This Was Paris

{{Infobox film

| name = This Was Paris

| image =

| caption =

| director = John Harlow

| producer = Max Milder

| writer = {{ubl|Edward Dryhurst|Gordon Wellesley|Brock Williams|Basil Woon}}

| starring = {{ubl|Ann Dvorak|Ben Lyon|Griffith Jones}}

| music = Jack Beaver

| cinematography = Basil Emmott

| editing = Leslie Norman

| distributor = Warner Bros.

| released = {{film date|1942|3|21|df=y}}

| runtime = 77 minutes

| country = United Kingdom

| language = English

| budget =£78,621Steve Chibnall (2019) Hollywood-on-Thames: the British productions ofWarner Bros. – First National, 1931–1945, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 39:4,

687-724, DOI: 10.1080/01439685.2019.1615292 at p 714

| gross = £58,777

}}

This Was Paris is a 1942 British Second World War spy film directed by John Harlow and starring Ann Dvorak, Ben Lyon and Griffith Jones.[https://web.archive.org/web/20090114093031/http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/54112 BFI.org]

It was shot at Teddington Studios.

Plot

British Captain Bill Hamilton meets and is attracted to American fashion designer Ann Morgan in Paris during the Phoney War stage of hostilities. He also makes the acquaintance of Sydney-Chronicle reporter Butch. Later, he is assigned by MI5 to investigate Ann. The fashion house where she works is a center of German fifth columnists, headed by Van Der Stuyl and Madame Florien. MI5 suspects Ann herself is a spy, but Bill is certain she is innocent. Her friend, Count Raul De La Vague, however, has been gulled by Van Der Stuyl and Madame Florien into believing that they are working for Franco-German peace and cooperation against communism. The count is told to donate an ambulance to the French cause. A German spy conceals a message inside the door.

Then the Germans invade France through neutral Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Belgium, bypassing the Maginot Line. Ann is ordered to drive the ambulance to the front line. Unable to convince her that her employers are enemy agents, Bill stows away in the back. The pair are forced to take cover when German bombers appear overhead. A direct hit destroys the vehicle, but a waiting agent finds the message. Bill takes the man prisoner, but he escapes with the message on the way to a French military headquarters. As a result, the Germans are able to capture a vital bridge intact, and tanks pour across it into France.

Bill is given a staff car, but it is later commandeered by French officers, forcing the pair to walk. On the way back to Paris, they find a small, abandoned amusement park. Only the owner, Popinard, is left. He refuses to leave with the couple. He remains behind, holding an antiquated gun. Bill and Ann reach Paris and exchange words with the triumphant Madam Florien before joining the stream of refugees.

Cast

{{cast listing|

Ann Dvorak as Ann Morgan
Ben Lyon as Butch
Griffith Jones as Captain Bill Hamilton
Robert Morley as Van Der Stuyl
Harold Huth as Count Raul De La Vague
Mary Maguire as Blossom Leroy, Butch's girlfriend
Vera Bogetti as Mme. Florien
Harry Welchman as Forsyth, MI5
Frederick Burtwell as J. B. Entwhisle, Butch's editor
Marian Spencer as Lady Muriel
Billy Holland as Liftman
Miles Malleson as Watson, newspaper librarian
Bernard Miles as Nazi Propaganda Officer
Hay Petrie as Popinard
Harry McElhone as Harry, the bartender
Jeni Le Gon (uncredited) as cabaret dancer
Elisabeth Welch (uncredited) as cabaret singer
Ian Fleming (uncredited) as French officer offering a lift
John Longden (uncredited) as French officer requisitioning car
Manning Whiley (uncredited) as French officer shot by German spy
Robert Sansom (uncredited) as French telegraph operator
Bruno Barnabe (uncredited) as German spy, disguised as French soldier 'An Ambulance in France: Front-line Scenes at Teddington', Kinematograph Weekly, 5 June 1941, p.43.