Heralded by notices like "The French reply to Gone with the Wind,'" the latest Gallic sereon offering matches previous imports in honesty and verve. Cut from four hours to two and a half, "Children of Paradise" still lacks the poignant simplicity of "The Well-digger's Daughter," but makes up for it in a vertical spread of character from shaming beggars to Counts in Turkish baths.

The picture is set in Paris a hundred years ago. A number of strangers in a fiesta crowd are thrown together by fate. Years later, all changed by love and frustration, they are again lost to each other in the crowd. That is the end. Centering around one of the most fascinating theaters ever seen on the screen, the story runs all the way from light-hearted love-making to a Pagliacchio-like tragedy that is dramatic without being farcical.

Discarding the Hollywood leer in its attitude toward sex. "Children of Paradise" is refreshing in its humorous frankness. The characters, all well-acted, reach three-dimensionality through a characteristically French depth and intensity of emotion. The tenuousness of the plot is also increased by the cutting, which leaves the motivation for the climax a little too thin to be convincing.

Reproducing an historical setting realistically, "Children of Paradise" avoids the sentimentality that usually surrounds the screen portrayal of a large European city in the last century. The impressionistic atmosphere is sustained, but there is nothing of the picture book about it or any other part of the movie.