Ein Mädchen in der Suppe

Being a HUGE fan of the late great (etc. etc.) Peter Sellers I was really looking forward to There's A Girl In My Soup.

Well............the premise started off strong with Seller as the ladies man who knows what women want to hear and what they need to hear and virtually every female (young and old) simply can't say no to. Considering the age of the movie (34 years and counting and the gratuitous nudity may surprise you) it brought back the free spirit of the 60s'. No condoms, aids, and marijuana was probably considered part of the recommended daily allowance.

While on the way to a party Danver meets a young lady (Goldie Hawn) who has just caught her good for nothing boyfriend in lip lock with another female. Since Ted Bundy was only a boy in 1970 she accepts the invitation to Danver's apartment and the most brilliant dialogue between the two is enjoyed for the next 20 minutes.

Thats when Danver begins to realize that women are not sex objects, but breathing living human beings with emotions. Hawn does spend the night but Sellers chooses to sleep on the couch.

Eventually a healthy relationship happens but despite the two good actors (well, one being the best of the best-Peter Sellers) the chemistry between Danver and Marion is weak. (Hawn had the same problem with Mel Gibson in Bird On A Wire). Goldie has a look on her face like she is kissing her dad and Peter isn't able to hide his boredom either.

When they return from a fabulous vacation in France, Danver finds out to his horror that the tabloids have printed that he and Marion were secretly married and chaos begins.

Thats when screen writer Terence Frisby makes chaos. The terrific conversation that was enjoyed when Hawn and Sellers first met is now followed by two people that are no longer individuals we care about. Hawn in particular now dives into the stereo type dumb blonde (and in an especially unfunny scene when she embarrasses Peter at a wine tasting test but Sellers sharp wit saves the day with a hilarious liner in the elevator on the way back to his apartment) and eventually you just want her to go away. And the ending? I still had both eyebrows raised after the ending credits started to roll.

Recognizing my review as a prejudice approach, I recommend this movie to myself and only true Peter Seller fans. But even they should be warned: this not a Seller's movie in top form.

Dork that he was in real life, Peter Sellers plays the dork's idea of a English ladies man, a swinging bachelor just over 40 but using his money and notoriety as a TV food critic(!) to make time with beautiful girls. Against Goldi Hawn's 19-year-old, free-loving, introspective mod girl, he's just enough of a square to make him believable as well as pathetic.

After establishing his charm with a couple of lovelies, Sellers meets his match in Hawn, who turns out to like him for who he is (being American, she has no idea who he is). He rescues her from a juvenile relationship with a mod drummer, and they're off.

There are some great scenes between them as they work out their attraction with uncomfortable analysis. After some missteps over the attempted initial seduction and a wine-tasting trip to France, they settle into a charming relationship. But the news media misinterprets their getaway as a honeymoon, causing a bit of friction when they return to England, but it seems flat. The movie falls apart when Hawn's character makes an improbable decision (she seems to be kidding), but Sellers nearly saves it with a sympathetic performance.

The nonsensical ending and occasional out-of-place moments thruout make this one good but not great, provided you're interested in the late 60s-early 70s era.

Not sure why it doesn't play in Peoria, apparently, but this is a very funny, clever British comedy. It's set at the end of the "swinging sixties". Peter Sellars is fantastic as the rich, forty-something serial womaniser. The perfectly delectable Goldie Hawn, playing a 19 year American girl in London, is, initially, Sellars' "catch of the day". But the urbane TV food critic can't stop himself from falling for the dizzy American blond.

Humour, pathos, great script, strong performances from the leads and supporting caste.

It's a great film, and the best gag is the very last line.

Try it, you'll like it.

THERE'S A GIRL IN MY SOUP (3 outta 5 stars) This movie has always had a bad reputation and I could never figure out why. Sure, Peter Sellers has been in much better movies than this... but he's been in lots worse, too. He plays the smarmy, self-absorbed star of a TV gourmet show who enjoys the swinging bachelor life, even as he hits his mid-40s. He meets up with Goldie Hawn, a hip, sexually-liberated young gal of less-than-20 and the sparks, as they say, fly. There are some really funny lines but a lot of missed comedic opportunities as well. To this day I still wonder why there is no big payoff to the wine-tasting scene... after all the time spent trying to teach Goldie that one is supposed to "spit" and not "swallow" I wonder why she doesn't wind up spitting up during a fancy dinner scene. This may not be one of Sellers' best but Goldie Hawn does a fine job... breaking free of the one-dimensional blonde ditz character that she was known for at the time. (She even gets a totally gratuitous nude scene... wow, this must be the '70s!)

"My GOD but you're lovely."

This is surely one of Sellers' most memorable characters. This guy HAS to have been a major influence on Austin Powers: he's an aging playboy, with hairy back and bad teeth, who never imagines that he's anything but irresistible to women. Goldie Hawn is the woman who won't give him what he wants when he wants it.

The first hour is pure gold, some of the greatest comedy i've ever seen. Then it strangely begins to meander. Really badly. With the extended wine tasting journey, involving many pointless shots of Frenchmen drinking wine at what seems like a real wine tasting ceremony, and later on the pointless shots of scenery, very out of place in this story. I was thinking what terrific characters they were, and what a terrific comedy set-up we had here - but at the point where it starts to wonder, you realise that they'd only thought up these funny characters - but hadn't got as far as what to do with them. Thus, they also had no idea what the resolution, if any, should be.

They seem to have figured that everything would work itself out once they started shooting - well, it didn't. The last half-hour is an absolute mess. I would have enjoyed it much more as a 60 minute movie, thankyou very much.

As it is, we have a clumsy "resolution" scene that needed about seven re-writes, and a rather meandering, almost unnecessary last half-hour, peppered with a few good scenes (Sellers carrying Hawn over his shoulder in the lift), which unfortunately spoils what might have been one of the funniest movies i've ever seen.

6/10. The first hour is an absolute gem - i'd still recommend you see it for that.