40 Carats

Based on a hit Broadway play that won a Tony Award for Julie Harris, 40 CARATS is a comedy about a 40-ish woman who is pursued by a 22-year-old man. Liv Ullmann, looking very pretty, stars as the New York City realtor who meets the young man (Edward Albert) while on vacation in Greece. By coincidence (and a big one) he meets her again when he shows up for a blind date with her daughter (Deborah Raffin). It turns out he's from a wealthy family which interests Ullmann's swinging mother (Binnie Barnes).

Into this mix are Ullmann's first husband (Gene Kelly), her secretary (Nancy Walker), a hick from Texas (Billy Green Bush), a customer (Natalie Schafer), and Albert's parents (Don Porter, Rosemary Murphy).

The plot revolves around the machinations and misconceptions of who is dating who and is it proper for Ullmann to marry a much younger man.

Ullmann is good as the "middle-aged" woman. Albert is sort of creepy. Kelly is annoying as is Green Bush. Walker gets in a few zingers. Raffin is a blank. But in her final film appearance the 70-year-old Binnie Barnes (looking decades younger) steals every scene she's in as a swinging grandmother who's always borrowing Raffin's clothes and can't wait to hit the dance floor. This role was played by Glenda Farrell on Broadway.

40-ish divorcée and mother from New York City meets a 22-year-old American man while vacationing with her mother in Greece; they spar a bit at first, but he manages to charm her. Back at home, their paths cross again, where he asks her to marry him. Hit Broadway plays are almost always good material for sparkling screen comedies. It often doesn't matter how familiar the plots may seem at the time--if the story is funny or charming and the characters are appealing, audiences will usually be very forgiving (a good love song helps as well). "40 Carats" doesn't really work, for a variety of reasons. The play--originally written by Pierre Barillet and Jean-Pierre Grédy, which was adapted for the American stage by Jay Presson Allen, whose work was then given an overhaul for the screen by Leonard Gershe--has no substance, and yet it's overwritten. Everyone works hard to keep the soufflé from falling, what with 'witty' asides and one-liners, but the casting isn't right. Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann, in only her second American film, looks unsure of herself, like a deer in the headlights. She's much too insecure for a puff-piece like "40 Carats", and she gets no help from director Milton Katselas. Ullmann's scenes with Edward Albert have no lift, and he comes on like an overripe gigolo. After an arduous introduction, the scenes back in New York City have some bounce, mostly due to the other players. Second-billed Gene Kelly is hammy, as usual, but he's comfortable in front of the camera and puts us at ease (the man knows what he's doing). Binnie Barnes and Nancy Walker are also good (Walker singlehandedly saves her scenes with Ullmann), while the more serious third act performances by potential in-laws Don Porter and Rosemary Murphy are solid. Deborah Raffin makes her film debut as Ullmann's daughter--and has a killer scene at the pool table--but her match-up with older Billy Green Bush doesn't work (he's either miscast or misdirected in his approach to this role). Gershe gives the May-September material some of the snap of his "Butterflies Are Free", and there are a few laughs in the picture, but it trudges along with an unhappy spirit. There's also a ballad--a lousy one--written by Michel Legrand and Alan & Marilyn Bergman to clinch the deal. ** from ****

"40 Carats" - a light and cheerful comedy is the only comedy I've seen Liv Ullmann in. She plays Ann Stanley, forty years old Manhattan Real Estate agent divorcée who lives with her mother and 16 years old daughter. On her vacation in Greece, she meets 22 years old Peter Latham (Edward Albert), and they spend the night together. Ann quietly disappears into the early morning hours, leaving him with the memories of the night and nothing else - no address or telephone number. Peter later returns to New York, where one evening he arrives to pick up a date for the evening. Guess, who his date's mother is?

What follows is, IMO, funny and charming romantic comedy with wonderful supporting performances from Gene Kelly (as Ann's first annoying husband), Binnie Barnes and Deborah Raffin. I've read some comments that Liv was miscast and was not comfortable playing such a light comedy after all the profound and tragic characters she had played for Bergman. I don't think so. For me, one of the most memorable scenes of the film is the one after Liv (Ann) returns home from her vacation and is asked what Greece was like? Ann turns to face a camera, smiles, and says, "Greece glows under the sun" - but it is her face, her smile, her eyes that glow. If ever the saying, the eyes are the soul's mirror, is true, it is about Liv's eyes. There are kindness, tenderness, strength, and something even more attractive than beauty itself in them - the goodness of her soul.

"40 Carats" was a very pleasant surprise for me. I hope that it will be released on DVD soon and become available for all admirers of Liv Ullmann and of funny and clever romantic comedies.

This a breezy comedy based on a hit Broadway play and one of the few worthwhile comic tales depicting the relationship between a younger man and an older woman. While on holidays, visiting Greece, a divorced real estate agent encounters by chance a vital young man, and they have a brief romantic interlude.

She leaves him while he is sleeping and escapes back to New York. Regaining the cherrished stability she has conquered as a lady executive, she settles down on her lovely apartment where she lives with her daughter and her mother. Until - very much in the fashion of every Broadway farce there is - they receive an unexpected visitor. Peter Latham, the man our main character had an affair with while in Greece. But now, he is introduced as a friend of her daughter's.

After constant bickering, they decide to get married, but will their relationship last?

'40 Carats' is a light, entertaining and cheerful movie, filled with beautiful, rich people whose vain problems serve as the basis for an plot. The characters have social status written all over their foreheads and their reaction to the plot's major complications are clever one-liners encouraged by greek drinks and the prospect of a happy, happy ending. The film does not attempt to be deep, for it's subject is a rather delicate one - the producers were aiming for time-filling entertainment and they really did it.

But this film suffers mostly from the miscasting of Liv Ullmann, Ingmar Bergman's norwegian muse. No matter how versatile the wonderful Ms. Ullmann can be, she is a rather indelible case of typecasting - used to play such profound characters whose heartaches and emotional flaws we can relate to, she seems uncomfortable portraying a futile woman whose psyche isn't that complex, after all. The one scene in which her character really makes the transition between a woman caught in a whirlwind of happenings and a woman whose pain is overwhelmingly intense, nevertheless, is a cinematic gem. In this scene she confronts her future in laws.

Another highlight of the film is Michel Legrand's beautiful soundtrack that includes the love theme 'In Every Corner Of The World', and Gene Kelly's performance as Liv Ullmann's annoying first husband.

All in all, this is a movie whose delicate subject provokes a barrier that keeps it from being a great film, but is, nevertheless, sheer cinematic delight.

"40 Carats" is a surprisingly good movie. While Ullmann and Albert have little chemistry together, they nevertheless make a sweet pair, because they are both enormously appealing individually. Gene Kelly adds a few nice moments and leads a likable supporting cast. The film is slightly overlong but more mature than you might think.