Surprise Package

In this fast talking, mostly comical movie- Yul Brynner plays an American gangster, Nico March and dressed appropriately for the part, that has been deported to the country of Greece. Along for the ride is his goody-two-shoes girlfriend Gabby Rogers, played by Mitzi Gaynor, and they are living the boring life of visitors on the coast of Greece.

Nico meets a laundry load full of suspicious characters while cooling his heels and even meets the exiled King Pavel II played by Noel Coward. He comes up with a clever plan to steal the King's crown but there are just as many other criminals waiting to do the exact same thing.

If you are reading this review without watching the movie then you may believe that it is a nice semi-mystery and cunning portrayal of the criminal mind. Perhaps it would have been a better movie had the writers decided to go that way. Instead we have Brynner and Gaynor playing a comedy team that was so ill-matched it took away from the entire story. When a person thinks of Yul Brynner- 'Comedy'- does not come to mind, nor does comedy come to mind in this presentation. First of all, some people have a hard time clearly understanding words that Brynner speaks. Now throw in Brynner speaking like the fast talking Fed-Ex commercial man, and even the most noted linguist teacher would have a problem with the dialog.

Mitzi Gaynor added very little to the script by just playing the sweet unintelligent girlfriend and doing nothing that caused interest to the character. The only time that the viewer really takes notice of Gaynor is when she, along with Coward, is singing the title song 'Surprise Package' and that comes too late to help the movie.

Not to take anything away from Yul Brynne but he appear a miscast for this type of movie. Perhaps another actor could have helped with the interest of this film. But that is a moot point. But I will say that the movie did have some nice 'one-liners'.

Charlton Heston in his memoirs said that when he was signing for his part in Touch of Evil it was mentioned that Orson Welles was going to be playing the sheriff, but that Universal still hadn't selected a director. Well says Heston, why don't you get Orson Welles to direct. Duh, says the studio heads, that's a splendid idea.

On Surprise Package with none other than Noel Coward in the cast, why didn't they get him to take charge of the whole thing. It is amazing to me that with all the talent in this project a better product didn't emerge.

This is a caper film involving a deported U.S. gangster played by Yul Brynner now living on a Greek island trying to steal the crown of the exiled King of Anatolia played by Coward. Along for the ride is Mitzi Gaynor as Brynner's moll and the baddie played by George Coulouris from the People's Republic of Anatolia, the gang that overthrew the king. The director is Stanley Donen from a novel by humorist Art Buchwald.

Brynner is terribly miscast in his part. A gangster I can believe him as, but he just has no flair for comedy. There were some comic moments in the King and I, but that's overall, a serious part. Coward looks bored by the whole thing, I wish he had scripted and directed it also and he probably wished he did too. George Coulouris was his usual menacing self.

Mitzi Gaynor was a fine musical talent who came along just when musical films were ending. She was probably grateful for a number or two in this film. Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn wrote the title tune which she sings as well as Noel Coward. Can you imagine if he had contributed some musical number as well?

The script has some topical references to the Cold War, the Appalachian underworld gathering, rigged quiz shows, etc. etc. that Yul and the cast comment on.

It also would have been nice since this takes place in the Greek Islands to have splurged for some technicolor.

If you see it, try to view it as a curiosity. Someone should have whispered in ears of the studio heads at Columbia the way Charlton Heston did at Universal.

Stanley Donen may have been the producer and director and the stars might be Yul Brynner and Mitzi Gaynor, as well as Noel Coward, but this comedy is a British production, filmed mostly on the island of Rhodes and shot, not in picture-postcard colour, but in black and white. The thin plot has deported gangster Brynner planning to steal exiled king Noel Coward's crown and the largely British cast includes George Coulouris, Warren Mitchell, Lyndon Brook and Eric Pohlmann as a corrupt police chief. Brynner does his best but he's not a natural comic actor and this is one of his poorest performances and try as he might, even a miscast Coward can do nothing with the mostly limp material, (though at least he does stop the show when he sings the title song). The film's real surprise is Gaynor as Brynner's moll. She's no actress but she sure is sprightly in that perky Mitzi Gaynor way of hers. It's not terrible; in fact, it's quite amusing in its very daft way but it's hardly Donen's finest hour.

I just caught this film while trying out my remote ( a favorite tool of mine lately ) and watched about 15 minutes of it. It was a comedy as far as I could tell and looking and listening to Yul Brenner's character and the way he was dressed, brought to mind another foreign actor, Charles Boyer, in the great movie "Algiers" with Hedy Lamarr. At times I thought I would 'hear' Boyer's voice listening to Yul, and thought it would be a good idea if they ever were going to rehash "Algiers" ( there are certain movies that could not be rehashed and "Algiers" was one them, but if they decided to do it, he would have been perfect as Pepe :a Moko. As for Mitzi, very poor acting the little I saw of her and indeed decorative for musicals only. Noel Coward was wasted.

Yul Brynner is very hard to understand in this movie because he talks fast and his accent gets in the way, but he is still eye candy to me nonetheless. He does play a good brat. Not the same sort of brat Rameses was in The Ten Commandments. The brat he plays in this movie is a wealthy gangster who was exiled back to his birth country of Greece. He's not smart by any means, maybe street smart, but he spelled the only correct word in the Scrabble game between he and Gabby. He pouts, he name-calls, he tells people to shut up, he has a tantrum, etc.

Mitzi Gaynor (Gabby) is a cute girlfriend/sidekick to Yul's gangster character (Nico). Noel Coward's character (King Pavel) bores me to tears.

Cute movie, but not brilliant by any means. Some funny parts, but could be funnier.