Plot: What’s it about?
There have been rare on screen couples that we wish we could be in real life. However, if I had to pick a man to be like, one of my top choices would be Cary Grant. To quote Charleton Heston "He spent his career in beautiful suits, in beautiful apartments saying beautiful things to beautiful women." That sounds like the life to me! True, not many a Hollywood actor had it better than Mr. Grant. Then again, look at some of his co-stars…Grace Kelly, Katherine Hepburn, Sophia Loren and Audrey Hepburn to name just a few. By this point in his career, Grant had made his share of films. It had been twenty some odd years since the hilarious and utterly enjoyable Bringing Up Baby and The Philadelphia Story. He had yet to make North by Northwest (featuring one of the cinema’s most famous scenes in which he runs from a crop-duster that’s trying to kill him). Still, he had his share of "so-so" films as well and I believe that this film falls in that category.
Let us not forget the lovely Sophia Loren, whose name has become synonymous with beauty. But the plot of the story can’t be more simple…take a government attorney (Cary Grant) that has been widowed by his wife. He just happens to live on a houseboat (hence the name of the film) and takes to hiring a nanny to care for his little ones. Much like The Sound of Music, Grant’s character finds himself utterly attracted to his new found help, but can’t make himself care for her. But he then soon realizes the dictates of his heart and well…we can all guess what happens just based on the smiles of the actors on the cover of the movie. Houseboat is a film that doesn’t delve too deep into the audience, it’s predicable yet fun. Dating back almost 45 years now, the film is dated and the kids (aka "little brats") have an adequate role to fill as comic relief. Still, Grant’s charisma and Loren’s beauty make the movie seem like it’s only a few minutes long. Paramount has issued a rather featureless disc, so be advised…only true fans of the movie need to purchase the disc.
Video: How does it look?
Like most movies of the 1950’s that were filmed at Paramount, this was another VistaVision release in which the film is used in a horizontal manner to increase resolution. Well, something must have gotten in the way here as this transfer is good, but not great. The 1.85:1 anamorphic image is vividly clear at times and almost unwatchable at others. The backgrounds seem to shake and shimmer through the whole thing, but it seems that with every moment of good there is bad. I’m not sure how much restoration effort was put into this, but it’s obviously less than two of Paramount’s higher-profile titles, Sunset Boulevard and Roman Holiday. This isn’t a great transfer, but there’s been far worse as well.
Audio: How does it sound?
Again, as with most movies of the 1950’s, there isn’t much to say about this. The mono track makes as much use of the sound as possible, but when listening to new movies, it’s like hearing a whisper. All of the channels are jammed into the center channel which suffers from a high-pitched "broken" quality that is so often associated with older movies. Still, like the video, this isn’t that bad where you’d need to turn on the subtitles to follow what’s happening, it’s just not the standard that we’ve come to expect.
Supplements: What are the extras?
While this disc doesn’t sport many extras, it’s always nice to see a theatrical trailer on a disc. Accompanied by a photo gallery, this rounds out the supplements on the DVD. Oh, let’s not forget the interactive menus.
