I'm a huge Bogey fan but I gotta say this isn't even close to the quality of his other work.
I think my main quibble with this film is the casting. Specifically...Aldo Ray. He's just terrible in this. Ustinov is OK but if they would have givin him more lines and eliminated the Ray character it could have worked for me. Aldo Ray has mainly played the same character in about everything he did and after watching "Pat and Mike", I had enough of that. When I popped this one in and saw him I thought..."Uh Oh". I honestly think his career was due to 2 things...his good looks and the fact he was in WW2 as a navy frogman. Maybe some producer thought was an interesting take but I think actual acting ability needs to be considered...and I don't think he had much.
The premise is OK but it's just not that special of a film. You won't ever remember this over say...African Queen or High Sierra. I think if they would have just concentrated on the family who own the shop it would have been better but what we get is a Bogey vehicle to bring in the movie goers.
In the end it just didn't work for me. I wasn't remotely impressed with this one.
I think my main quibble with this film is the casting. Specifically...Aldo Ray. He's just terrible in this. Ustinov is OK but if they would have givin him more lines and eliminated the Ray character it could have worked for me. Aldo Ray has mainly played the same character in about everything he did and after watching "Pat and Mike", I had enough of that. When I popped this one in and saw him I thought..."Uh Oh". I honestly think his career was due to 2 things...his good looks and the fact he was in WW2 as a navy frogman. Maybe some producer thought was an interesting take but I think actual acting ability needs to be considered...and I don't think he had much.
The premise is OK but it's just not that special of a film. You won't ever remember this over say...African Queen or High Sierra. I think if they would have just concentrated on the family who own the shop it would have been better but what we get is a Bogey vehicle to bring in the movie goers.
In the end it just didn't work for me. I wasn't remotely impressed with this one.