''Paris Model'' is a 1953 American

comedy drama film Comedy drama (also known by the portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

directed by Alfred E. Green and starring

Marilyn Maxwell Marvel Marilyn Maxwell (August 3, 1921 – March 20, 1972) was an American actress and entertainer. In a career that spanned the 1940s and 1950s, she appeared in several films and radio programs, and entertained the troops during World War ...

Paulette Goddard Paulette Goddard (born Marion Levy; June 3, 1910 – April 23, 1990) was an American actress and socialite. Her career spanned six decades, from the 1920s to the early 1970s. She was a prominent leading actress during the Golden Age of Hollywood ...

Eva Gabor Eva Gabor ( ; February 11, 1919 – July 4, 1995) was a Hungarian-American actress and socialite. Gabor voiced Duchess and Miss Bianca in the Disney animations ''The Aristocats'' (1970), ''The Rescuers'' (1977), and ''The Rescuers Down Under'' ...

and Barbara Lawrence.Wojcik p.235 It is an

anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and g ...

featuring four separate parts, each focused on one of the four actresses. It was distributed by

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., Trade name, doing business as Columbia Pictures, is an American film Production company, production and Film distributor, distribution company that is the flagship unit of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group ...

. The film's sets were designed by the

art director Art director is a title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, live-action and animated film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supe ...

William Glasgow.

Plot

A new dress plays a key role in the lives of four women who are not acquainted with each other. A daring strapless design, "Nude at Midnight," is unveiled in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

to the delight of socialite Gogo Montaine, who wants to dazzle the Maharajah of Kim-Kepore, her escort that night. She charges its $900 cost to a former lover, Louis-Jean, who turns up later and refuses to pay. The Raj begins paying more attention to the gambling tables, so Gogo uses her dress and charms to get back into Louis-Jean's good graces. A buyer from

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

has an underling copy the Paris dress's design and quickly manufactures a cheaper version of it. Betty Barnes, a secretary, spends $90 on one to impress her boss, attorney Edgar Blevins, hoping to woo him away from Cora, his wife. Cora eavesdrops on her at the dress shop. While her husband is admiring Betty in it, Cora turns up in exactly the same dress, diverting her husband's wandering eyes. Marion Parmalee wants a promotion for her husband, whose boss P.J. Sullivan is retiring to

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

with his wife. At the retirement party, wearing a "Nude at Midnight" dress she bought for $59, Marion flirts with P.J., a bed manufacturer. When they get caught atop a bed together, P. J.'s wife instantly names another man at the party as her husband's successor. In far-off

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, a 21st-birthday party and a desire for boyfriend Charlie to propose marriage to her motivate Marta Jensen into buying an eye-catching dress, "Nude at Midnight," a copy of which she finds on sale for $19. They have difficult getting a table at Michael Romanoff's popular restaurant, frustrating Charlie until he gets an eyeful of Marta in her gown. At a nearby table, also appreciating her beauty in this dress, sits the Maharajah of Kim-Kepore.

Cast

as Marion Parmalee *

as Betty Barnes *

as Gogo Montaine * Barbara Lawrence as Marta Jensen *

Cecil Kellaway Cecil Lauriston Kellaway (22 August 1890 – 28 February 1973) was a South African character actor. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor twice, for '' The Luck of the Irish'' (1948) and ''Guess Who's Coming to Dinner' ...

as Patrick J. 'P.J.' Sullivan * Robert Hutton as Charlie Johnson * Leif Erickson as Edgar Blevins *

Tom Conway Tom Conway (born Thomas Charles Sanders; 15 September 1904 – 22 April 1967) was a British film, television, and radio actor. He is remembered for playing suave adventurer The Falcon in a series of 1940s films; and his appearances in three h ...

as Maharajah of Kim-Kepore * Michael Romanoff as Prince Romanoff *

Florence Bates Florence Bates ( Rabe; April 15, 1888 – January 31, 1954) was an American film and stage character actress who often played grande dame characters in supporting roles. Life and career Bates was the second child born to Jewish immigrant p ...

as Mrs. Nora Sullivan *

El Brendel Elmer Goodfellow "El" Brendel (March 25, 1890 – April 9, 1964) was an American vaudeville comedian turned movie star, best remembered for his dialect routine as a Swedish immigrant. His biggest role was as "Single-0" in the sci-fi musical ' ...

as Papa Jensen * Laurette Luez as Lisa Jones *

Robert Bice Robert Bice (March 14, 1914 – January 8, 1968) was an American television and film actor. Biography Bice was born on March 14, 1914, in Dallas, Texas. He died on January 8, 1968, in Los Angeles, California. Bice was buried in Eternal Vall ...

as Jack Parmalee * Aram Katcher as Louis-Jean Vacheron * Gloria Christian as Cora Blevins *

Byron Foulger Byron Kay Foulger (August 27, 1898 – April 4, 1970) was an American character actor who over a 50-year career performed in hundreds of stage, film, and television productions. Early years Born in Ogden, Utah, Byron was the second of four ...

as Ernest Boggs * Bibs Borman as Berta Courtallez * Renny McEvoy as Johnny Granville *

Eugene Borden Eugene Borden (born Élysée Eugène Prieur-Bardin, March 21, 1897 – July 2, 1971) was a French-American actor, active in Hollywood from the silent era until the mid-1960's. Born in Paris, he immigrated to the United States as a teenager, and e ...

as Armand - Headwaiter * Gloria Pall as Credits Girl * Diana Darrin as Gambling Patron

References

Bibliography

* Pamela Robertson Wojcik. ''New Constellations: Movie Stars of the 1960s''. Rutgers University Press, 2012.

External links

* 1953 films 1953 comedy-drama films American comedy-drama films Films directed by Alfred E. Green Films scored by Albert Glasser Columbia Pictures films American black-and-white films 1950s English-language films 1950s American films English-language comedy-drama films {{1950s-US-drama-film-stub