A successful play from Hugh Williams and Margaret Vyner in London’s West End, inevitably a cinematic adaption is actualized, starring a quartet bankable names of the first water and THE GRASS IS GREENER is a Stanley Donen vehicle.

The Earl and Countess of Rhyall, Victor and Hilary (Grant and Kerr) have to resort to side hustles like selling mushrooms and permitting guided tours of their palatial mansion, to keep their aristocratic expenditure afloat, and after sending their children away for the opening day of the guided tour (hinting that no drawing-room propriety is in the offing), Victor will soon realize its pecuniary gain is not worth it at all, as one of the tourist, the American oil tycoon Charles Delacro (Mitchum), swimmingly sweeps Hilary of her feet, to the point that the two share a compulsive kiss merely 20 minutes into their first glance.

Charles and Hilary’s coup de foudre extends over the visiting hours, and when Hilary casually mentions that she intends to attend to her coiffure in London, while being entirely cognizant of her veiled motive to meet Charles there, Victor offers no objection, and one week later, he even invites Charles to their mansion for a weekend gathering, also present is Hattie Durant (Simmons), an American heiress who is Hilary’s best friend and Victor’s old flame, who sees the opportunity to insinuate herself into the household now that Hilary’s adultery is out in the open, only she wishes!

A chamber piece mostly takes place inside an opulent, authentic manor (including a cockamamie duel scene, nonetheless!) and boasts regal fineries for its quartet performers (those bowties, gowns, headwear, millinery and jewelry), THE GRASS IS GREENER is essentially a tongue-in-cheek farce about a respectable wife’s blatant affair and her equally respectable husband’s unorthodox countermove, all hemmed within the parameters of typified Britishness, staid, assertive but also self-consciously contradictory and humorous, whether it is a cuckolded husband’s resignation of his wife’s amatory emancipation toward another man, or a cunningly deployed scheme to gain the upper hand (to take a bullet in the arm with a stiff upper lip is a prerequisite), or a mint coat is all a woman needs to die for.

Occasionally Donen also surprises us with entrancing visual flair, like juxtaposing the almost identical reactions and conversations of the two parties at the ends of a telephone call, but underneath all its silk-stocking fluffy facade, the story’s liberal stance on matrimony, coruscating sophistication, hazy innuendos and droll exuberance are all over the place amid its fast-paced verbiage.

Accent aside, Grant’s star-spangle assurance is not particularly British, but he reels off the dialog with particular élan and his usuall nonchalance, athwart an arrogant but suave Mitchum, who has not an inkling of trepidation to court a married woman and is not deterred from any pretense of rejection; a flirtatious Simmons, who can pull off an open face to be quizzical over whether “primitive” is complimentary or not; and a demure but wholly unbridled Kerr, for once, shucking off her ladylike formality to something more unconventional, yet she demands respect and amazement from everyone else, between mushrooms and a mint coat, you can always rely on her to make the right choice; rounding out the cast is Trevor Sellers (Watson, the sole holdover from the original play), the butler who insists on deducting his wages to tide over his employer, and turns out to have many strings to his bow, even if writing a novel is not the right vocation.

referential entries: Donen’s CHARADE (1963, 8.1/10); Leo McCarey’s AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER (1957, 8.4/10).

這是黛博拉.科爾和加里.格蘭特合作的最后一部影片。另外，簡(jiǎn).西蒙斯也是著名演員，曾經(jīng)看過(guò)《王子復(fù)仇記》，《遠(yuǎn)大前程》，還有《荊棘鳥》，年輕時(shí)很美，覺(jué)得有點(diǎn)像費(fèi).雯麗，在本片中的角色挺有趣的。羅伯特.米切姆也演得不錯(cuò)。他們四個(gè)都是老戲骨了。這是一部?jī)?yōu)秀的影片。英式幽默一本正經(jīng)卻讓人忍俊不禁。有過(guò)婚姻生活的人應(yīng)該能理解更深入。

一個(gè)關(guān)于婚外情的故事，情節(jié)很有趣，臺(tái)詞很不錯(cuò)。一對(duì)感情不錯(cuò)，有兩個(gè)孩子，有點(diǎn)經(jīng)濟(jì)壓力的夫婦的平靜生活，在妻子偶然遇見(jiàn)一個(gè)百萬(wàn)富翁后被打破了。也許生活太瑣碎平常，也許百萬(wàn)富翁有錢又有魅力。丈夫明明看出了妻子的變化，卻并沒(méi)有試圖阻止妻子的不忠行為。用他的話說(shuō)：我不能這么做，這會(huì)破壞我們之間的關(guān)系。等妻子的女友（同時(shí)也是他的前女友）過(guò)來(lái)看笑話時(shí)，他坦誠(chéng)地說(shuō)出了自己的感受 -- 憤怒、痛苦、迷失、寂寞，但同時(shí)又表示，他不知道沒(méi)有了她會(huì)怎么樣，洗澡時(shí)唱歌是因?yàn)樗澜酉聛?lái)要和她一起吃早餐。但他不愿意把她勉強(qiáng)留在自己身邊，而心里還渴望著另一個(gè)男人。不得不佩服這個(gè)丈夫的理智，甚至有點(diǎn)超乎尋?！，F(xiàn)實(shí)生活中，有多少丈夫能這樣，明明知道自己的妻子背叛了自己，仍然保持理智的思考，掩飾好自己的情緒，并且很清楚自己需要什么，以及迅速想出應(yīng)該怎么做。

接著，丈夫馬上采取行動(dòng)，邀請(qǐng)那個(gè)第三者過(guò)周末。這段讓人捧腹大笑，兩人在各自的地方打電話時(shí)，身邊都有一個(gè)女人，都說(shuō)著同樣的話，都裝作若無(wú)其事，但心里打著各自的算盤。周末四個(gè)人一起相處，開(kāi)始裝作都不知道，但實(shí)際兩個(gè)女人互相知道，而女朋友和丈夫互相知道，妻子和第三者互相知道，于是妻子也明白丈夫已經(jīng)知道了。很快，第三者說(shuō): He knows that I know he knows. 但戲還在繼續(xù)演，妻子假裝說(shuō)無(wú)意間發(fā)現(xiàn)了一個(gè)箱子，大家都明白箱子里放著第三者送給妻子的名貴貂皮大衣。丈夫提議打開(kāi)箱子，縱目睽睽之下，里面竟是亂七八糟的東西。

丈夫在禮貌、周到地待客的同時(shí)，時(shí)不時(shí)加入一些暗暗的調(diào)侃。接著，兩個(gè)男人獨(dú)處時(shí)把話挑明了。丈夫提出要和第三者用手槍決斗，起先第三者不同意，丈夫說(shuō)，這樣的話，妻子會(huì)因此感到傷害，于是同意了。兩個(gè)老男人為此都戴上了眼鏡。最后丈夫手臂受傷。然后夫妻倆展開(kāi)了一場(chǎng)談話。當(dāng)妻子講起洋娃娃的故事時(shí)意識(shí)到自己仍然深愛(ài)丈夫。加里.格蘭特就是這樣塑造了一個(gè)深愛(ài)妻子，給妻子自由，在發(fā)生危機(jī)時(shí)不失尊嚴(yán)地巧妙地讓妻子重回自己身邊的一個(gè)睿智的英國(guó)男人。這算是他對(duì)自己角色的新嘗試，和以往那些有氣場(chǎng)、有魅力角色不同，這里他是一個(gè)受傷的有點(diǎn)經(jīng)濟(jì)困難的丈夫，面對(duì)妻子的背叛和有錢又有吸引力的對(duì)手的交量。他既要隱忍自己受傷的情緒和痛苦，首先接納妻子背叛的事實(shí)，又要不失體面的想出辦法保護(hù)好自己的家?，F(xiàn)實(shí)中，這樣的丈夫估計(jì)很稀有。

后面貂皮大衣出現(xiàn)的情節(jié)很有趣。那個(gè)管家也很有意思。當(dāng)然，還有妻子的好閨蜜Hattie，簡(jiǎn).西蒙斯也蠻幽默。忽然想到，如果讓西蒙斯演妻子，效果應(yīng)該也不錯(cuò)，她在這里扮演的是丈夫的前女友和妻子的好閨蜜，有點(diǎn)樂(lè)得看戲的角色，因此也搭配的相應(yīng)的妝容和服飾。西蒙斯扮演妻子的話會(huì)更迷人和有魅力，感覺(jué)更有說(shuō)服力。黛博拉.科爾在和第三者碰見(jiàn)那段，感覺(jué)對(duì)于一個(gè)帥氣的百萬(wàn)富翁沒(méi)有那么有吸引力。閨蜜的角色需要一點(diǎn)略微夸張的喜劇效果，倒不是大多女演員能駕馭，也是第一次看到西蒙斯這樣幽默的角色。

The grass is always greener on the other side of the hedge. 這就是片名的由來(lái)吧。

加里.格蘭特后期影片里的表演對(duì)他而言感覺(jué)已經(jīng)很自然了。他只要一出場(chǎng)，自帶氣場(chǎng)，沉穩(wěn)、從容的表情、姿態(tài)和語(yǔ)言，都甚至不需要刻意去表演，自然而然地就和角色融為了一體，讓人感受到其高貴、魅力和幽默的氣質(zhì)。后期有多部不錯(cuò)的作品。當(dāng)然，好的影片不僅僅是演員的表演，但這應(yīng)該是不可或缺的。