Watch Walk Don't Run For Free

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This was Cary Grant's last movie, and he hasn't lost his touch for comedy. In "Walk, Don't Run," Grant has a different role than his usual. He is a matchmaker. While that's befitting for his age, at 62 the fit- lean Grant still can do some of the physical things he did in the past. And, he still gets laughs. Here he climbs the trellis on the outside of a building to get back into an apartment. Not just once, but twice. Then, he sheds his clothing to join the Olympic 50-kilometer race walkers. And he keeps up at a good pace with many younger men, hardly winded after a few minutes of this. This film has a mixture of antics such as these, some witty dialog in places, and street scenes in Tokyo that were filmed during the 1964 Summer Olympics – the first ever held in Asia. Grant plays an English industrialist, Sir. William Rutland. He has arrived in Tokyo two days early – ahead of his hotel reservations and the city is crowded for the Olympics. At the British embassy, he sees a notice on a bulletin board. Christine Easton (played by Samantha Eggar) is willing to share her flat with someone during the Olympics. After "Bill" (he has dropped the "Sir" from his name) finagles his way into the apartment, for half the rent of 9,600 yen per week (about $11 then), he makes his business calls with a long-time Japanese company head. He then runs into an American Olympian who is more interested in architecture. But, he too is early and doesn't have his Olympic lodging yet. So, Bill invites Steve Davis (played by Jim Hutton) to share his half of a half flat. Bill concludes his business early, but is now interested in playing matchmaker for Christine and Steve. Especially, since Christine is engaged to a pompous, snobbish second protocol assistant to a secretary at the British Embassy. Bill had a run in with him when he went to the embassy to see about help with housing. John Standing plays Julius Haversack superbly. Bill enjoys getting him out of the way. So, the rest of the film is about Bill maneuvering Julius out of the way so that Steve and Christine can get to know each other. This is an entertaining film with plenty of humor from the leads, especially Cary Grant. It's a film the whole family should enjoy. It has some snippets from the 1964 Olympics, and scenes that show the busy, narrow and crowded streets in Tokyo. Modern Tokyo has elevated expressways for vehicles that cross the city. The city streets in places are two to three stories below. Viewers shouldn't get the idea from this film about how most people live in Tokyo. Christine's apartment is very large indeed. Foreign officials and embassy staffs could afford to have such accommodations. But, where the three people in this film fit snugly together for a couple of nights, the vast number of young, working people in Tokyo were living in much smaller quarters. Three and four people would share three-room units half the size of Christine's in this film. When I last visited Tokyo in 2001, the modern city had many high-rise apartment buildings with these multi-person closet-sized apartments.

Cary Grant's last film is an enjoyable, albeit entirely unnecessary, remake of the classic The More The Merrier. That film starred Joel McCrea, Jean Arthur, and Charles Coburn. Grant play the Coburn role as an older man who tries to play matchmaker to a younger couple he is sharing an apartment with. The couple here are Jim Hutton and Samantha Eggar. Poor substitutes for screen legends McCrea and Arthur but both are likable. The original took place during WW2 so it used the wartime housing shortage as part of the plot. This moves things to Tokyo during the Summer Olympics in order to keep the plot intact of Grant not being able to find a room anywhere else. On the whole, it's an amusing movie but probably much less so if you've seen the original. This is pretty much a scene-for-scene remake with few changes. Grant's a rough fit for the role as it is intended but he does give it his best, using his charm and wonderful screen persona to great effect. He's certainly the best thing about the film and, at all times, my attentions were on him rather than his co-stars. Obviously I would recommend you see the classic 1943 film over this. But, if you have seen that, there's no harm in giving this one a try to see a different cast approach the same story. As far as last films of great stars goes, this could be worse. Just look at some of Grant's contemporaries and you'll see some truly sad ways to end a career. Cary wisely knew to get out while the getting was good. That's a lesson a lot of stars could still learn today.

Back in the sixties, there were many of these cute romantic comedies that were stuck in a time warp--still dealing with sexual mores that were prevalent in the thirties. Few of them rose above the sappy conventions of the genre. Neil Simon was a notable exception.Run Don't Walk has a few comic moments, mostly attributable to Cary Grant. Frankly, Samantha Eggar is not an inspiring actress here. And Jim Hutton is a straight man by temperament. If there is passion passing between the two, the camera did not pick it up.Watch 1943's The More the Merrier instead. It is the precursor to RDW and shows how it should be done. It stars the funny and desirable Jean Arthur, the witty and dapper Joel McCrea, and the delightful Charles Coburn.One reviewer wrote that Cary Grant quit films after making RDW because he felt he could not handle the leading man roles anymore. That may be. TCM's explanation is that Cary and Dyan Cannon celebrated the birth of their daughter about this time, so Cary retired so he could spend time with his daughter. A pleasant alternative.RDW is filmed in Japan. That is an interesting aspect of the film. Watch this film for its cuteness, but watch The More the Merrier if you want a comedy with cleverness and more magnetism on screen.

Columbia had a smash hit film in The More The Merrier with the great Jean Arthur. Cary Grant who made his last films at Universal such as Grass Is Greener, Operation Pettiooat, That Touch of Mink with Doris Day, Father Goose, and the superb Charade with Audrey Hepburn went to Columbia to remake the More The Merrier and called it Walk Don't Run and set at the Tokyo Olympiad. I read that Cary Grant personally sought out Jim Hutton who made all those wonderful MGM comedies with Paula Prentiss as the leading man and Samantha Eggar who starred in Columbia in William Wyler's The Collector as leading lady. Ms. Eggar is no Jean Arthur but then nobody to me can fill the shoes of that incomparable star Jean Arthur. Jim Hutton does well, and I liked his work, and Cary Grant is Cary Grant and that means the best there is. After this film Cary Grant retired despite numerous offers to return to the silver screen.