Tonight's Movie: Houseboat (1958) - A Kino Lorber Blu-ray Review

HOUSEBOAT (1958), one of the very earliest movies I saw as a child, has just been released on a beautiful Blu-ray by Kino Lorber Studio Classics.

When I began tracking my movie viewing at age 11, the first thing I did was make a list of all the movies I could remember ever seeing up to that point in time. HOUSEBOAT was near the very top of the list, along with several other films starring Cary Grant; my mother was a fan, and we watched many of his movies together on local television.

Though I saw HOUSEBOAT countless times as a child, it had been a good long while since I last watched the movie, so I felt that I was taking it in fairly fresh when revisiting it on this Blu-ray -- and it holds up very well. It's not perfect, due in part to some silly slapstick, but it's solid; there's a mature storyline about meeting adult responsibilities and other issues, yet it's also easy to see why the film appealed to me as a young viewer.

Grant plays Tom Winters, a businessman who's been an absentee father to David (Paul Petersen), Elizabeth (Mimi Gibson), and Robert (Charles Herbert). Following his estranged wife's death, Tom determines to get to know his children better and be their full-time parent.

Tom is finding things rough going with his resentful children when Cinzia (Sophia Loren), the daughter of a famous Italian symphony conductor (Eduardo Ciannelli), stumbles into their lives. Tom has no idea of her background, but the children love her and he hires her as maid. Cinzia is happy to accept for reasons of her own, chiefly that she needs to get out from under her controlling father's thumb.

Tom, Cinzia, and the children end up living on a dilapidated houseboat -- it's a long story -- but despite Cinzia's lack of cooking and housekeeping skills, bit by bit she helps a previous broken family reconnect.

She and Tom begin to fall for one another, but his lovely, newly divorced sister-in-law Carolyn (Martha Hyer) loves Tom too...

The outsider helping a broken family heal is something of a familiar storyline, whether it's older films like FIFTH AVE GIRL (1939) and IT HAPPENED ON FIFTH AVENUE (1947) or later films such as MARY POPPINS (1964) -- but it turns up every so often for a reason: It makes for good drama.

Though some of the previously referenced slapstick humor gets in the way, this is a well-done film which actually is surprisingly dark at times. The children are clearly emotionally troubled and acting out in various ways, with David stealing and Robert clinging to a harmonica which he tends to play at inappropriate times.

Grant's Tom starts out rather unlikeable in the early going, a man who hasn't been around to be a proper father to his children; Tom's in-laws (John Litel and Madge Kennedy) have actually made plans to raise Elizabeth, with Carolyn taking the boys, when Tom decides he's going to do the right thing and step up as a parent.

Thanks to living in close quarters on the houseboat, and the aid of the stunningly lovely and charming Cinzia, Tom gradually unbends and gets to know his kids. A scene where Tom discusses death and life changing forms with David is particularly moving.

The conflict with Carolyn vs. Cinzia almost seems extraneous to the plot, though it does lead to a great scene where it hits Tom like a thunderbolt which woman is the right one for him. (And it's nice to see in the movie's final scene that there seem to be no hard feelings!)

Loren is a delight and really makes the movie; she was my standout memory from watching the film those many times as a child, and watching it again it's easy to see why. She's warm, funny, thoughtful, and of course gorgeous, particularly in a scene where she wears a gold dress to a country club dance.

The children are all very natural, especially Gibson, a favorite child actress whose many credits include THE OKLAHOMAN (1957) with Joel McCrea.

This 110-minute film was directed by Melville Shavelson from a script he wrote with Jack Rose. Grant's then-wife, actress Betsy Drake, did uncredited work on the original script, envisioning it as a vehicle to costar with her husband in the vein of their earlier ROOM FOR ONE MORE (1952).

Grant's affair with Loren while making THE PRIDE AND THE PASSION (1957) changed those plans, while Loren's marriage to Carlo Ponti during the filming of HOUSEBOAT gives this film quite a production backstory.

HOUSEBOAT was filmed in VistaVision by Ray June. Costumes were by Edith Head. The supporting cast includes Harry Guardino, Murray Hamilton, and Werner Klemperer. Look for famed "dress extra" Bess Flowers in a couple of scenes, including the final sequences.

Kino Lorber's Blu-ray print is from a new HD master by Paramount Pictures from a 6K scan of the 35mm original VistaVision camera negative. It looks and sounds terrific.

Extras consist of a pair of trailers; a gallery of eight additional trailers for other films available from Kino Lorber; and a new commentary track by Julie Kirgo and Peter Hankoff.

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

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