Walk, Don't Run

Director: Charles Walters
Format: Color
Studio: Columbia/Tristar Studios
Video Release Date: October 14, 1997

Cast:

Cary Grant ... Sir William Rutland
Samantha Eggar ... Christine Easton
Jim Hutton ... Steve Davis
John Standing ... Julius P. Haversack
Miiko Taka ... Aiko Kurawa
Ted Hartley ... Yuri Andreyovitch
Ben Astar ... Dimitri
George Takei ... Police Captain
Teru Shimada ... Mr. Kurawa
Lois Kiuchi ... Mrs. Kurawa
David Draper ... Swedish Athlete
Holger Abro ... Swedish Athlete
Andre Hemmers ... German Athlete
Dale Ishimoto ... Plainclothesman
Bob Kino ... Assistant Hotel Manager
Yangi Kitadani ... Bit Part
Frank Kumagai ... Plainclothesman
George Matsui ... Hotel Desk Clerk
Craig Matsunaga ... Boy
Rollin Moriyama ... Hotel Manager
Mori Moto ... Bath Attendant
Monty O'Grady ... Bit Part
Roy K. Ogata ... Bit Part
Bob Okazaki ... Plant Manager
Randy Okazaki ... Cab Driver
Leonidas Ossetynski
Ken Parker ... American Athlete
Mel Profit ... American Athlete
Alex Rodine ... Swedish Athlete
Bill Saito ... Japanese Athlete
Bert Santos ... Mexican Athlete
Lukas Shimatsu ... Bit Part
James Stewart ... Himself, in scene from 'The Man from Laraime'
Roy Taguchi ... Hotel Desk Clerk
James Yagi ... Jimmy, Rutland's Driver
C.K. Yang ... Chinese Athlete
Alan Chee ... Bit Part
Sonja Haney ... Swedish Athlete
Sonya Harrison ... American Athlete
Susan Ikeda ... Japanese Waitress
Miyoshi Jingu ... Bit Part
June Kawai ... Japanese Waitress
Lei Kim ... Bit Part
Miko Mayama ... Waitress
Irene Mizushima ... Bath Attendant
Noriko ... Bath Attendant
Gail Peters ... American Athlete
Peggy Rea ... Russian Shot Putter
Kay Shimatsu ... Assistant Hotel Manager
Anna Shin ... Bath Attendant
Patty Siu ... Girl
Yuki Tani ... Bath Attendant
Jane Tochihara ... Japanese Mother
Jodee Tochihara ... Japanese Twin
Wendee Tochihara ... Japanese Twin
Isabel Boniface ... Mexican Athlete
Ilona Wilson ... German Athlete
Sheri Yamasaki ... Hostess
Vickey Cason ... Contortionist

A British business man, Sir William Rutland (Cary Grant), faced with a shortage of available rooms due to the 1964 Olympic games in Tokyo, shares an apartment with a young lady, Christine Easton (Samantha Eggar, a diplomat's fiance), and an American athlete, Steve Davis (Jim Hutton).

The movie is based on George Steven's "The More the Merrier," and is the last movie that the 62-year-old Cary Grant ever made. Many thought that he would go into producing, but he got entirely out of the industry. This was his "swan song."

This was a good one to quit on, if Grant had to quit. It was typical Cary Grant--a million laughs, and fun throughout with Cary Grant consistently himself: relaxed, suave, and impeccable, never taking himself seriously and always professional. He was one of Hollywood's greatest, no doubt about it!

Joseph (Joe) Pierre

What is interesting are scenes of now largely-vanished Tokyo in the mid-1960s (note that the Okura Hotel, though, hasn't changed at all!). Exaggerated scenes of bowing, the apparent disgust of eating raw octopus, etc, are nowadays really not amusing.

The film is pervaded by that tiresome style of American acting where the characters more or less yell at each other in a bad-tempered way (for instance when they can't get the coffee pot to work), this being construed as 'comedy.'

Essentially, what we have here is a "comedy" based on the alleged hilarity that ensues when a young woman shares her Tokyo apartment with two men during the 1964 summer Olympics. Pretty Christine Easton (Samantha Egger), a British expatriate living in Japan, had advertised for a roommate, but forgot to specify a gender preference. As a result, Sir William Rutland (Cary Grant), a visiting British businessman answers her ad and, ignoring her protests of the impropriety of a man living with her, promptly pays his share of the rent and moves right in. The next day while Sir William is attending to his business he meets Steve Davis (Jim Hutton), an American architect who is also an Olympic athlete (although what event he is participating in is kept a secret until near the end of the movie). For reasons that are never explained, Sir William befriends Steve, learns that Steve has no place to stay, and that leads to Steve also moving into Christine's tiny apartment. Sir William then decides that Christine's British fiance is a bore, who doesn't deserve such a "babe" as Christine, and so he starts manuevering Steve and Christine to get together.

If you don't know that the idea of two men sharing an apartment with a woman was considered shocking in 1966 then most of the "comedy" of this movie will fly right over your head. The "comic" premise of this movie is based on showing how unmarried people can co-exist in a cramped apartment. The movie wastes an inordinate amount of time around the idea of "bathroom scheduling" by showing how Sir William trys to squeeze in his bathroom time in between Christine's. It's overlong and boring the first time, but the film then repeats it by doing it again when Steve joins the apartment. Grant's amazing gifts as a comedic actor are the only thing that make those scenes watchable and even then just barely so.

This was Cary Grant's last movie and it's a shame that such a talent left on such a pedestrian note. However, "Walk, Don't Run" probably reinforced Grant's decision to quit. Here was an actor who, unlike many of his comtemporaries, had remained a believable romantic lead into his late 50's. Yet, here Grant is playing cupid for the superbland Jim Hutton. Grant seems to be having fun playing for the first time in his career the guy who doesn't get the girl and his look of chagrin when one of Christine's co-worker's tells him pointblank that she didn't even think that he and Christine are romantically linked is probably the funniest part of the movie. However, Grant was smart to get out after this movie if these were the roles he was going to be offered as he advanced into his 60's.

"Walk, Don't Run" was a product of Hollywood's dying studio system. It shows that Hollywood's self-imposed moral production code was breaking down as one hears Cary Grant say a curse word for the first time on-screen and the film makes no-bones that sex is a topic of discussion on several occassions. Also, one has to wonder if Sir William's befriending Steve was another nudge-and-wink reference to homosexuality that were occasionally sneaked into movies by closeted screenwriters and directors back in the day. Think about it- an older man starts following around a complete stranger, who just happens to be a young, handsome athlete, and then invites the young man to go to a bathhouse with him!

Overall, "Walk, Don't Run" is an extremely lightweight romantic comedy. The comedy is mostly based on a dated premise and the romantic chemistry between pretty, prim Samantha Egger and the bland Jim Hutton is minimal. Despite having Stanley Donen at the director's helm, this movie is only notable for being the last of one of Hollywood's greatest stars.