Richard Quine should have taken a hint from Holden's character Richard Benson], who writes his movie, takes a long sober look at what he has wrought, and burns it." Turner Classic Movies notes that "critics uniformly panned" the film, but said it "has earned a reputation as a guilty pleasure for those who enjoy in-joke movie spoofs and an absurdist storyline played out against the glorious backdrop of the City of Light". Film-within-the-film In one scene, Holden's character remarks that the film-in-the-film could have a theme song by Frank Sinatra. Sinatra's voice is heard singing the laughable lyric, "The girl who stole the Eiffel Tower also stole my heart" over the fictional credit sequence. My Fair Lady is mentioned as being the same story as Frankenstein. Hepburn would film the movie adaptation of that musical a year after shooting this film. This line comes moments after a reference to a prostitute with "a heart of gold", which can be seen as an allusion to Hepburn's character, Holly Golightly, in Breakfast at Tiffany's. Paperback novelization In February 1964, Dell Publishing issued a paperback novelization (with a cover price of 40¢) by then-veteran tie-in author Saul Cooper. There may have been some editorial confusion in coordinating the copyediting and design stages of the book's production, however, because the byline on the cover is "Michael Milner" (Cooper's occasional pseudonym), while on the title page, the byline is that of fictional screenwriter "Richard Benson", the story's male lead. The Benson attribution is amusingly fitting, as Cooper's novelistic approach was to narrate the story in the first person, using Benson's voice and perspective. But that's what makes it seem to be a publishing glitch that the cover byline should be yet another pseudonym, rather than a follow-through with the literary conceit. See also List of American films of 1964 References External links 1964 films 1964 romantic comedy films 1960s English-language films American remakes of French films American romantic comedy films Films about screenwriters Films directed by Richard Quine Films scored by Nelson Riddle Films set in Paris Films shot at Billancourt Studios Films shot in Paris Films with screenplays by George Axelrod Paramount Pictures films 1960s American films