Barnes & Noble

Big Hollywood sparkle buoys this family-friendly comedy starring Cary Grant as Tom Winters, a Washington, D.C.-based lawyer and recent widower, struggling to raise three rather precocious children. Fortunately, he's not alone; he has the help of lovely Cinzia Zaccardi (Sophia Loren), the feisty daughter of a famous Italian orchestra conductor. If this all sounds unlikely, rest assured it really is, and it takes some pretty elaborate setting up -- including a house being hit by a train -- to get the scenario in place. Of course, the houseboat that becomes the story's locus is a dump at first, but Grant and company, through sheer enthusiasm and brio (and a touch of Technicolor enchantment), manage to somehow make it right. The moral is that a healthy dose of Grant's unrivalled charm and Loren's voluptuous magnetism goes a long way. Loren even sings a bit, bonds with the children, and with newly eligible bachelor Cary Grant around...need we say more? Colorful sets and postcard locations work beautifully here to create a D.C. metropolitan area that feels a bit like a Disney theme park. Why, Grant even commutes every day from the houseboat to his government office. Houseboat is fun and fantasy through and through, and perfect escapist entertainment. Gregory Baird

All Movie Guide

Cary Grant scored still another box-office smash with his 1958 vehicle Houseboat. Grant plays a widowed father who packs himself and his spoiled kiddies off to a ramshackle houseboat. Enter Sophia Loren, who is attempting to break loose from her tyrannical father's (Eduardo Cianelli) iron grip. She hires on as Grant's housekeeper and his children's governess. Though Grant struggles valiantly to maintain a "hands off" policy, he and Loren are billing and cooing by fadeout time--but not before plenty of reversals, recriminations and sitcom-style mishaps. As a bonus, the kids end up behaving like little angels (not surprising, since Loren has threatened from time to time to turn them into genuine angels if they don't toe the line). According to most sources, the on-screen romance between Cary Grant and Sophia Loren in Houseboat spilled over into their private lives as well, though Sophia put an end to this dalliance when she married Italian movie mogul Carlo Ponti. Hal Erickson

Product Details

• UPC: 097360580648
• Source: PARAMOUNT
• Region Code: 1
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: Dolby Digital Mono
• Language: English, Français
• Subtitles: English
• Time: 1:49:00
• Sales Rank: 1,547

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