Love in the Afternoon

Ariane Chavasse (Hepburn) is the daughter of a private detective (Maurice Chevalier), who has been hired by Mr. X, (John McGiver), a suspicious husband, to find out who his wife (Lise Bourdin) is seeing on the side. When he discovers the woman in the grip of millionaire playboy Frank Flannagan (Gary Cooper), he informs the predictably livid husband who loudly announces his intention to kill the interloper while Ariane is eavesdropping. She rushes off to warn Flannagan of his impending demise, which begins a series of afternoon meetings where she adopts the pose of a jaded lover and woman of the world. Intially amused by the ingenue's charade, the middle-aged roue gradually becomes interested in the young woman, and after she disappears, becomes obsessed with finding her. After he unwittingly tells the story to the girl's father in a steam room, the detective agrees to help Flannagan find her. Wilder's sophisticated romantic fable, shot in spectacular Parisian locations, including the Opera and the elegant Chateau de Vitry, is nearly stolen by Chevalier as the protective pere.