Grade: D
Synopsis: After his wife’s death, a lawyer (Cary Grant) moves onto a houseboat with his three children and an Italian symphony conductor’s daughter (Sophia Loren) as his maid.
Houseboat has couple of really big problems.
The first is the script, particularly in how it deals with the kids. They’re not charming and they’re not precocious. They’re brats. Yes, I get it, their mother just died and they’re supposed to be grieving, but this isn’t grieving. This is poor writing.
The second problem is the complete lack of chemistry between Cary Grant and Sophia Loren. Grant fell for Loren while filming The Pride and the Passion (1957) and set up this project to work with her again. Unfortunately, by the time filming on Houseboat began, Loren had left Grant to marry Carlo Ponti, an Italian producer. Grant tried unsuccessfully to abort the project and it shows.
Given these two glaring flaws, only Cary Grant’s immense charm could keep my finger off the fast-forward button. Barely.
Bottom Line: Rent Father Goose (1964) instead.
