Houseboat (1958)

Houseboat
Directed by Melville Shavelson
Written by Melville Shavelson and Jack Rose
1958/USA
Paramount Pictures
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Robert Winters: Who, Sir? Me, Sir?

Tom Winters: Yes, Sir. You, Sir. [/box]

I was pleasantly surprised by this 50’s rom-com.

Tom Winters’ (Cary Grant) ex-wife has just died leaving their three young children motherless.  The children’s maternal aunt is willing to take the boys but Tom is unwilling to see them be separated.  The children have seen him infrequently though and all are in various stages of mourning for their mother.  Tom tries taking them to his bachelor pad in Washington DC but this is clearly an unworkable situation.  He is in desperate need of a nanny.

Cinzia Zacarrdi (Sophia Loren) is the daughter of an Italian symphony conductor.  He wants to run every aspect of her life.    One night, Cinzia meets up with Robert, the youngest boy, who has run away and bonds with him.  Robert begs his father to hire Cinzia as the new maid.  She finally agrees.

Through a series of misadventures, this menage ends up moving into a dilapidated houseboat in Virginia.  It turns out Cinzia has zero homemaking skills.  Fortunately, she is talented at making a happy family.  The two adults are drawn to each other but the children’s aunt (Martha Heyer) is in love with Tom and threatens to throw a spanner in the works.

I thought this might be a bit too 50’s for my taste but I was entertained all the way through. Loren and Grant’s chemistry carries the movie.  Grant is more of his Mr. Blandings persona than the bon vivant in this.  We get to see Loren jitterbug !  The movie is light and frothy yet there is a bit of depth to the child psychology.

Houseboat was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Writing, Story and Screenplay – Written Directly for the Screen and Best Music, Original Song (“Almost in Your Arms” – Love Theme from Houseboat.

Trailer