|
When
Tom Winston, a government lawyer who has long been separated from his wife,
takes charge of his three children (Elizabeth, David, and Robert) following
their mother's death, he is taken aback by their hostility toward him.
His sister-in-law, the attractive but unhappily married Carolyn Gibson,
explains that the loss of their mother has left the children with problems.
None of them sleeps well, all three are melancholy, and little Robert, who
claims to hate everyone, does nothing but play the harmonica.
After first agreeing to let Carolyn and her parents adopt the
children, Tom suddenly decides to take them to nearby Washington, D.C.,
where he rents a small flat. The children are unimpressed with their
new home and, following an evening concert at the Watergate, Robert hides in
a rowboat on the adjacent Potomac River. Also attending the concert is
the beautiful but restless Cinzia Zaccardi, who is accompanying her father,
a famous Italian conductor, on a tour of the United States. Cinzia
longs for freedom and male companionship, but her father keeps a tight rein
on her, and she escapes a stuffy society dinner only by climbing out a
window and into Robert's rowboat.
Cinzia dances with the child at a street carnival and later
that evening takes him home. Tom threatens to spank the boy until
Cinzia gently advises him to be "a parent, not a policeman." Seeing
that all three children are taken with Cinzia, Tom, who believes that she is
an abandoned "G.I. bride or something," offers her a job as their maid.
Amused, Cinzia declines the job and returns to her father but, when he
angrily vows never to let her out of his sight again, she decides to accept
the job and move with Tom and the children to Carolyn's guest house in
nearby Virginia.
When the guest house is accidentally demolished, an
Italian-American storekeeper named Angelo Donatello offers to sell Tom his
rickety houseboat. During the family's stormy first night on the boat,
Cinzia sends a frightened Elizabeth to sleep with her father, who slowly
begins to treat the child with warmth and affection. Carolyn reveals
that she is divorcing her philandering husband and admits that she has
always loved Tom.
Meanwhile, Angelo invites Cinzia to the Fourth of July dance
sponsored by the Sons of Italy. Cinzia and the children work hard to
fix up the houseboat, and soon it is homey and charming. David,
unhappy about his father's constant criticism, however, decides to run away
one windy night. When David's rowboat capsizes, Tom leaps into the
river and saves him. Cinzia tries to persuade Tom to be more accepting
of David, and as the two talk, they find themselves nearly kissing.
The next morning, Tom and David discuss death, and David
teaches his father how to fish. Tom begins to date Carolyn, which so
upsets Cinzia that she decides to leave. Tom buys her a dress and
remarks that she has pulled his family together again. Just then,
Carolyn and her friends arrive and, after one of them insults Cinzia, Tom
orders them from the houseboat.
He then takes Cinzia to the country club dance, and as they
kiss at the end of the evening, he realizes he is in love with her. To
Cinzia's surprise, the children, especially the jealous David, disapprove of
their romance and, after explaining that she could never take their mother's
place, she brokenheartedly returns to her father. Tom tracks her down
and declares his love in the presence of Maestro Zaccardi who, although
approving of the union, warns Tom never to hurt his beloved daughter. The
children, however, do not come to terms with their father's remarriage until
the wedding ceremony begins. After playing "The Wedding March" on his
harmonica in the middle of the couple's vows, Robert smilingly approaches Cinzia, and the ceremony continues as the children join hands with the
couple.
Notes
Although contemporary news items note that the script was based on an
unpublished story by B. Winkle (a pseudonym of
Cary Grant's then-wife, actress Betsy Drake), onscreen credits and the
SAB list Melville Shavelson and Jack Rose as the sole writers. In
September 1956, an LAT story reported that Rose and Shavelson had
engaged Anna Perrott Rose to write the screenplay, but her contribution to
the completed film has not been confirmed.
The same LAT news story asserted that the
movie would be filmed on Lake Union in Seattle, Washington. Other news
items announced that the story was to be set in the Midwest. According
to HR production charts, portions of the film were shot on location
in Washington, DC. Other portions of the film were shot on location in
Virginia and California. According to a September 5, 1957 HR
news item, the two-deck houseboat set constructed at the studio was the
largest set then in use at Paramount. Rose and Shavelson's screenplay
was nominated for an Academy Award, as was the song "Almost in Your Arms."
Music includes: "That's Amore" by
Harry Warren; "Love Song from Houseboat (Almost in Your Arms)," words
and music by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans, sung by Sam Cooke, a Keen Records
Artist; and "Bing! Bang! Bong!" words and music by Jay Livingston and
Ray Evans. |
_01.jpg){kind=small}
_02.jpg){kind=small}
_01.jpg){kind=small}
_NRFPT_01.jpg)
_NRFPT_02.jpg)
_NRFPT_03.jpg)
_NRFPT_01.jpg)