As I expected, this was nothing special. It tells the story of two people who fall in love. Stuff happens in there, but it's mostly a love story. The plot was okay but didn't really do much for me. There were some elements in there that didn't really seem necessary such as the mafia connections but then again, something had to happen to make the story work.
The acting wasn't bad. I felt like Hepburn and Peppard cared for each other on screen so it was at least believable. What ruined this movie was Mickey Rooney. He plays Hepburn's neighbor, a Japanese man. For those not familiar with Mickey Rooney, his is Caucasian and his would-be comedy is not the least bit funny. I don't have a problem with things that may come off as racist, but this was just stupid. The movie is not a comedy and having a white man play a Japanese man in a movie made in the 1960s is just terrible - it ruined an otherwise mediocre picture.
This is possibly Hepburn's defining role and after four films I'm not the least bit impressed with anything she has done. Her singing here was decent and the song won an Oscar which leaves me confused as to why her voice was dubbed in
My Fair Lady. The scene with her at a table smoking a cigarette is probably one of the most iconic images in the history of cinema, but that's about all I got out of this. Eventually I'll give Hepburn yet another chance in
Charade which also stars Cary Grant and is supposed to be like a Hitchcock film. For now, this is yet another poor film with Hepburn and I'm still wondering why the American Film Institute calls her the second greatest actress of all-time.
61/100
D-UP NEXT: Let's keep watching bad movies and go with one of Alfred Hitchcock's worst -
Mr. and Mrs. Smith.