Victor and Hillary are down on their luck to the point that they allow tourists to take guided tours of their castle. But Charles Delacro, a millionaire oil tycoon, visits, and takes a liking to more than just the castle . . .
I couldn’t resist watching this film last night when I found it on Netflix, I love An Affair to Remember so to see Grant and Kerr in another film together really did appeal to me. I am pleased that I watched this film as it really was a good one to watch. I was very impressed with both Simmons and Mitchum as well, I thought they all had fantastic chemistry on-screen.
Victor and Hillary appear to have the perfect marriage and get along so well with one another, but when Charles comes into Hillary’s life everything goes a bit wrong. When Hillary goes to London and ends up spending days with Charles we aren’t really sure what is going to happen in the end. Hattie who is very good friends with Hillary then goes to see Victor and they talk about the situation.
It all gets very amusing when Victor invites Charles to their home over the weekend, a lot of deceiving and lying going on. No one admitting exactly what they know or what they have done trying to keep quiet to the other people. This does lead to many funny scenes. I guess the subject matter of this film being adultery was probably quite shocking in 1960 but then again similar to the 1957 An Affair to Remember. I guess it was in films a lot more than we would first think. I think the brilliance about it all in older films is that you don’t actually see anything on-screen you just have to make your own mind up what has actually happened, the whole less is more.
I really enjoyed Jean Simmons as Hattie, I thought she was just brilliant giving a fantastic comedic edge and making everything very light-hearted. Robert Mitchum was very charming as Charles, but nowhere near as charming as Cary Grant. I think I am slightly biased though as I really do love Cary Grant! I can not make my mind up whether I liked Deborah Kerr’s character Hillary, I don’t know if she just went for Charles because he was a millionaire or not. But I won’t spoil the ending as I really wasn’t sure which way it was all going to go. Many possibilities really, watch out for the butler as well he is rather funny!
