| Major Cast | |
|---|---|
| Tony Curtis | as Carlo Cofield |
| Claudia Cardinale | as Laura Califatti |
| Robert Webber | as Rod Prescott |
| Joanna Barnes | as Diane Prescott |
| Sharon Tate | as Malibu |
| David Draper | as Harry Hollard |
| Mort Sahl | as Sam Lingonberry |
| Dub Taylor | as Electrician |
| Ann Elder | as Millie Gunder |
| Chester Yorton | as Ted Gunder |
| Reg Lewis | as Monster |
| Marc London | as Fred Barker |
| Douglas Henderson | as Henderson |
| Sarah Selby | as Ethyl |
| Mary Grace Canfield | as Seamstress |
| MPAA Rating: | A |
| Production Companies: | Filmways Pictures |
| Distributor: | Warner Archive (2011) (USA) (DVD) |
| Release Date (USA): | 6/20/1967 |
| Lifetime Box Office: | $1.25M |
| Production Budget: | N/A |
Arriving at the beach in Malibu, California, Carlo Cofield parks his Volkswagen at an overlook and unpacks his lunch. Sitting on the stone wall, he looks over his shoulder and sees Laura Califatti struggling with an easel and canvas down on the sand. Finally, disgusted, she flings the canvas into the sea and returns to her car, parked next to Carlo's. As she drives away, her fender brushes the VW and sends it rolling down the slope. Eventually it careens across a lower bend in the road just in front of Laura's car and a bus filled with bodybuilders. It overturns, spilling Carlo's possessions on the shoulder of the road. Carlo, having tried and failed to stop it and tumbled down to the same spot, stands up groggily to see Laura remonstrating in Italian with the bodybuilders. She lights a cigarette and tosses the match aside. It ignites the gasoline leaking from the VW. Consternation erupts as Carlo tries to save something of his, setting his pants on fire in the process. Again, he fails.
Carlo, bereft of everything, asks Laura about insurance. She invites him up to her house, promising to find the papers, and when she can't lets him spend the night on her couch. During the night Rod Prescott, Laura's lover, comes to the door. He finds Carlo hiding on the patio and sends him down to the beach with a blanket.
In the morning, Carlo wakes to a surreal scene. The bodybuilders are working out nearby, several surfers are crowding each other offshore, a gymnast is practicing an uneven bars routine, and a woman named Malibu is bouncing on a trampoline. Carlo discards his shirt and his tattered pants and goes for a swim — whereupon he is immediately conked by an incoming surfboard. Rescued, he recovers to find Malibu giving him artificial respiration. She is beautiful; he is smitten.
So begins Carlo's return to prosperity. He borrows some of Rod's clothes from Laura's house, takes a letter to a client of Rod's swimming pool company, and enveigles his way into a sales job with the company. Along the way he contrives a way to separate Malibu from her partner Harry, a bodybuilder. Meanwhile Laura, in an attempt to help Carlo find lodging, involves him in an improbable deal for a house and car. The house eventually slides down the hill during a rainstorm, improbably remaining intact, and the three couples inside (it's complicated) not only survive but reconcile.
This is one of a spate of romantic comedies Tony Curtis made in the middle 1960s. It is, in my opinion, slight. It has an improbable plot which basically throws people together so they can play off each other. They do this quite well, admittedly. But that is to be expected; they are all accomplished actors.
A great deal about the film seems contrived. Carlo doesn't try to stop his car by climbing inside and applying the brakes; instead, he climbs on top of it — and then jumps free as it leaves the road. The beach scene that he wakes to next morning has many looped sequences: we see the same arrangement of surfers repeatedly riding a wave, and a little girl passes several times from right to left along the edge of the surf. The bodybuilders are stereotypically weak-minded and self-absorbed. The main characters pass from animosity to agreement with no apparent effort, and the deals they make (like the deal that gets Carlo his house and car) are unlikely in the extreme. The skydiving scene is pure slapstick as Carlo, thrown from the plane without a parachute, is saved by Malibu — who still manages to land in the pool, successfully completing the promotional stunt Carlo arranged. The final strain to credulity is the arrival of Carlo's house intact on the beach, even though upside down, and the uninjured state of its occupants. It even miraculously reacquires a supply of electricity. In short, this is a mediocre film. However, it is enjoyable a time or two.
My Rating:
4 out of 10
Capsule review: In this very contrived romantic comedy, improbable characters interact in improbable ways, finally surviving improbably unscathed inside an improbable house1 that tumbles down a steep hillside to the beach without collapsing around them. Despite these absurdities, it is fun to watch — but only once.
| IMDB Rating: 6.1 | Raters: 887 |
To contact Chris Winter, send email to this address.