Tous les chemins mènent à Rome (1949) - film review

A famous American film actress Laura Lee is suspected of stealing some secret documents when she sneaks away after her ship has docked at a French port.  She is rehearsing a scene in her next film in a telephone booth when she is overheard by Gabriel, an over-imaginative mathematician and fan of detective novels, who is travelling to Rome with his sister to attend a conference on geometry.  Believing Laura is in danger, Gabriel insists that he drives her to Rome.  Laura, who is also bound for Rome, accepts, realising that this is one way for her to avoid the pack of journalists who are pursuing her...

Over-the-top performances from Gérard Philipe and Micheline Presle makes this an entertaining farce which, despite some ludicrous plot developments, is a moderate to good example of 1940s French film comedy.

It is by no means Jean Boyer’s best film – some of the humour is little tired and the film suffers by not being able to make up its mind whether it is an out-and-out farce or a traditional comedy romance.  Although neither performer is at his or her best, Philipe and Presle make an interesting pairing and have no trouble engaging the audience, even if the characters they play are outrageously implausible stereotypes.

© James Travers 2001

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