Grant plays a Brit in Tokyo a couple of days before the 1964 Olympic games. There's no place to stay, but he wangles a spot in Samantha Eggar's tiny apartment. Then Jim Hutton arrives on the scene. Hutton is a competitor in the games, but there's no Olympic Village, and Hutton also needs a place to stay. Grant sublets his share of the apartment to Hutton. Hutton and Eggar are complete opposites and don't get along. And besides, she's already in a relationship. Guess what happens.
Yes, like Father Goose, this movie is utterly predicable, and I wouldn't want it any other way. Apparently some people find this a kind of letdown and not the best way for Grant to end his career. They're wrong of course. It's a very funny movie. Grant is as dashing and charming as ever, even though he's growing older, and it's fun to see him pass the leading man role to someone else. Hutton and Eggar are almost as good.
Here's something typical, I suppose. Hutton goes to great lengths in the movie to conceal the event he's competing in. So I won't tell you. I'll give you a hint, though: Think Lawrence Block. Or you could just look at the poster.
5 comments:
Or you could just think of the title of the movie. I remember seeing this is the theater when it first came out and enjoying it a lot. I liked Jim Hutton a lot too - more than his son.
Jeff
Not as good as the earlier version with Jean Arthur but I will take it. Jim Hutton died so young.
I've read that Cary Grant made this movie as a way of transitioning into being an older character actor. In the original movie, The More The Merrier, his role was played by Charles Coburn.
THe problem was, when Walk, Don't Run came out, nobody wanted Cary Grant to be an older character actor.
Or at least that's what everybody told him.
And that's why Cary Grant decided to quit acting.
Thus, Conventional Wisdumb.
Be honest, folks - we all would have loved to see Cary Grant growing old gracefully (far more so than any of us would (or are, comes to that)).
Demographics be damned!
I for one would've enjoyed more Cary Grant movies, no matter his age.
It's finally sunk in, however, that the Hutton men are responsible for much of what's good about the two best a/v series adapting two notable classic detective fiction series. Though the radio NERO WOLFE had its points, however rounded they were in the form of Mr. Greenstreet.
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