rosyposy
The story has it all--love, money, sex, politics, religion, social ethics...however the cheesy editing and Loren's cartoonish performance distract from what could have been a really good movie. The screenplay deals with issues that I think are bigger today than they were in 1960; socialized medicine and Western-Eastern relations are both hot topics in 2008--maybe it's time for someone to remake this one? That said, Peter Sellers is brilliant as always. He plays confused so well. The movie dates itself with the dialogue and that *awful* "pulse" effect, but the questions it raises and Seller's consistent work save it from being really dreadful.
writers_reign
This is arguably Puffin Asquith's worst directorial effort by a country mile; it's true that his best days were behind him and the last thing guaranteed to revive a flagging talent and jaded appetite is a limp script like this and two leads with less on-screen chemistry than Bette Davis and Errol Flynn. Even as a freebie with an English newspaper it's honestly not worth the price of the newspaper - for the record the paper in question sponsors the London Film Festival and free copies are available at each screening which means that the movie cost me absolutely nothing and I still feel overcharged. We're not talking Golden but Platinum Turkey here. One to leave the country to avoid.
apass
Rather memorable on the whole. Not a great deal of laughing to be had, but certain vignettes are tasteful and entertaining, e.g. Epifania's three-month poverty-to-riches test, the doctor's futile three-month 500 pound give-away. Placing in the top quartile of my movie experiences, it's a light comedy well worth seeing.
Hermit C-2
Chemistry can be a funny thing. This movie stars two charismatic legends of the cinema, Sophia Loren and Peter Sellers. Its script, on the surface, is intelligent and well-written, full of snappy dialog. (It's based on a play by G.B. Shaw.) They combine to make a relentlessly dull movie. Loren is a rich heiress who for some reason has to marry again to satisfy conditions of her father's will and Sellers plays an altruistic Indian doctor in London, where the movie is set, with whom she has an uninteresting love/hate relationship. I found it all but impossible to keep my attention focused on the screen as the film worked its way toward its conclusion. It made for one of the longest 90-minute movies I've ever seen.Part of the problem I think is that characters here are not developed, they just burst out in full force the moment you see them, making a viewer feel like he or she has started watching in the middle of the film. Also, as a romance, the movie is completely flat, with zero chemistry between the leads. It's no wonder you don't hear much about this film from fans of Loren or Sellers, or Shaw for that matter.
AD
