Houseboat

Tom Winston, a widower, is trying to understand and raise three precocious children alone. He gets a little unexpected help from Cinzia…

• Director: Melville Shavelson
• Genre:Comedy / Drama / Family / Romance
• Runtime:105 minutes

Cast

Cary Grant : Tom WintersSophia Loren : Cinzia Zaccardi Martha Hyer : Carolyn Gibson Harry Guardino : Angelo Donatello Eduardo Ciannelli: Arturo Zaccardi

Tom Winters (Grant), has been separated from his wife for three years and their divorce is pending when she is killed in a car crash. He returns home from Europe to find his three children – David, Elizabeth, and Robert – in the care of his wife’s family. The children’s grandparents intend to raise Elizabeth, and Tom’s sister-in-law Carolyn (Hyer) plans to take in David and Robert. The children wish to stay with their aunt and grandparents in the country, but Tom decides to take the children back home to Washington DC, where he works in the State Department.

The children resent their father’s presence and, at an outdoor Watergate concert, Robert runs away. He is found by Cinzia Zaccardi (Loren), the daughter of a famous Italian conductor. She, too, is running away and is enchanted by little “Roberto” and his harmonica. When she brings him back home to Tom’s apartment, he offers her a job as a maid, which she eventually accepts.

Carolyn, now recently divorced from her husband, offers Tom and the children her old guest house, which was supposed to be moved to a new foundation before the family arrives. However, while on the way to their new home, they encounter the house being towed down the road, and stop the driver, Angelo Donatello (Guardino). Angelo, distracted while staring at Cinzia, accidentally hits their parked car with his tow truck, and parks the house on a train track. While Angelo flirts with Cinzia and Tom checks the car for damage, both of them ignoring warnings from David (Petersen), an oncoming train smashes the traveling guest house. Angelo, feeling guilty, offers Tom his weekend home: a houseboat.

The houseboat is a leaky, dirty mess, but Tom decides to buy it from Angelo. Once moved in, Tom discovers that Cinzia is unable to cook, do laundry or make “American coffee”. Upon learning this, Carolyn and others mock Cinzia and her role in the household. However, Cinzia is able to befriend David, who complains that his father treats him like a “lame brain”, and convince Elizabeth that her father loves her. The entire family becomes very fond of Cinzia. Read more