Handsomely shot on location in Paris, Sidney Poitier appears as second player to Paul Newman's tense jazz musician Ram Bowen. Like a jazz piece, the film meanders at times, content to get where it's going without overt dramatic flourish, something which both helps and harms the film. Containing relatively sophisticated themes for Hollywood cinema, it nevertheless falls into the trap of being a serviceable film rather than a great one, a string of incidents in need of a more rigid plot.
The tagline for the film promised "A love-spectacular so exciting you feel it's personally happening to you", whereas the reality is, you'll probably just think it's happening to Newman and Poitier, who both had more significant and historically lasting films that same year. (The Hustler/A Raisin In the Sun). All this said, the cinematography by Christian Matras is beautiful, Louis Armstrong adds fun playing Louis Armstrong (called "Wild Man Moore") and Newman-Poitier is a pretty good screen pairing, even if Sidney does tower over the film's top billed star by five inches. Amusement can be gleaned by the film's conclusion, which sees both dump their girlfriends to be with each other.
The tagline for the film promised "A love-spectacular so exciting you feel it's personally happening to you", whereas the reality is, you'll probably just think it's happening to Newman and Poitier, who both had more significant and historically lasting films that same year. (The Hustler/A Raisin In the Sun). All this said, the cinematography by Christian Matras is beautiful, Louis Armstrong adds fun playing Louis Armstrong (called "Wild Man Moore") and Newman-Poitier is a pretty good screen pairing, even if Sidney does tower over the film's top billed star by five inches. Amusement can be gleaned by the film's conclusion, which sees both dump their girlfriends to be with each other.