Houseboat

Cary Grant plays a widower trying to get to know his three children again, and Sophia Loren plays the Italian woman who joins them as a housekeeper. What they end up living in is a decaying houseboat moored on the river. The story behind the film is more arresting than the one in it. The original screenplay was written by Betsy Drake, Grant's wife at the time, and Grant had intended her for the lead. His affair with Loren broke that plan. The script was rewritten around Loren by Jack Rose and Melville Shavelson, and Drake's name never appeared on the film. The rewritten version was nominated for the Oscar for Best Original Story and Screenplay. By the time cameras rolled the affair was over, and Loren married Carlo Ponti by proxy while still shooting. None of that tension reaches the screen. What survives is a polite, sweet and thoroughly harmless family comedy. Shavelson directed. Who it is for: viewers who want fifties Hollywood family comedy and the novelty of Grant and Loren together. Who it is not for: anyone after sharp comedy or genuine conflict.