Houseboat (1958)

It's not really surprising that a film that begins with a mother's death ends up being quite the emotional journey, but it's also not necessarily the fluffy romance I was expecting.

Despite his in-law's protests, Cary Grant decides to take in just orphaned children previously in his wife's and wife's family custody.

Sophia Loren is a young woman who, rebelling from her conductor father, takes a maid position with Grant despite not really knowing how to do anything other than use an espresso machine.

Things get mighty uncomfortable for the family, at least for a while, when the house they were to move in is destroyed by a passing train, (yup, you read it right,) and they have to move into a dilapidated houseboat owned by the guy responsible for the destruction.

Other than Loren falling in love with a clueless Grant who thinks he should instead get together with his recently divorced sister-in-law, there are the three kids, one of which is approaching dangerous puberty and has developed a crush on Loren himself, (can you blame him?)

In doing his willful best to ignore Loren, Grant may be behaving in a most boneheaded manner, but don't people in real life exhibit inexplicable behavior and do the most idiotic things?

The film works much better taken as a whole than its individual, episodic scenes, (though some are even a bit silly they never detract from the film's overall emotional impact); and Loren is just adorable.

With Martha Hyer and Harry Guardino,