The Grass is Greener Review
Sinopsis
From the star and director of Charade and Indiscreet. When a struggling British earl (Cary Grant) opens his manor to the public, what he wants is some badly needed money. what he gets is a handsome American millionaire (Robert Mitchum) who sweeps the earl's gorgeous wife (Deborah Kerr) off her feet. Encouraged by his wife's chatterbox best friend (Jean Simmons), the jealous earl invites his wife's lover up for the weekend to engage in some fishing and a duel. Woven together with a wide streak of humor, The Grass is Greener is a wonderful, surprisingly rich and blunt scrutiny of marital troubles and endurance. Produced and directed by Stanley Donen (Funny Face).Cary Grant is the befuddled English earl casually puttering around his tourist attraction of a grand old estate in casual dress while a bull of an American millionaire (Robert Mitchum) crashes into his life and seduces Grant's sophisticated lady (Deborah Kerr). It's pure fantasy, of course, with its cool, cultured lovers swapping witty banter with the same calm they swap gunshots in an old-fashioned duel. Have adultery and jealousy ever been so civilized? Stanley Donen never shakes this very British drawing-room comedy of manners free of its talky, stagebound source or its deliberate snail's pace, but he does manages to bring a lightness that softens the wit with an American lilt. Ultimately, though, it's all about a crack cast in fine form: Mitchum's sleepy-eyed insolence, Kerr's easy elegance, Jean Simmons's flighty outrageousness, and especially the charm and measured grace that is Cary Grant. --Sean Axmaker
