Arriving in Tokyo two days earlier than expected, English businessman William Rutland (Cary Grant) is unable to find lodging. With the '64 Olympics scheduled for the Japanese capital, all hotels are booked, and try as he might, Rutland cannot find accommodations for himself. While at the British Embassy, he spies a "roommate wanted" sign on a bulletin board, and within minutes, he finds himself at the referenced address. The apartment belongs to one Christine Easton (Samantha Eggar), who very emphatically tells Mr. Rutland that she is not at all interested in sharing her apartment with a man; however, Rutland won't take "no" for an answer, and he ends up moving in.
The next day, Mr. Rutland makes the acquaintance of an American Olympic athlete, Steve Davis (Jim Hutton), who is also without lodging arrangements since he arrived earlier than expected. In due time, Rutland has sublet half of his half of the apartment to Davis, and he then takes it upon himself to play cupid for his two roommates...which will take a little doing since Christine is engaged to another.
This film is cute, but, for me, it can't hold a candle to the original. There were a couple scenes common to both films---such as Rutland getting locked out of the apartment when he went to get the milk and him losing his pants while making his bed. An interesting feature of the film is that Cary Grant's character whistles and hums some familiar tunes--namely, the themes from Charade and An Affair to Remember.
Cary Grant aged fabulously, and though he is in his early 60's here, he looks amazing. Plus, he is as funny as always. I didn't much care for the others, though. Samantha Eggar's counterpart was Jean Arthur, and Jim Hutton's was Joel McCrea, both of whom I like much better than this film's stars. Perhaps that was part of the reason I didn't like this film nearly as much as I like the original. There was fabulous chemistry in The More the Merrier...between all three stars, yes, but the chemistry between Coburn and McCrea was incredible. They played off one another like two little boys; sadly, I did not see that kind of chemistry between Grant and Hutton.
Without question, though, this is a film which no Cary Grant fan will want to miss; after all, it's his final movie appearance. After viewing this one, however, be sure to watch The More the Merrier so you can compare the two. The film is out on DVD and should be very easy to track down.
Happy viewing!!
