REVIEWS
"Walk, Don't Run"

Cast: Cary Grant (Sir William Rutland), Samantha Eggar (Christine Easton), Jim Hutton (Steve Davis), John Standing (Julius P. Haversack), Miiko Taka (Aiko Kurawa), Ted Hartley (Yuri Andreyovitch), Ben Astar (Dimitri), George Takei (Police Capt), Teru Shimada (Mr. Kurawa), Louis Kiuchi (Mrs. Kurawa)

Review: 
- by Jill Martin
Cary Grant , aged 62 walked out of the movies forever with this final fling, an easy-going, amiable comedy.

He is charm personified, as he plays, so engagingly, a visiting British Industrialist (Sir William Rutland) who comes to Tokyo at the time of the Olympic games. He has great problems finding a hotel room, or for that matter any room, to stay in as everything is booked up. He meets and persuades Christine (Samantha Eggar) to let him share her apartment for a price. Christine is engaged to a boring "old school" type embassy official Julius (John Standing). Rutland thinks she is wasted with pompous Julius and more suited to an amiable American athlete that he has met called Steve (Jim Hutton). Steve is competing in the walking marathon at the games and is also having trouble finding somewhere to "lay his hat." Rutland sees an opportunity to halve his accommodation bills and improve Christine's future happiness prospects all in one go. By inviting Steve to share the room that he has rented from Christine, he pushes the two reluctant love birds together and eases Julius out of the equation.

There are some hilarious moments in this film. Rutland seems to have the knack of locking himself out of the apartment with apparent ease, and finds sharing his life with strangers at such close quarters is not perhaps as easy as he thought it was going to be, especially when female emotions are involved. Of course dealing with female emotional highs and lows is one of the things that Cary has always coped with so charmingly in many of his films and this is no exception. This film has a lovely mix of Cary's talents: the charming, protective, "older man" persona, that would make any woman want to fall straight into his arms; the effortless comic timing; and the mischievous cupid tactics involved in the ensuing matchmaking. All in all, although not his best, he cruised through his last film, bringing together the usual elegance and humour from himself and his co-stars that made all of his films not only unmissable but easy to watch time and time again.

VARIETY Film Review - June 29, 1966
- by "Murf"
- submitted by Barry Martin
"Walk, Don't Run" is a completely entertaining, often hilarious romantic comedy spotlighting as a matchmaker a deliberately mature Cary Grant at the peak of his comedy prowess.  The fast-moving and colorful Sol C Siegel production pegs its laughs on a Tokyo housing shortage during the last Olympics.  Fine scripting, direction and performances - including a successful pace change for Samantha Eggar - invest the Columbia release with box office legs both strong and long.

Older filmgoers will detect a resemblance to "The More the Merrier," a smash George Stevens pic which Columbia released in 1943.  Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea and the late Charles Coburn starred in that one, based on a story by Robert Russell and Frank Ross.  "Walk" is, indeed, a remake, scripted in top fashion by Sol Saks, who shifted the locale from Washington, D.C. to Japan.  Miss Eggar, Jim Hutton and Grant, all billed above the title, are the respective counterparts in the new version.

Grant is outstanding as the middle-aged and distinguished English industrialist who arrives two days before his Tokyo hotel suite will be available.  Noting an apartment-to-share sign, he finds it to be the diggings of prim, schedule-conscious Miss Eggar.  She is engaged to a stuffy embassy functionary, played by John Standing, with whom Grant has already had a run-in.

Hutton, a member of the U.S. Olympic walking team (hence the title), is also awaiting quarters, so he, too, winds up in Miss Eggar's pad.  Ben Astar is a comic Russian secret agent, spying on athletes including Ted Hartley, a Russian walking team member with whom Hutton has struck up a friendship.  The simple plot complications call for a phony marriage, with Miss Eggar and Hutton winding up for real as newlyweds.

All three principals interact well together.  Grant whams over every line with perfect timing.  Two throwaway bits have him whistling titles tunes from previous pix.  His presence dominates every scene, including one long-shot - with only part of his face visible and but a few words to speak - in which his magnetism draws the eye away from the predominant foliage.  Miss Eggar becomes properly warmer and engaging as story unfolds, showing good comedy ability which will further impress those who caught her in William Wyler's "The Collector."

Hutton again shows his light comedy ability to good advantage.  Standing is excellent as the stuffy bureaucrat.  George Takei impresses as the urbane cop who helps unsnarl matters, and Hartley makes a good Russian.  Miiko Taka comes across well as Miss Eggar's girl friend who, each day, finds more men in the latter's pad.  Teru Shimada and Lois Kiuchi have a good bit as Miss Taka's parents in a domestic scene of old Japanese manners competing with a tv set.

Charles Walters' direction is sure throughout.   Harry Stradling's mobile Panavision - Technicolor camera is a big asset, whether in the set confines of the apartment set or on the streets of Tokyo.  Joe Wright's production design is first-rate, ditto the Quincy Jones score.  Walter Thompson and James Wells trimmed to a good 114 minutes.  Other credits are pro.  

NEW YORK TIMES Film Review - August 25, 1966
- by Howard Thompson
- submitted by Barry Martin
Quite a boy, this Cary Grant - still.  Any nice youngsters needing a master chaperone-matchmaker?  Leave it to Mr. G., who knows precisely what to do about Samantha Eggar and Jim Hutton.  The veteran star is undaunted, even by a housing crisis during the Tokyo Olympics - especially with the three discreetly sharing an apartment.

Such is the text of "Walk, Don't Run," a summery sermon that most audiences should swallow with a smile.  This brashly good-natured and airy frolic opened yesterday at Loew's State and 22 neighborhood houses.  Nice to have it around during the heat, too - though how the film by-passed Radio City Music Hall, Mr. Grant's natural stamping ground, remains a mystery.

Moviegoers who go back to 1943 won't wonder long about the source of the new Columbia release.  Not after the opening half-hour, when Mr. Grant, as a roomless tycoon from London, briskly snags tenancy in Miss Eggar's small flat and bungles his proper, pretty landlady's timetable.

Yes, this is our old friend, "The More the Merrier," George Stevens's comedy gem about crowded wartime Washington, which also had two flawless cameos by the elderly Charles Coburn and Jean Arthur at her delicious peak.

The new version, which Sol Saks has adapted from the story by Robert Russell and Frank Ross, deliberately side-steps the quiet, snug deftness of its predecessor.  Updated, it splashes all over the Japanese capital, stunningly mirrored in radiant color.

Once Mr. Grant installs a third tenant, young Mr. Hutton, under Miss Eggar's quivering nose, the picture slips into high, amusing gear.  If the outcome is obvious, the climactic scramble is fast and generally funny, from the snooping of a Russian security athlete-watcher ( in the original, the Federal Bureau of Investigation) to a hilarious sequence where Mr. Grant peels down to his B.V.D.'s and jauntily joins a cross-city Olympic walkathon.

"Walk, Don't Run" may not be any merrier than its predecessor but it is considerably more.  And much credit for its nimble locomotion and flavoring should go to Charles Walters, who directed.  Then there is the simple fact that the characters are likable people, played accordingly.  

Miss Eggar makes a tasty, red-haired dish.  In the role originated by Joel McCrea, the boyish Mr. Hutton, as a spunky American athlete, is excellent.  So is John Standing, as the heroine's priggish fiancé.  Miiko Taka, Ted Hartley and Ben Astar do nicely on the sidelines.

But it is the genial, suave sportsmanship of the veteran star, as the spry, gray-domed Cupid that prods "Walk, Don't Run" into such a disarming trot.  Yesterday, Grant took Tokyo.

Review
Click here to read Jenny's Crackpot Reviews at the Cary Grant Shrine

© www.carygrant.net 1997-2013
web design by Debbie Dunlap - www.debbiedunlap.com