Love in the Afternoon (1957)

Film: Love in the Afternoon (1957)

Stars: Gary Cooper, Audrey Hepburn, Maurice Chevalier

Director: Billy Wilder

Oscar History: The film received no Oscar nominations, which given its precursor count would number as a BIG upset by today's standards-Wilder was nominated for both the DGA & the WGA, and the film was cited for Best Picture at the Golden Globes (as well as lead nominations for both Hepburn & Chevalier).  If a film today got that, they'd be a sure thing for a few nominations from the Academy.

Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2024 Saturdays with the Stars series, we are looking at the women who were once crowned as "America's Sweethearts" and the careers that inspired that title (and what happened when they eventually lost it to a new generation).  This month, our focus is on Audrey Hepburn: click here to learn more about Ms. Hepburn (and why I picked her), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

One consistent thing that we'll see all year for this theme is that while some of the actresses we'll profile did, in fact, wait around in Hollywood for a bit before they became "America's Sweetheart," all of them pretty much had that picture, that afterward they were instantly stars.  For Audrey Hepburn, that movie was Roman Holiday, which won her an Academy Award and made her a household name.  For the next ten years, Hepburn could do no wrong, with virtually all of her movies doing well with audiences ...with only 1-2 exceptions, the biggest being today's movie Love in the Afternoon.  Why are we focusing on one of those exceptions today, you might ask?  Because, well, I didn't realize it'd flopped until after I'd watched the movie and I have seen so many of her films that I didn't think it would be wise to waste a screening.  Today, we're going to talk about arguably the highest-profile miss from Hepburn from this era, one that paired her with an icon of the previous generation (which may have been the problem).

(Spoilers Ahead) Love in the Afternoon is about Ariane (Hepburn), a young cello student who lives with her father Claude (Chevalier) in Paris.  Claude is a private detective, one who makes his living investigating the crumbling romances of the various men of Paris, many of whom are losing their wives to a lothario named Frank Flannagan (Cooper).  When a client threatens to kill Frank, Ariane intercepts, and manages to save his life...but in the process she becomes enamored with him.  Having read about his escapades for years in her father's notes, she is able to manipulate him, pretending to be a worldly sophisticate and someone he can easily romance without strings attached (this is basically "friends with benefits" for the 1950's), but she's in fact deeply in love with him.  When he becomes jealous of all the men she's "been with" he goes to her father's detective agency...at which point her father realizes what's happened.  He wants him to dump her, knowing that he will break her heart, but at the end (in a romantic train station goodbye), they embrace, and the closing narration shows that she finally tamed the playboy, and made him her husband.

Audrey Hepburn, similar to Grace Kelly, spent much of her acting career being romanced by older men.  Humphrey Bogart was 30 years her senior, Rex Harrison 21 years older, Cary Grant was 25 years older, and Fred Astaire, again, was 30 years older than Hepburn.  There are a lot of guesses as to why Hepburn & Kelly, specifically, were asked to do this, but it was largely because Hollywood had a lot of over-the-hill actors who were still somewhat bankable & they didn't think audiences would continue to see them if they continued to romance women their own age like Bette Davis or Barbara Stanwyck.  This wasn't always a problem for Hepburn-you watch films like Sabrina, My Fair Lady, Charade, & Funny Face, and she plays really well against these guys, using their screen personas and her youthful whimsy to full advantage.  This is why she made so many good movies, as she was the rare romantic lead who could compliment these men's star persona so beautifully, even with an age difference.

But that did not manifest with Gary Cooper.  Love in the Afternoon is a good movie, mind you.  There's a solid script here, even if it should probably be funnier, and the premise works really well.  It's Gary Cooper's casting, though, that doesn't click.  Cooper is not my favorite actor, but in his best roles he did two things well-he was very good as an honorable man stuck in a tough situation and he was really good at playing an idiot being outmaneuvered by a smarter woman.  The script doesn't play into the first part at all, and doesn't really lean into the latter well enough.  Cary Grant was the first choice for this movie, and would've been much better, as in many ways this foreshadowed their work in Charade (which unlike this, was a massive hit).  Cooper & Hepburn, both screen stars in their own right, don't work together, and it's hard to put any of the blame on Hepburn, playing this role decently.  The scenes she has with Maurice Chevalier, for example, are quite light & melodious.  A missed opportunity, and a shame that all of these flashy names couldn't pull together a better picture.