Pasternak wrote "the critics were, I thought, unfair to Rene" and he felt "if Clair had made this same picture in France and it had come over here with a French soundtrack and the usual subtitles, the critical ladies and gentlemen would have been talking about "Gallic wit," "the deft French touch," and "Latin sauciness." As it was, they jumped on us hard for trying to do something a little different." He also felt that unconsciously "they berated Rene Clair for making films in this country instead of France, not realizing that Rene had come here in search of that freedom which his pictures have always sung."