Love in the Afternoon (1957)

87% of critics liked it
(23 reviews)
79% of users liked it
(6,987 ratings)

Gary Cooper more or less repeats his international-roue characterization from 1938's Bluebeard's Eighth Wife for the 1957 romantic comedy Love in the Afternoon (both films were co-scripted by Billy Wilder, who also directed the latter picture). Audrey Hepburn co-stars as the daughter of Parisian… More Gary Cooper more or less repeats his international-roue characterization from 1938's Bluebeard's Eighth Wife for the 1957 romantic comedy Love in the Afternoon (both films were co-scripted by Billy Wilder, who also directed the latter picture). Audrey Hepburn co-stars as the daughter of Parisian private eye Maurice Chevalier. Investigating the amorous activities of Cooper, Chevalier relates what he's discovered to cuckolded husband John McGiver, who declares that he's going after Cooper with a pistol. Overhearing this conversation, Hepburn rushes off to rescue Cooper. She keeps him far away from McGiver by adopting a "woman of the world" pose. Cooper quickly sees through this charade; still, she is fascinated by Hepburn and attempts to relocate her after she disappears. Meeting Chevalier one day, Cooper relates the story of the Mystery Woman, never dreaming that he is describing Chevalier's daughter. Equally in the dark, Chevalier offers to locate the elusive Hepburn. Once he's tumbled to the fact that his quarry is his own flesh and blood, Chevalier advises Hepburn against contemplating a relationship with the much-older Cooper. She, of course, fails to heed this warning, setting the stage for an ultraromantic finale. Love in the Afternoon is highlighted by a superb running gag involving a quartet of gypsy violinists, who insist upon dogging Cooper's trail wherever he goes-including a steam bath. Love in the Afternoon was adapted by Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond from the novel Ariane by Claude Anet. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: G, 2 hr. 6 min.
Directed By: Billy Wilder
Written By: Billy Wilder, I. A. L. Diamond
Genres: Romance, Classics, Comedy

In Theaters: Jan 1, 1957 Limited
On DVD: Jan 8, 2002
Studio: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment

Critic Reviews

Variety Staff, Variety
The production holds enchantment and delight in substantial quantity.
Don Druker, Chicago Reader
As Andrew Sarris says, not without its cruelties, but not without its beauties as well.
Andrew Sarris, New York Observer
It's the closest Wilder ever came to Ernst Lubitsch.
Bosley Crowther, New York Times
This film was produced by Mr. Wilder for Allied Artists -- in black-and-white. It is a hit.
Walter Chaw, Film Freak Central
a nigh interminable flick short on laughs and long on awful montages and self-satisfaction
David Cornelius, DVDTalk.com
It's not a great film, but it is an endearing one.
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com
Though not as charming or touching as Sabrina, Wilder's 1957 romantic comedy teams Gary Cooper and Audrey Hepburn and serves as a good star vehicle for both.
, TV Guide's Movie Guide
Love in the Afternoon had great locations going for it. It also had the winsome charm of Hepburn, the elfin puckishness of Chevalier, a literate script by Wilder and Diamond, and an airy feeling that wafted the audience along.
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
It was hard to get excited about such an overlong dreary tale, where Cooper was miscast and the champagne fizzles.
Geoff Andrew, Time Out
An over-long and only spasmodically amusing romantic comedy...
Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
It's quite long, Hepburn sports one of her worst hairstyles, and Cooper and Hepburn's glaring age difference (28 years) is distracting, but this is a wonderful, charming romantic comedy nonetheless.
Steve Crum, Kansas City Kansan
Charming, romantic comedy with Coop and Audrey Hepburn.
Jeffrey M. Anderson, San Francisco Examiner
Wilder attempts to do Lubitsch with mixed but charming results.
Ken Hanke, Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)
Ultra-chic Wilder.

Read all 14 critic reviews

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

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Featured Audience Ratings

Spencer S

The premise, that of a gamine and inexperienced French girl infatuated with an American playboy, to the point of enchanting him and foiling a murder attempt, was genius. Audrey Hepburn plays a darling cellist, the daughter of a detective (Chevalier) who comes across a chance to save… More
The premise, that of a gamine and inexperienced French girl infatuated with an American playboy, to the point of enchanting him and foiling a murder attempt, was genius. Audrey Hepburn plays a darling cellist, the daughter of a detective (Chevalier) who comes across a chance to save the dashingly handsome Frank Flannagan (Cooper) from an angered husband. With an air of mystery around her, Hepburn lies about her own sexual prowess in order to drive Flannagan into envy at the thought that the two are evenly matched. Though Wilder made the film into the cute romantic comedy it was meant to be, his own misgivings about the film were correct. Though Hepburn is perfectly cast, Cooper feels a tad out of his element, used to playing the hero in Westerns. Cooper never quite fits in when he's cast in comedies, and his stiff performance seemed the result of yet another awkward casting. The ending (for American audiences) includes an aside by Chevalier that Hepburn and Cooper are not living in sin, but married in New York. It feels patronizing to a modern audience, and if ever there is a director's cut, it should be discarded.
Dean M

Wonderful romantic comedy with Audrey Hepburn as a lovestruck conservatory student who pretends to be just as much a cosompolitan love for millionaire American playboy.
Veronique K

it's more of a billy wilder satire on the modern-day american don juan who's infatuated with the parisian transiet romances without commitments than just an audrey hepburn romantic classic. as "sarbrina", hepburn plays an ingenune (again!) falling for the… More
it's more of a billy wilder satire on the modern-day american don juan who's infatuated with the parisian transiet romances without commitments than just an audrey hepburn romantic classic. as "sarbrina", hepburn plays an ingenune (again!) falling for the upper-class playboy gary cooper. obeserving senile cooper frivolously flirts with youthfully fair hepburn leaves you peculiarly wondrous about his attraction to her... a daydreaming schoolgirl who reads adultery cases as touching romantic stories decides to meet the "authentically fictional character" she's read about all her life in her father's "library". she's like a bored junvile who relishes her drably dry life with aficinado-alike enthusiasm toward romantic illusions ...one day she rushes to rescue her dream character from being slaughtered in the hotel room just to preserve her romantic illusions from being obliterated, then as her dream man kisses her randomly, her heart is taken away for good. the character of cooper's mr. flannagan is wilder's mockery to americanism: he's an egoistic arbitrary man in his elder years but romances like an adolescent boy who flatters himself for being "the one who loves and runs aways but lives to love for another day", besides there's no really love except the temporal conquests of excitements, but after his purpose's served, those women are littered like disposable goods. his americanistic naivety obscures such cruelty in his mindset since he always assumes that he could pop in like pepsi cola without giving himself away to anyone out of his self-protective bachelor selfishness. as one dialogue from arianne filled with acid tongue: ""They're very odd people, you know. When they're young, they have their teeth straightened, their tonsils taken out and gallons of vitamins pumped into them. Something happens to their insides! They become immunized, mechanized, air-conditioned and hydromatic. I'm not even sure whether he has a heart"".....""What is he? A creature from outer space?""..."no, he's an american." the irony is that she has to fake to be something she's totally not just to gain his interests for her or arouse his jealousy or shake his pride as retribution by also belittling him as some conquered object without too much worth....the whole flick is more bittersweet than romantic....she's secretly bewailing his casanova fickleness but meanwhile she has to conceal her frailty then comes up with new strategies to stir him...he's utterly fascinated by her becuz of her reluctance to bare herself that stimulates his wishes to penetrate or explore her mystery that she's aware of as well....two are toying with some psychological guerrila, attempted to break through each other's fence....her relationship with flannagan is built upon these provoking deceptions to shield her true helplessness in a world filled with disillusions....as for mr. flannagan, it's more out of morbidly shallow curiosity to dig the truth out of her as trophy. the movie is so bitterly cynical at its pinnacle as the detective father advises flannagan to cut arianne loose when flannagan's about to dismiss him by money then shocked by the fact that he's her father "give her a break, monsieur, she's too young, don't dump her in the gutter like the rest of others"..then flannagan silences with the implicit shame toward his own immorality....it's also agonizing at most when she pursues after the train perilously and tells those tall tales of affairs to him with yearning tears in her eyes while he's standing at the traingate shamefully aware that she only loves him and there's never been another man, out of his frivolosity, she has to lie to be with him...then eventually our don juan has decided to be a mensch that is almost surprisingly moving. furher, the white carnation hepburn takes from cooper's jacket is the blatant symbol of the purity of a girl's first love, and she even freezes it in the icebox girlishly as if she wanna restore what she has had with him even she's conscious that it's an un-requited love only from her side since mr. flannagan is disabled to love....it's so realistically tragic but intoxicatingly sorrowful as a girl's first love...even somehow this love only exists in the afternnon...with the fetching waltz of "the fascination"....
Michael G

Old men with little to no personality ogling Audrey Hepburn freaks me out.
Anastasia B

Gary Cooper is a bit too old to play the popular bon-viveur believably, and Audrey Hepburn is here a bit too young to pass for the experienced broad her character is angling for - but all in all, the movie works out because of a quite fun script and some good touches here and there by… More
Gary Cooper is a bit too old to play the popular bon-viveur believably, and Audrey Hepburn is here a bit too young to pass for the experienced broad her character is angling for - but all in all, the movie works out because of a quite fun script and some good touches here and there by the hand of the master (Wilder). It does not stand out in the filmography of anyone of the above, but it's a welcome addition.
Sunil J

Probably one of the lesser films for either Billy Wilder or Audrey Hepburn.

Read all 6 featured audience ratings

Cast

            Gary Cooper as Frank Flannagan

            Audrey Hepburn as Ariane Chavasse

            Maurice Chevalier as Claude Chavasse

            John McGiver as Monsieur X

            Van Doude as Michel

            Lisa Bourdin as Mme. X

            Paul Bonifas as Commissioner of Police

            Leila Croft as Swedish Twin

            Filo as Flannagan's Chauffeur

            Moustache as Butcher

            Bernard Musson as Undertaker

            Minerva Pious as Maid at the Ritz

            Marcelle Praince as Rich Woman

            Betty Schneider
            
            Olga Valéry  as Lady Hotel Guest

            Audrey Wilder as Brunette

            Alexandre Trauner as Artist

            Guy Delorme as Gigolo

            Jacques Ary as Lover on Right Bank

            Eve Marley
            
            Charles Bouillaud as Valet at the Ritz

            Valerie Croft as Swedish Twin

            Gregoire Gromoff as Doorman at the Ritz

            Charles Lemontier
            
            Christian Lude
            
            Lise Bourdin
            
            Maurice Chavalier
            
See full cast