In this mystery thriller from Betty E. Box, producer of the exciting The Clouded Yellow, Jean Simmons and her brother David Tomlinson travel to Paris on vacation. It takes place in the 1800s, back before folks were allowed to walk up the Eiffel Tower, so it would have been highly unusual and improper for a young woman to travel alone. They check into a bustling hotel, and in the commotion, David forgets to sign the register, leaving Jean to sign it alone. They unpack, go to dinner, and then retire to their separate rooms for the night.The next morning, Jean goes across the hall to wake her brother, but his room has disappeared. Literally, there's nothing but wallpaper in its place. The hotel proprietress claims Jean checked in alone, and none of the staff remember her brother's existence. Dumb dumb dumb. . .So Long at the Fair is a very entertaining mystery that will keep you tense until the end. It has a very British feel to it, because besides Jean Simmons, everyone keeps a stiff upper lip despite the very strange situation. Jean Simmons does a very good job as an innocent girl trying to take matters into her own hands for the first time, and joining the supporting cast is Dirk Bogarde, Honor Blackman, and Cathleen Nesbitt. Pick this one up when you're in the mood for a Hitchcock-esque film minus the psychosis and adding in beautiful dresses.

Brilliant thriller of suspense increasing all the way, until the absurd mystery ends up in a most surprising explanation. The best mysteries are the deepest and most inexplicable ones that all the same finally reveal a most logical solution. Jean Simmons' situation is really quite upsetting, she couldn't be more helpless in her predicament, but fortunately there is Dirk Bogarde at hand in a typical role of his as an English painter in Paris. The French people are also quite convincing, and fortunately they even speak French. It's easy for a foreigner to get lost in Paris with always strange things going on and bodies being fished up from the Seine almost every other day, and here there is even a world exhibition going on with the premiere of the Eiffel Tower and an awful balloon accident on top of that disposing of a key witness to add to poor Jean Simmons troubles... It's an ingenious intrigue, and every detail is important. It's vital that you don't miss anything of what is said in any conversation, since every piece in this puzzle is indispensable to the whole picture.

Fascinating film from Britain's Rank/Gainsborough Pictures, slyly written by Hugh Mills and Anthony Thorne, has young woman from Naples traveling with her stuffy brother to Paris in 1889 for the Exposition, only to awaken the next morning in their hotel to find her sibling strangely missing. Plot-line has since been well-trodden, and probably wasn't completely fresh in 1950, however the mechanics of the situation are engrossing due in no small part to the direction and performances. Jean Simmons, in both period dress and costume for the festivities, looks very beautiful and handles the high drama with aplomb (though perhaps giving her Vicky Barton more dialogue might have made the character even sharper). Dirk Bogarde, as a painter who met the missing man quite by chance the night he vanished, is excellent teaming up with Simmons to play detective. Stylish, enjoyable film plays fair with the audience to a large degree; a few far-fetched incidents, including a head-scratching balloon disaster, don't detract from the fun. *** from ****

Not many people know that the basic plot of this film is based on a real life event that took place during the 1889 Great Exhibition in Paris. There are major differences of course; for a start, the young woman arrived with her mother and not brother as depicted in the film. Secondly, they arrived directly from India and not Italy. Ironically, the 1955 TV Episode 'Into Thin Air' - part of Alfred Hitchcock presents - is far closer to the truth than the 1950 feature film.But I agree to the change of plot because casting the missing person as the brother gives the story more flexibility. That said, the script should have been far more exciting than the rather bland fare that the director had to cope with. There was plenty of scope for a brilliant thriller with plenty of red herrings, something which Hitchcock would have exploited with glee - as he already had done in his 'The Lady Vanishes' and would do so again in the aforementioned TV episode.