If you're looking for a very light comedy to pass the time, starring three attractive, talented stars, you could do worse than The Little Hut - a hit in its day, but quite forgotten now.
It's a shipwrecked-on-a-desert-island comedy about a married couple and a friend who's in love with the wife. The couple are Stewart Granger and Ava Gardner, the friend is David Niven.
It's the sort of very British (though originally French) comedy where the men dress in black tie for dinner despite being in the middle of nowhere. Basically, Granger is so proficient at survival and remaining civilized that he hardly seems to mind having been shipwrecked. He goes around building things and creating a reasonably comfortable environment. Displaying little emotion or depth, the husband is almost in a world of his own, and Granger plays him to perfection. Niven, as the friend who lives in the little hut, whom wife Ava uses to try to make hubby jealous, is, as usual, delightful. Ava herself, in a rare comedy, is at the apex of her beauty and turns in an adroit, sophisticated performance.
At any rate, today what goes on in this little comedy may seem completely incomprehensible. Morals, the conventions of society, sexual politics - they're all different, at least in movies. A play like this wouldn't be filmed, today. There's not a lot of call for wit, any more. Even in its day, this piece was so brittle and light it wouldn't have appealed to everyone. But if you want to see an offbeat little comedy of the sexes with a good cast and witty situations, this may be for you.
It's a shipwrecked-on-a-desert-island comedy about a married couple and a friend who's in love with the wife. The couple are Stewart Granger and Ava Gardner, the friend is David Niven.
It's the sort of very British (though originally French) comedy where the men dress in black tie for dinner despite being in the middle of nowhere. Basically, Granger is so proficient at survival and remaining civilized that he hardly seems to mind having been shipwrecked. He goes around building things and creating a reasonably comfortable environment. Displaying little emotion or depth, the husband is almost in a world of his own, and Granger plays him to perfection. Niven, as the friend who lives in the little hut, whom wife Ava uses to try to make hubby jealous, is, as usual, delightful. Ava herself, in a rare comedy, is at the apex of her beauty and turns in an adroit, sophisticated performance.
At any rate, today what goes on in this little comedy may seem completely incomprehensible. Morals, the conventions of society, sexual politics - they're all different, at least in movies. A play like this wouldn't be filmed, today. There's not a lot of call for wit, any more. Even in its day, this piece was so brittle and light it wouldn't have appealed to everyone. But if you want to see an offbeat little comedy of the sexes with a good cast and witty situations, this may be for you.