Here we go...

Alright so here's my 40 Carats entry!  Are you as excited as I am?  I loved this movie so much and I'm not sure why, maybe it was because of the sweet romance, or the silly humor, or maybe it was because I wasn't expecting very much, or maybe it was cause it reminded me of another favorite of mine (Cactus Flower), who knows?!  The movie stars: Liv Ullmann who plays real estate broker, single mom and doting daughter Anne Stanley, in what I can imagine is one of her rare comedic roles.  I have yet to see her work in Ingmar Bergman's films, but I've heard and read that those aren't exactly knee-slappers.  She plays this role with such dignity and heart; she's also fairly funny.  Edward Albert who is both attractive and slightly creepy as Pete Latham is enjoyable.  I found him to be intriguing, albeit a little pushy, but he played the role of a 22 year old attracted to a 40 year old very well.  I was very upset to find out that Edward Albert had passed away so young.  Gene Kelly plays Billy Boylen, Anne's out of work ex-husband.  Gene Kelly was almost a caricature of himself, as an out of work actor who needs to borrow a few bucks, but will always be there with some moo-goo-gai-pan.  He was sweet and endearing in the role.  The rest of cast was rounded out with: Binnie Barnes as Mrs. Ericson, Anne's nosy and kleptomaniacal mother and Deborah Raffin (who looked very familiar and also made me wonder if she was some kind of professional pool player) as Trina, Anne's pool shark of a daughter.


I was sad to see that there weren't very many comments on the IMDB message board for this movie and even sadder to see that it hasn't been released on DVD.  I ended up stumbling across this movie because of Netflix's Watch Instantly selection and because of Gene Kelly's involvement in it.  That was really the only reason I even added it to my watch instantly queue, and I ended up being very pleasantly surprised.  I highly recommend this movie if you're looking for a silly romantic comedy from the early 1970s.