Walk, Don't Run
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Movie Reviews of Walk, Don't Run
Movie Review: Old fashioned clever entertainment
Summary: 5 Stars
This is my favorite movie of all time. I've been trying to buy it in Australia for years! Cary Grant is always brilliant but in this role ( a little older) he excels with very clever acting. Great love story and good clean humor.Movie Review: Walk Don't Run
Summary: 5 Stars
This is Cary Grant's last movie. He is ever the gentleman. His sense of humor really shines in the scenes with Jim Hutton. A must for any Cary Grant fan!Movie Review: Olympic fun and laughter
Summary: 5 Stars
Hilarity and frolic, real life and cultural merriment at its funniest! Have a Pre-Olympics Watch Party with this one!Movie Review: movie
Summary: 5 Stars
Love this movie. Very ahead of its time when it was made and will make you laugh and want more. :)Movie Review: "I don't know that I like tricky people."
Summary: 4 Stars
Even old as he is at this stage in 1966 (he was around 62), it's still weird to see Cary Grant onscreen playing matchmaker instead of playing the field. Still, he accomplishes even his matchmaking role with his usual style and grace, and you get the feeling that he could've stolen Samantha Eggar from under Jim Hutton's nose if he put his mind to it. After all, the man is Cary friggin' Grant. Guy invented debonair.
Mr. Grant plays Sir William Rutland, a happily married gent and industrialist on a business trip to Tokyo, except that he's arrived two days earlier than scheduled and his room reservation doesn't kick in yet. Sir William picked a pretty awful date to show up, his visit coinciding with the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, and there is a horrible housing shortage. Luckily, he gets wind at the embassy of a woman willing to take on a roommate, and it's a never mind that Sir William learns that the woman had intended to let only to fellow women. Sir William being played by Cary Grant, he eventually wears down Christine Easton, his new British "landlord."
WALK DON'T RUN made me sad a bit because I knew going in that it was Cary Grant's swan song, the man leaving cinema behind still near the height of his powers. And while WALK DON'T RUN doesn't succeed in all its stabs at levity, it did make me smile in places. Some of the comedy derives from the lovely Christine Easton (Samantha Eggar) being such a precise and super-organized woman. It's a real joy to see that Grant still has masterful control of what he does best, which are those bemused sidelong glances and double takes. He showers these on Christine as she meticulously breaks down the bathroom time table for him. In fact, she literally breaks the morning schedule down to its exact minutes, and a confounded Sir William soon wails: "What time do I shower? 7:35 or 7:37?" We're not too surprised when it's revealed that Christine Easton is engaged to an officious embassy official aptly named Julius P. Haversack. And, later on, there's also some fun with mysteriously vanishing trousers.
While out and about Sir William meets and takes a liking to young architect-slash-Olympic athlete Steve Davis (Hutton) who also had flown in two days ahead of schedule and is looking for lodgings. Sir William offers half of his room and board, and maybe he should've consulted with his landlord first, because she ends up livid (but remember this is Cary Grant so she inevitably capitulates). Steve, of course, would have to be inducted into the pinpoint time table regarding bathroom use. There's a vague air of mystery, by the way, in Steve's recurring evasiveness concerning the nature of his Olympics event. He hems and haws for most of the movie, and no wonder. Sir William would later proclaim of Steve's event: "This is THE most ridiculous race."
Cary Grant plays the busybody Cupid but, here's the thing, the movie audience is ever aware that it's Cary Grant in the room, even old as he is. And so, Jim Hutton, cast in the romantic role and who is to "bland" what Grant is to "charming," stands no chance; he withers under the comparison. Hutton's romance with Samantha Eggar feels rather shallow and convenient. And Hutton and Eggar together can't come up with any bits of humor. Instead laughs come by either thru a combination of Grant and Eggar or Grant and Hutton or Grant with both Eggar and Hutton. There's also a tired bit about a fumbly Russian minder minding a Russian Olympian. It's not very funny.
For Star Trek freaks, George Takei (the original Lt. Sulu) has a cameo late in the movie as a police captain who determines whether our central characters are, in fact, spies.
WALK DON'T RUN is a remake of George Steven's sublime THE MORE THE MERRIER - and if you haven't seen that one, you are seriously missing out on a classic wartime romantic comedy. WALK DON'T RUN, sadly, doesn't live up to the original picture. Equal parts of blame must go to the rather flat screenplay and Jim Hutton who is to "bland" what Gran- oh, never mind. Just know that Cary Grant effortlessly carries the movie, convincing me to rate WALK DON'T RUN 3.5 out of 5 stars.