I had been meaning to re-visit HOUSEBOAT for some time, as I last saw it when I was 12 back in 1958 and I was pleased I enjoyed it just as much this time. It is a very pleasing comedy with Cary Grant in his prime, as he was back then in the late '50s (he was going on to NORTH BY NORTHWEST next) and Sophia Loren of course in her early 20s, as she was then when co-starring with all those older guys like Gable, Ladd, Wayne and Cary. It seems this script was originally by Grant's then wife Betsy Drake, but the script was considerably revised when Loren came on board! Melville Shavelson keeps it nicely afloat. Cary as the widower moving to the houseboat has some good moments with the children, particularly Paul Petersen as the oldest (Petersen went on, as per his biography on IMDB, to work for the rights of child actors). Sophia delighted us back then as Cinzia the fabulous Italian girl who escapes from her music conductor father and meets up with the youngest son at the funfair - soon she is the new maid, despite being a socialite on the run! The run-down houseboat soon looks a treat, no wonder country club girl Martha Hyer is worried! She chooses a horrible gold gown for Cinzia to wear but it soon looks sensational when Loren is wearing it ... this is all just a very nice treat, and probably the best of Loren's American films of the late '50s. Of course by then her so-called relationship with Grant was over ...
Back in Italy for 1960's IT STARTED IN NAPLES, also helmed by Shavelson, is equally still very enjoyable as stuffy Clark Gable arrives in Naples to sort out the estate of his late brother, only to find there is a cute streetwise kid who lives with aunt Sophia ... it is all very colourful as we explore Naples, Sophia sings and dances in a nightclub, the kid stays out late and Vittorio De Sica is on hand to help Sophia in court. I loved it back then and it still works now, despite Gable really being too old here (he must have been about 30 years older than Loren) - this was his penultimate movie as back in America he began THE MISIFTS ...
THE LAST TIME I SAW PARIS was one I saw as a kid and I remember being upset by the scene where Elizabeth Taylor is locked out in the rain and then dies very prettily in hospital (just like Kim Novak in THE EDDY DUCHIN STORY - traumatic for a 10 year old!). It may not be very F Scott Fitzgerald but in 1954 Taylor looked astounding and is ravishing here [she was Mrs Wilding and the mother of two at the time and this one of her 4 films this year] - but whose bright idea was it to team her with Van Johnson? He is tolerable in something like BRIGADOON but just seems all wrong here, stuffy and boring and just not interesting and so is the self-pitying character ... Donna Reed and Walter Pigeon and a very young Roger Moore are on the sidelines and the young moppet is very resistable!
THE TAMING OF THE SHREW is one I had not seen since its release in 1967 and its been rather forgotten but the BBC showed it as part of their Taylor tribute (along with a good new documentary) and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Taylor looks great and has some nice moments - despite being rather shrill in her shrew scenes - and she looks like she is enjoying herself. Good cast of English thespians too, it is always a pleasure to see Michael Hordern mugging, and there's young Michael York, Cyril Cusack, Victor Spinetti etc. and of course Zeffirelli makes it all look terrific. I am not sure how much Shakespeare is left in the movie, but it certainly made the 2004 film of THE MERCHANT OF VENICE (which I learned and played at college, on after it) look dull by comparison!
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