Mercado de amor

After years of only knowing about the title, I finally watched this on Amazon Prime Video with Mom just now. A nice mixture of romance and slapstick comedy, we both enjoyed much of the goings on that ensured. Fine performances by Glenn Ford and Hope Lange when they were an item at the time as well as Charles Boyer, Ricardo Montalban especially when doing many of the physical gags, and especially Telly Savalas playing a different role than I usually know him as. I'll just now say that Mom and I most highly recommend Love Is a Ball.

Tremendously entertaining and fun romantic comedy, set on the Riviera, filmed in warm sunshine with a top cast of real professionals. Saw it at the Royal in San Francisco, 3-31-63; co-feature was the Stewart Granger swashbuckler SWORDSMAN OF SIENA. Walked to the theatre from my apartment on a pleasant evening, for a comfortable evening at the movies, in a well appointed neighborhood house, for which I had a Pass. In the old days, one could expect a good time at the movies most times out, and always get value for money. In my case, it was a cinch

In Love Is A Ball Glenn Ford is a down on his luck charter boat captain who is asked to join an unusual enterprise by Charles Boyer. Ford has his charter boat business on the French Riviera which is a great place to be if you're down on your luck. This project involves training Ricardo Montalban in the fine arts of royal behavior. Montalban is royalty all right, but the exiled and impoverished kind. Still he does have a somewhat tarnished title the kind that rich folks might marry for the prestige.

This is a plot situation that goes back to authors like Henry James and Mark Twain, the rich Americans getting together nobility down on its luck. You can still find a flock of them today on the Riviera. The problem is that Montalban as Prince Gaspard lacks a lot of polish, in fact he's from the Inspector Clousseau school of unpolished. Hence Boyer as his manager has assembled his team to give him that. Ford's job on the team is to teach him race car driving and horseback riding, he's done both in the past.

The object of all this prince preparation is heiress Hope Lange who is visiting the Riviera with grandmother Ruth McDevitt and uncle Telly Savalas. Ford also is hired on as a chauffeur for wild child Lange to watch the investment for the team.

The most interesting performance in the film is Montalban's who shows a nice comic touch with some tender moments of self reflection with Boyer's secretary Ulla Jacobbson. He realizes more than anyone else what an essentially useless life he leads. Though Clousseau was not yet on the scene, Montalban had the rich comic genius of Jerry Lewis to get some of his moves down for this film.

Ford and Hope Lange were an item at the time and the film was made around the tail end of Ford's career height as a box office star. It's got some nice cinematography of the French Riviera, a place like Hawaii it's impossible to get bad pictures of and a cast that delivers the goods for the viewer.

What's not to like?

The real reason to see this movie is the CARS. Shot in the early 60's, I actually remember seeing a promo on the Carson show. It takes place during the Grand Prix, but in addition to the race cars, you can see what are now classics, 3500 GT Spyder Maserati, 300SL cabriolet, Rolls Royce cabriolet, 50's Corvette, Mercedes gullwing, the list just goes on. For any REAL car nut, this movie is a gem!

Director David Swift also co-wrote this harmless adaptation of Lindsay Hardy's book "The Grand Duke and Mr. Pimm" about an American heiress on the French Riviera unknowingly set up by a marriage broker to fall in love with a handsome, klutzy Duke. Unfortunately for all, he's secretly in love with the broker's secretary while she has eyes for a temporarily-grounded boat captain, now working for the matchmaker in confidence. Despite lush locations, the picture doesn't look as marvelous as it should--nor do the comically-mad circumstances sparkle like those nutty romantic plots of the 1930s. Still, the cast makes the most of it, with leads Glenn Ford and Hope Lange (then a dating twosome in real-life) enjoying terrific chemistry. First-rate supporting work from Ricardo Montalban, Charles Boyer, Telly Savalas and character actor John Wood, who disappears after the first-third. ** from ****