La petite hutte

Two men and a woman are stranded on a desert island.

If they are English, there is no problem: They haven't been introduced.

If they are Spanish, there is no problem: One of the men will kill the other.

If they are Italian, there is no problem: The woman will kill one of the men.

If they are American, there is no problem: They will be too busy talking about business.

If they are French, there is no problem.

Alas for this story, the two men are English, and the woman is American, and they already knew one another well -- perhaps too well.

The story, from a French play more risqué, or even downright explicit, is reasonably plausible, by Hollywood standards, rather well acted, but so badly edited it is a crime.

There are way too many scenes that do not match: For example, from one angle, a character has his arms crossed, then the next shot shows him with his arms at his side.

"The Little Hut" is full of such bad continuity or bad editing or bad directing ... or combination thereof.

Still Ava Gardner, an enchanting and under-rated actress, in her various abbreviated costumes almost makes this worthwhile all by herself. Almost.

André Roussin was a specialist of what the French call "Theatre de Boulevard" : plays where you find the eternal triangle:man/wife/(male or female)lover .Many of his plays gave Elvire Popesco some of her best parts on stage....and the great actress was the main reason to watch them,for Roussin is not Sacha Guitry ,by a long shot.The French audience remembers "Au Theatre Ce Soir' .

Still with me? Roussin's plays were not made to be filmed.And this one is pretty mediocre material ,even if the screenwriters call Lewis Carroll to their rescue .I like Stewart Granger and David Niven ,and Ava Gardner is eye candy .But this might be their worst film ,being crude, predictable -even the native's (Bola -Bola )intervention is ludicrous- a knockabout farce around a Menage à Trois on a desert island where Granger would be some kind of Robinson,Niven ,his Friday and Gardner his girl Friday.

The script of "The little hut" was written by the French writer André Roussin (1911-1987), based on his play "La petite hutte"(1947). Both play and script are, in fact, a plagiarism of another play in Catalan, written by the novelist and play writer Carles Soldevila (1892-1967), "Civilitzats tanmateix" ("Nevertheless civilized")(1921). This play was known in France much before the robbery of Roussin, through a translation by Adolphe de Faigairolle and Francesc Presas, published in 1927 in the magazine "Candide". Recently "Civilitzats tanmateix" has become a musical by Albert Guinovart, with the title of "Paradís" (Paradise).

i saw this film"way back when" in '57 and my date & i were helpless laughing at it. i know it was panned even back then, both as a b'way show and later as a flick. stewart granger plays a totally naive tennis nut with a beautiful wife, ava gardner. he is totally oblivious to his pal, david niven's overt courting of gardner. one scene has niven & gardner playing a game and, at the game's end, they engage in a passionate kiss. the naive granger passes it off as "good, clean fun". he just can't see pal niven for what he's up to. another scene has the three at a table on the island they were stranded on, with granger again in total oblivion to gardner & niven playing tangle toes and trading double entendres at each other. granger finally wakes up and tries to win wife's attentions back. this picture is really worth seeing, in my book.

If The Little Hut had been done as originally written by Andre Roussin had been done this might have been a far better film. In the original version the Ava Gardner character actually does have sex with all concerned on the island she's stranded on. But Hollywood is still in 1957 a prisoner of the Code so that kind of infidelity could never be shown on the big screen. If there is a French language version of The Little Hut I'll bet it's far better.

The French characters are changed to British here and even stranded on a tropical island they all behave quite civilized even in adultery. Stewart Granger and Ava Gardner are married and are on a yachting tour with a party of friends including Granger's best friend David Niven. The ship goes down and the three of them are stranded on the island where they build two huts, a big one for the married couple and The Little Hut for Niven.

But with not a whole lot to do on the island they engage in a lot of frank dialog and Niven opens up that he's been Gardner's lover for about six years. Granger who does kind of take things for granted with Gardner is affronted, but as captain of the former ship decides that if his powers include marriage they also include divorce. He divorces Gardner and Granger and Niven exchange huts. Later on a really hunky looking native that Gardner looks lasciviously on enters the picture and things really get complicated.

That lascivious look was not acting on Ava's part because she was involved with Italian actor Walter Chiari at that time. If the script had called for them to do the deed she would have no doubt been even better.

The Little Hut with all the sex taken out plays like a combination of The Admirable Crichton, Three's Company, and Gilligan's Island. I'm sure Sherwood Schwartz who produced Gilligan's Island saw how the cast lived on that island, how they showed such ingenuity in creating some creature comforts, that he probably incorporated much of it in his show. It's the best part of The Little Hut.

The play on which this was based was a big hit on the West End of London, but when it came to Broadway in 1953 it flopped terribly with only 29 performances. Playing the Granger, Niven, and Gardner roles on Broadway were Roland Culver, Colin Gordon, and Anne Vernon.

If the film were done 20 years later as originally conceived by Andre Roussin the results would have been better. But the stars especially Niven are three of the most charming folks around and they put it over as best they could.