Tonight's Movie: Come September (1961) - A Kino Lorber Blu-ray Review

The enjoyable romantic comedy COME SEPTEMBER (1961) is now available on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber.

COME SEPTEMBER features a delightful cast: Rock Hudson, Gina Lollobrigida, Sandra Dee, and Bobby Darin. Dee and Darin met making the film and married in December 1960, at the ages of 18 and 24.

The movie is a particular favorite of one of our daughters so I've seen it multiple times over the years, but it had been a while and I'd forgotten just how amusing it is. It's a bright, sunny film shot on location in Italy, and it had me smiling frequently as I watched.

Hudson plays wealthy Robert Talbot, who usually spends September at his Italian villa. One year he decides to show up during the summer instead and is shocked to discover that his butler Maurice (Walter Slezak) runs the villa as a hotel when he's not in residence.

Robert has planned to romance his long-suffering girlfriend Lisa (Lollobrigida) -- who unbeknownst to him has accepted a marriage proposal from another man (Ronald Howard). Robert's charm just might woo Lisa back...but then there's the matter of a group of young American girls (including Dee) currently renting rooms in his "hotel." Their uptight chaperone (Brenda de Banzie) will not countenance any potential romantic moves from Robert and Lisa while her charges are under the same roof.

And then just for fun, a whole bunch of American boys (including Bobby Darin and Joel Grey) show up at the hotel too...will Robert ever have time with Lisa alone? Especially once she considers Robert's advice to the young ladies about saving themselves for marriage...

COME SEPTEMBER is no classic but it's an enjoyable piece of entertainment. The interplay between Hudson and Slezak is quite amusing, and I actually laughed out loud a couple of times when Dee attempts to psychoanalyze Hudson. Hudson's reactions to the increasingly baffling conversation are hilarious.

There's also a very funny climactic scene at a train station where Lollobrigida "borrows" a baby to convince a conductor to get Hudson to pay attention to her when he's about to leave town.

All in all, I had a good time watching the movie for the first time in a few years.

COME SEPTEMBER was directed by Robert Mulligan and filmed by William Daniels in CinemaScope. If the Internet is to be believed, Hudson's home in the film was actually owned in real life by Rex Harrison.

The screenplay for this 112-minute film was written by Stanley Shapiro and Maurice Richlin, based on a story by Stanley Roberts and Robert Russell.

The widescreen Kino Lorber print is lovely. Disc extras include the trailer; an 8-film trailer gallery; and a commentary track by David Del Valle and David DeCoteau.

Thanks to Kino Lorber for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray.

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