There's a Girl in My Soup | |
---|---|
Directed by | Roy Boulting |
Written by | Terence Frisby Peter Kortner (additional dialogue) |
Based on | There's a Girl in My Soup by Terence Frisby |
Produced by | John Boulting Mike J. Frankovich |
Starring | Peter Sellers Goldie Hawn |
Cinematography | Harry Waxman |
Edited by | Martin Charles |
Music by | Mike d'Abo |
Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
Release dates |
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Running time | 95 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Languages | English French |
Box office | $4.5 million (rentals) [1] |
There's a Girl in My Soup is a 1970 British romantic comedy film directed by Roy Boulting and starring Peter Sellers and Goldie Hawn. [2] It was based on the 1966 stage play of the same name by Terence Frisby.
Robert Danvers is a vain, womanizing and wealthy host of a high-profile television cooking show. He meets Marion, a no-nonsense 19-year-old American hippie who has just broken up with her British rock musician boyfriend Jimmy. After a halting start, they begin an affair, and she accompanies him on a trip to a wine-tasting festival in France, where she embarrasses him by getting extremely drunk, but they enjoy their time together on the coast in the South of France. However, when they return to London, Marion makes up with Jimmy and turns down a desperate proposal of marriage from Danvers. Throughout the film, Danvers' favourite line with women is: "My God, but you're lovely" – which, in the final scene after Marion has gone back to Jimmy and Danvers has made a date with another woman, he says to his own reflection.
The film is based on the stage comedy There's a Girl in My Soup , written by Terence Frisby, produced by Michael Codron, directed by Bob Chetwyn and starring Donald Sinden, Barbara Ferris and Jon Pertwee. [3] It ran for six and a half years in the West End, from 1966 to 1973, including three years at the Globe Theatre (now The Gielgud), breaking records to become London's longest-running comedy. [4] [5] This record was later broken by No Sex Please, We're British and then Run for Your Wife . [6] [7]
Film rights were bought in 1967 by Columbia and Nat Cohen. [8] Eventually Mike Frankovich became producer and the Boultings directed. [9]
Goldie Hawn signed in January 1969. [10] The movie introduced Christopher Cazenove, who later co-starred on Dynasty , and Nicola Pagett, who played Elizabeth Bellamy on Upstairs, Downstairs . [11] [12]
It was one of a series of supporting roles for Diana Dors that revived her career. [13]
A novelisation of the film, written by Raymond Hitchcock, was published in 1971. [14]
Goldie Hawn was unhappy that she was coerced into doing a nude scene for this film. "It was my first nude scene in a movie and I didn't want to do it. I was getting out of bed and putting on a coat and the director finessed me into doing it nude. There was absolutely no reason on earth for me to get out of that bed naked. Roy Boulting , the director, told me he'd clear the set and he really played on my insecurities, making me feel that it was my duty as an actress to trust him. I gave in, and, in retrospect, it was the conduct of somebody who didn't want to stomp off the set and be labeled as a bitch." [15]
The film had its world premiere at the Astor Theatre in New York City on 14 December 1970. [16]
There's a Girl in My Soup ranked as the seventh most profitable film at the British box office in 1970. [17] [18]
Variety found the film "a delightful surprise: a rather simple legit sex comedy (by Terence Frisby) transformed into breezy and extremely tasteful screen fun." [19]
Roger Greenspun in The New York Times , dismissed the film as "without illumination or wit or good humor or good sense", and concluded "The only performance to praise is that of Tony Britton, who, as Danvers's very much married publisher and friend, achieves a level of sophisticated pleasantness that actually, suggests comedy. Peter Sellers, on the other hand, is at his least inventive. And Goldie Hawn, who I think might be fun in another part, mostly indulges in bad habits with her too-expressive eyes. In fairness, both Miss Hawn and Mr. Sellers are handicapped by roles in which any attempt at a characterization must seem an imposition." [20]
Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film 1.5 stars out of 4 and wrote that Sellers had "his first decent role in several years" and gave a "completely sympathetic performance", but "no amount of humor is able to wake up the film's tired story premise." [21]
Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times was positive, writing "Escapist entertainment it assuredly is, yet Frisby has wisely provided enough quiet moments between his gags to allow his characters to become real enough to care about." [22]
Tom Milne of The Monthly Film Bulletin stated that Sellers was "hopelessly miscast" and that the film "would have been much better served by a straight romantic lead." [23]
The website Allmovie comments that "Soup was different in its day, as the heroine of the piece was not a Doris Day-type eternal virgin, but a sexual being who not only gives herself freely to a man but is upfront and unapologetic about her willingness. The movie has little going for it beyond this premise, and it wanders rather aimlessly, if agreeably, before abruptly resolving its insignificant conflicts." [24]
Frisby's script won The Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award for Best Screenplay in 1970. [25]
Goldie Hawn was nominated for Best Actress at the BAFTA's for her work in this and Cactus Flower . [26]
John Edward Boulting and Roy Alfred Clarence Boulting, known collectively as the Boulting brothers, were English filmmakers and identical twins who became known for their series of satirical comedies in the 1950s and 1960s. They produced many of their films through their own production company, Charter Film Productions, which they founded in 1937.
Peter Sellers was an English actor and comedian. He first came to prominence performing in the BBC Radio comedy series The Goon Show. Sellers featured on a number of hit comic songs, and became known to a worldwide audience through his many film roles, among them Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther series.
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Kenneth Gilbert More, CBE was an English film and stage actor.
Terence Peter Michael Frisby was a British playwright, actor, director and producer, best known as the author of the play There's a Girl in My Soup.
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Nicola Mary Pagett Scott, known professionally as Nicola Pagett, was a British actress, known for her role as Elizabeth Bellamy in the 1970s TV drama series Upstairs, Downstairs (1971–1973), as well as being one of the leads in the sitcom Ain't Misbehavin' (1994–1995). Her film appearances included Anne of the Thousand Days (1969), Frankenstein: The True Story (1973), Operation Daybreak (1975), Privates on Parade (1982) and An Awfully Big Adventure (1995).
$, also known as Dollar$, Dollars or $ (Dollars), and in the UK as The Heist, is a 1971 American heist comedy film starring Warren Beatty and Goldie Hawn, written and directed by Richard Brooks and produced by M.J. Frankovich. The supporting cast includes Gert Fröbe, Robert Webber and Scott Brady. The film is about a bank security consultant (Beatty) who develops a scheme with a prostitute, Dawn Divine (Hawn), to steal several criminals' money from a bank vault.
The Girl from Petrovka is a 1974 American comedy-drama film starring Goldie Hawn and Hal Holbrook, based on the novel by George Feifer. It is about an American journalist, Joe (Holbrook) who goes to the Soviet Union and meets Oktyabrina (Hawn), an undocumented ballet dancer, which attracts the attention of the authorities.
Wildcats is a 1986 American sports comedy film directed by Michael Ritchie and starring Goldie Hawn, James Keach and Swoosie Kurtz. It is the film debut of Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson.
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The Out-of-Towners is a 1970 American comedy film written by Neil Simon, directed by Arthur Hiller, and starring Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis. It was released by Paramount Pictures on May 28, 1970. The film centers on the many troubles George and Gwen Kellerman encounter as they travel from their home in suburban Ohio to New York City, where George, a sales executive, has a job interview.
Barbara Gillian Ferris is an English actress and former fashion model.
There's a Girl in My Soup is a stage comedy written by Terence Frisby. Set in the 1960s, it tells the story of a smooth-talking TV chef, Robert Danvers, who falls for a much younger woman, Marion. She leaves her hippy boyfriend, Jimmy, to live with Danvers, but eventually returns to Jimmy, leaving Danvers bereft.
Peter Chelsom is a British film director, writer, and actor. He has directed such films as Hector and the Search for Happiness, Serendipity, and Shall We Dance? Peter Chelsom is a member of the British Academy, the American Academy, The Directors Guild of America, and The Writers Guild of America.
Richard Coleman was a British film, television and stage actor.
Rotten to the Core is a 1965 black and white British comedy film directed by John Boulting starring Anton Rodgers, Charlotte Rampling, Eric Sykes and Ian Bannen. It was co-written and produced by his Boulting and his brother Roy Boulting. The film received a BAFTA nomination for Alex Vetchinsky's production design.