about loving me.
Mrs. O'Donovan: You don't encourage him, Rhoda, that's the trouble. How do you expect him to make up his mind if you don't help him? Where would you be if I hadn't made up your father's mind?
Rhoda O'Donovan: Really, Ma, what an improper question!

Alternate versions
The same story is alluded to in Ernest Hemingway's early satirical novel "The Torrents of Spring," published in 1926, the same year as "The Sun Also Rises." One of the characters recounts the events as having happened to her. By way of explanation, Hemingway recounts the tale, the version with the mother, in the afterword, the "Author's Final Note to the Reader."

Connections
Featured in TCM Guest Programmer: 15 Fan Programmers (2009)

Soundtracks
Coronation March
(uncredited)
from "Le Prophete"
Music by Giacomo Meyerbeer
Used during opening credit sequence

User reviews60

Review

Featured review

An elegant suspense feast for the senses.

"So Long at the Fair" manages to fuse the macabre with the swank in a singularly enjoyable nerve wracker set in 1889 Paris.

Director Terence Fisher leads his audience with aplomb from the gaiety of the Moulon Rouge to the lugubrious shadows of a convent hospital with an assurance missing from most modern thrillers.

Production values are first rate from the elegant hotel to the elaborately wrought fair sequences.

One could scarcely ask for a more debonair and attractive couple than Mr. Bogarde, (with his famous pompadour intact), and the exquisite Miss Simmons, who, in her turn provides a welcome reminder of 19th century feminine deportment. And Villainess Cathleen Nesbitt, with her cut glass diction, and rustling black bombazine, defines sinister suavity in a way you won't soon forget.

Kudos also to Honor Blackman who wears a bustle with distinction.