Houseboat (1958) – Movie《水上人家》/《一家春》/《船屋》

A great 50’s Romantic family classic with a happy ending. The story is about how a handsome widower, a diplomat from Washington D.C, Tom Winston (Cary Grant卡里格兰特) fell in love with Cinzia Zaccardi (Sophia Loren索非亚罗兰), daughter of a prominent classical conductor and a beautiful Italian woman. I find a lot of similarities between this movie and "The Sound of Music"《音乐之声》, in that a woman comes into a dysfunctional family and not only reunites its members but marries the head of the house, who always happens to be handsome and charming. Also the three mischievous, premature kids were adorable and gave the movie a very vivid family touch.


I especially enjoyed the scene of CG brought three formal dressed kids to the live concert on Lincoln Memorial Circle. It was lovely! If you pay attention, all the audiences were dressed formally and nicely. It was a great night out with good taste. I once read about that fashion and lifestyle in Washington D.C has been highly connected to politics, society and the people who reside in White House. The Democrats are more hip, more liberal, with the more conservative Republican Party. President Clinton often had free concerts on the Mall where he brought in bands from all over the world. The movie was taken in 1958 during which was Republican Eisenhower in charge. This might not be a reflection of the reality of the time.


The wardrobe is impeccable and stunning as always in those days. Sophia Loren’s beauty is exotic, wild and European. She was very much tanned, same was CG. It is interesting to see how my view of beautiful things evolves as I grow up and exploit the world. I still remember when I was a kid, I saw some pictures of her from movie magazines and I thought that was one ugly face!Veteran clothes designer Edith Head, long a Paramount legend with her incredible clothes designs over 40 years for all of the Paramount stars is the leading designer for the wardrobe. Sophia Loren shines from the head to toe in these glamorous, lavish and highly flattering clothes with matching hats, gloves and scarves.
A great movie aside, I was definitely dazzled by these beautiful dresses:

A Simple army green dress clung to SL's curvaceous figure:

The stunning Little Black Dress (LBD). They first met.

The breath-taking gold party dress
(This was actually fun. Carolyn, Tom’s deceased wife’s little sister, who has been in love with Tom, bought a very tacky golden dress decorated with pink roses for Cinzia to a party. There was obvious competition between the two women. SL changed it to a stunning, sexy one which wowed Carolyn when they met that night. Talk about creativity!)


The grand wedding dress:

Other LBDs and outfits spotted on SL:
No.2 character Carolyn was also gorgeous in this film:

And finally, let's take a look at the lovely kids and the houseboat, in case that you like me had no idea about what a houseboat looks like before I watch the film.