Heirate nie in Monte Carlo

Graham Greene was pleased to have written 'a light-hearted story with a happy ending' something of a first for him and was keen to write a film treatment, modelling the generous but forgetful tycoon Dreuther on Alexander Korda, with whom he had a friendly relationship. He later concurred with the general opinion that the film was a failure, but if he wanted a reason why he only had to look in the mirror. The plot is thin, including reliance on that old chestnut a workable scheme to triumph in a casino. Rossano Brazzi had his critics but is hard to see how Greene's preference Alec Guinness or anyone else could have got much more out of the role. There are compensations in the attractive photography of Monte Carlo and the agreeable performances from Glynis Johns, Robert Morley and not forgetting Joyce Carey in more extrovert mode than usual.

Graham Greene the film critic would have made short work of this glossy yet drab trivia which serves as yet another stern warning to postwar audiences against the lure of easy money for audiences left back in London in the rain, and which provides the vicarious satisfaction of seeing our young newlyweds' escape to Monte Carlo with its looser morals in widescreen & colour strictly on the understanding that in reality Money Doesn't Bring You Happiness and it was all an unsustainable fantasy. One can somehow discern Greene's sardonic fatalism (and the vague talk of adultery) lurking in the background of all this; and how his original story became such an awful film was probably far more interesting than anything that actually ended up on the screen.

This seems to be intended as least partially as a comedy, but the only really comical aspect of it is the unbelievable miscasting of Rossano Brazzi as a naive working stiff with a head for figures, who finds himself being given the eye by a feline young Shirley Anne Field as the Attractive Girl in Casino (as she is identified in the cast list at the end).

This is a prime example of 50s excess, as it seems the notion of how gambling is detrimental to a new marriage is lost in a jumble. I suspect Graham Greene wanted to do a screwball comedy but it winds up an excuse to set two winsome but entirely mismatched stars loose in a romantic, foreign locale, filmed in Color and Cinemascope. Glynnis Johns had been getting really good roles in England and had just come out of Around the World in 80 Days. She'd played plenty of roles but here, she's inexplicably floating thru the movie like an excited child. Rozanno Brazzi was barely the bigger star, already a sensation in Italy from the early 40s and having made Three Coins in the Fountain, Summertime and the professor in the June Alyson version of Little Women. He plays a man good with numbers, but by all appearances is too old for his wife - she wears him out just by talking and he seems frustrated by his inability to keep up when she's on the fly. There are some cute, albeit brief glimpses of why this couple are together, but at heart, I didn't buy Brazzi, a master brooder, as an accountant in love with a numbers system that gets them wads of cash. They don't seem to be able to connect as a team most of the time and hence, we don't really care if they get out of their gambling troubles or not. There's a little screwball suspense around an imagined gambling debt and how they'll get out of their expensive hotel bill, and Robert Morley wanders in and out, barely blinking. Altho Glynis's wardrobe may have been eye catching and the casinos were put to good use for publicity, what we bankroll is a whitewashed Monte Carlo, complete with the two stars whisking by on a moped. Must've been charming in 1956, but today it's a test of endurance. I give this one and a half stars out of five. - MDMPHD (PS - You'll notice it's never mentioned as one of the great romantic comedies, much less as a film of note in any article or text. You'd do better with Brazzi in SUMMERTIME and Johns in NO HIGHWAY IN THE SKY to get these talented actors in their prime.)

Loser Takes All is a rather mild British comedy that stars Rossano Brazzi and Glynis Johns as an accountant and his fiancé who work for the firm that Robert Morley and Felix Aylmer run in London.

Morley is one of those sticklers for detail and for Rossano Brazzi successfully finding a seven pound and change discrepancy in his books and reconciling it, he and Johns get a holiday in Monte Carlo. Morley is penny wise and pound foolish.

Still Brazzi and Johns are on a dream holiday and I've no doubt that this film was made to follow up the success of Paramount's To Catch A Thief. But Cary Grant and Grace Kelly were more interesting and Alfred Hitchcock made a more interesting film in general.

Brazzi now thinking he's a mathematical genius has devised a 'system' as so many do. In the process though he's become unbearable to his new bride.

Monte Carlo looks just as beautiful as it did in To Catch A Thief. But Hitchcock's classic never lost my interest as this one did.

Well I suppose every great writer will have a ghastly mistake like this.Whats worse it even tries,very badly,to make gambling look glamorous.Furthermore if ever a couple were mismatched it is Johns and Brazzi.