I quite like this movie.
The story is written like a Restoration mistaken identity comedy (think Wycherly, Congreve or Farquahar) but without the low necklines and with much less bawdiness (yes, you may wonder what's left).
The lines given Saxon and Dee are pretty bad - and although Saxon does the best he can, I don't think Sandra Dee does an interesting job at all - she looks quite bored (if pretty). When they're on screen, this is incredibly dull.
Yet the adults, working with almost nothing, go all out and make this a pleasure -- you'll wish that the story were a variant of Unfaithfully Yours with Harrison or Kendall suspecting the other of infidelity and no children in sight.
Yet despite all,
-- the costumes and sets are just so beautiful --
-- Rex Harrison is in as finely comic a mode (don't expect his Henry IV or wonderful Julius Caesar here) as he's ever been - and that is VERY high praise --
-- Kay Kendall is a moviegoer's dream - stunningly beautiful, an exquisite comedic touch, wonderful with either a line or a pratfall. In movies like this, Genevieve, Les Girls, she is an aristocratic Lucille Ball if you can imagine that - as giddy, as wildly inventive -- but haute.
-- Angela Lansbury takes a thankless part and really gets into it - and Lansbury is superb.
So, sure, the story is gossamer, there aren't many amusing lines, but the panache brought by the director, costume and set designers, Harrison, Kendall and Lansbury combine to make this quite enjoyable.
There's something to be said for a movie that you want to see again and again simply because you wish you were there. I own relatively few movies, but this is one.
The story is written like a Restoration mistaken identity comedy (think Wycherly, Congreve or Farquahar) but without the low necklines and with much less bawdiness (yes, you may wonder what's left).
The lines given Saxon and Dee are pretty bad - and although Saxon does the best he can, I don't think Sandra Dee does an interesting job at all - she looks quite bored (if pretty). When they're on screen, this is incredibly dull.
Yet the adults, working with almost nothing, go all out and make this a pleasure -- you'll wish that the story were a variant of Unfaithfully Yours with Harrison or Kendall suspecting the other of infidelity and no children in sight.
Yet despite all,
- Minnelli makes the movie stunningly beautiful (you very much want to be there) with great rich colors, London shown in glorious sweeping color, and the movie goes swiftly with wonderful and amusing editing --
-- the costumes and sets are just so beautiful --
-- Rex Harrison is in as finely comic a mode (don't expect his Henry IV or wonderful Julius Caesar here) as he's ever been - and that is VERY high praise --
-- Kay Kendall is a moviegoer's dream - stunningly beautiful, an exquisite comedic touch, wonderful with either a line or a pratfall. In movies like this, Genevieve, Les Girls, she is an aristocratic Lucille Ball if you can imagine that - as giddy, as wildly inventive -- but haute.
-- Angela Lansbury takes a thankless part and really gets into it - and Lansbury is superb.
So, sure, the story is gossamer, there aren't many amusing lines, but the panache brought by the director, costume and set designers, Harrison, Kendall and Lansbury combine to make this quite enjoyable.
There's something to be said for a movie that you want to see again and again simply because you wish you were there. I own relatively few movies, but this is one.