Houseboat Review

Houseboat
Tom Winston, a widower, is trying to understand and raise three precocious children alone. He gets a little unexpected help from Cinzia, when the children decide she is be the new maid. She is actually an Italian socialite who is trying to get away from her overprotective father.

by William Thomas |
Published on
Release Date:

19 Nov 1958

Running Time:

110 minutes

Certificate:

U

Original Title:

Houseboat

Widowed Cary Grant hires bubbly Sophia Loren as his housekeeper, and the untamed Italian girl wins over first his regulation bratty Hollywood kids and then him, battering away with pasta until he finally succumbs to her top-heavy charms.

A vulgar formulaic 1958 retread — all picture paint colours and feeble bosom jokes — of the 30s romantic comedy, with even the eternally spry Grant unable to raise much suavity with a dull script and low energy performances around him and with Loren floundering around like a wild horse things get excruciatingly cutesy by the close as if to make you hope for tragedy.

A routine rom-com, that rears its head on TV once every few months, and the kind of movie they're still making, but probably shouldn't.

Formulaic schmaltz with a half-hearted Grant trying his best with a below par script..
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