Customer Reviews

Houseboat (Widescreen)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is one of those films that are made to capitalize on star power, get quick results at the box office, and then disappear into the land of forgotten films.

About a half hour into this debacle, which featured whiny children, predictable plotting, and overall lack of likable (or believable) characters, I was forced to just turn it off.

Houseboat was the first movie I ever saw in a drive-in. Imagine seeing Cary Grant and Sophia Loren dancing to a Sam Cooke love song on a screen the size of a football field. The wardrobe for the movie is stunning. When did we stop taking the time to dazzle with matching hats, gloves, etc.? Obvious beauty aside, what really impressed me was the award winning script. The explanation Cary Grant gives as a parent about death, and the kids dialogue and behavior rang true. The kids behaved like any children would when one parent dies, and an absentee parent appears to take them from the safe world of their grandparents. The kids were terrific in their roles. Cary Grant and Sophia Loren were superb considering she had just dumped him to marry her current husband. One wonders what would have happened if Cary and Sophia had really married. Would they have lived happily ever after like they did in Houseboat? Who knows. At least we can have that fantasy time and time again on DVD.

Ok so maybe this isn't Cary Grant's funniest comedy but I still enjoyed it and found things to laugh at, it is a sweet movie about a handsome widow with mischievous children who meets a beautiful Italian woman who agrees to be nanny to his children and kind of a housekeeper though she at first is not very good at cleaning and cooking and he doesn't agree with her views about taking care of children and the banter and the attraction between them is amusing. Cary Grant and Sophia Loren are both very good but so are the kids especially Paul Petersen from The Donna Reed Show. I highly recommend this charming movie! I used to have this movie on video but the tape was old and worn out so I think I will probably be getting the widescreen DVD.

HOUSEBOAT is one of my favorite movies. I remember my family taping it when I was about 7, and I loved watching it. Needless to say, when the new DVD version was released I instantly snapped it up!

The story is about a widowed Government official (Cary Grant) and his three unruly children. A chance meeting throws the beautiful Cinzia Zaccardi (lovely Sophia Loren) into their lives. Cinzia is the daughter of a prominent classical conductor, and is looking for a change of scene. When she decides to become the children's nanny, no-one is prepared for the hilarity and heartache that is to follow...

This is indeed a lovely family film, with a few shades of "The Sound of Music". The new DVD version offers an average-looking transfer of the film, with a photo gallery and two trailers as the extras.

Also starring Martha Hyer, Harry Guardino, Paul Petersen and Eduardo Cinanelli. (Single-sided, dual-layer disc).

The editorial reviews pass this off as a minor film with only the two stars - Cary Grant and Sophia Loren - making it worth your time. They are both great but this film has a little more going for it. Cary Grant is beyond the years when he would stand in the background and steal scenes with facial gestures, here he is well into his Hitchcock years. The 50s was a time of sophistication and pure charm for Cary and Sophia Loren was every thirteen year old boys fantasy.

The story is okay in that you know it will end with Cary and Sophia in each other's arms and everybody happy. But that's what a romantic comedy is and if you enjoy romantic comedies you will not be disappointed. Cary is taking on the responsibility of raising his three children alone on a houseboat and Sophia, running away from her famous orchestra conductor father, is the maid. The Maid! Can imagine Sophia as your maid? Or anybody's maid? Through kid problems, arguments, boyfriends, ups and downs, and country club dances it all ends well. It is the two stars that are the attraction here certainly, but wait; there's more. The film would remain a 3 star middle of the road film if it were not for the nice comedic bit by Harry Guardino and a great score. The score is not on a par with Doctor Zhivago by any means but it fits the film nicely and the lead song by Sam Cooke - Almost In Your Arms - is terrific. I bumped the film up a star for Harry Guardino and Sam Cooke's song.

Charming is the word that best describes this movie--two charming stars and three charming children act out a charming story in a charming landscape. Although probably not "great cinema" by anyone's standard, it provides for me a welcome 2-hour escape from the stresses of modern life. In this fantasy world, you never doubt that Sophia Loren's "fine Italian hand that can't cook, clean, or do the laundry" will put everything right and that everyone will live happily ever after.

Whenever I hear an ad for a modern movie that claims it will "change my life", I want to pull out an old movie like this whose ambition was simply to entertain.

Cary Grant and Sophia Loren performed their parts flawlessly. The plot, the props, the music, the lines were hopeless. Are we supposed to believe a foreign service officer would take his small children to a symphony concert? That the grown daughter of a world class conductor would sing the Bing-Bang-Bong song during the orchestra's performance? or any other time, for that matter? That Sophia professionally repaired and painted that houseboat all by herself in a couple of days while Cary was at the office? That a pitcher of water would be handy on the table on the porch just when necessary to use it to illustrate a moral principle? I'm not incapable of suspending belief, if only there's compensation for it. I only watched to the end because I was making out with my girlfriend during the movie. I'd have been better off watching "Godzilla 1985".

Houseboat takes me back to the old days of glorious movie entertainment. Sofia Loren and Cary Grant are such an unlikely pair, yet they strike sparks on the screen. Add delightful children and a luscious setting, and you have a movie you can watch with the entire family. A romance that makes you smile.

'Houseboat' is a throwback to the kind of sweet, happy comedies Cary Grant did in the late '40s-early '50s, and it foreshadows the domestic comedies James Stewart and Henry Fonda would do in the sixties. Granted, there is more romance (and with Sophia Loren as the objection of affection, Cary has it all OVER Jimmy and Hank!) but ultimately, it scores as a terrific family movie, as Loren, playing an inept but adorable housekeeper/nanny, wins the affection of widower Grant's kids, and awakens in him a more complete love than he was experiencing with his society girlfriend (played effectively by the beautiful Martha Hyer).

Living in a rundown houseboat to save on expenses, Grant and family lives had become a boring routine, until the arrival of Hurricane Loren, with her Italian philosophy, her singing, and her unmistakable femininity and sex appeal (which introduces oldest son Paul Peterson to the joys of puberty, and to daughter Mimi Gibson and younger son Charles Herbert a mother-figure they both needed). Grant is at first oblivious to her charms, but she is hard to ignore for long! The question then becomes, when will Cary 'wake up', and realize everything he needs is right on the houseboat?

Filmed after Grant and Loren's whirlwind affair during the filming of 'The Pride and the Passion', the film was a bittersweet experience for both stars, particularly shooting the wedding scene, as Grant still desperately wanted to marry Loren, but she had already decided to remain with longtime love Carlo Ponti. Viewers aware of the 'behind-the-scenes' story will appreciate the performances of the two leads even more!

After you watch 'Houseboat', catch the flipside of this story in Grant's later 'Father Goose', as a drunken reprobate with a boat who must deal with governess Leslie Caron and her charges! The two films make a fascinating double-feature, and showcases Cary Grant's amazing versatility!

Seen either way, 'Houseboat' is a delight!

Sophia Loren and Cary Grant team up in this hysterical movie. He's a widower with three children and his widow's sister after him (since she was four years old). Sophia is the daughter of a rich Italian Band conductor - she runs away because she's tired of being told what to do - and becomes the nanny for Grant. The only problem is she can't cook or clean. But the children love her. And soon Grant does too. Two things I learned from this movie: Never park your house on the railroad tracks, and always tie your house tightly to the dock.