40 Carats (1973)

User Rating:

6.0/10   

Director:

Milton Katselas

Writers:

Pierre Barillet (play)
Leonard Gershe (writer)

Release Date:

6 December 1973 (Finland)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

She's a divorcee. She's forty. She's engaged... to a younger man.

Plot:

A forty year old woman who was vacationing in Greece meets a twenty-two year old, who was also on vacation...

Plot Keywords:

Greece | Older Woman Younger Man | Tadpoling | Based On Play | Number In Title

Awards:

Nominated for Golden Globe. Another 1 nomination

Cast

Liv Ullmann	...	Ann Stanley
Edward Albert	...	Peter Latham
Gene Kelly	...	Billy Boylan
Binnie Barnes	...	Maud Ericson
Deborah Raffin	...	Trina Stanley
Billy Green Bush	...	J.D. Rogers
Nancy Walker	...	Mrs. Margolin
Don Porter	...	Mr. Latham
Rosemary Murphy	...	Mrs. Latham
Natalie Schafer	...	Mrs. Adams
Claudia Jennings	...	Gabriella
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Sam Chew Jr.	...	Arthur Forbes
Brooke Palance	...	Polly
Andrea True	...	Extra

Also Known As:

Forty Carats (USA) (alternative spelling)

Runtime:

110 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:L | Finland:S | Sweden:Btl | USA:PG | Argentina:Atp

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

The original Broadway production of "40 Carats" written by Pierre Barillet and 'Jean-Pierre Gredy' and adapted by Jay Presson Allen opened at the Morosco Theater in New York on December 26, 1968, ran for 780 performances and received a 1969 Tony Award for Best Actress (Julie Harris). The Jay Presson Allen adaptation was used for this filmed production.

Movie Connections:

References The Graduate (1967)

And There Is Love... In Every Corner Of The World...

This a breezy comedy based on a hit Broadway play and one of the few worthwhile comic tales depicting the relationship between a younger man and an older woman. While on holidays, visiting Greece, a divorced real estate agent encounters by chance a vital young man, and they have a brief romantic interlude.

She leaves him while he is sleeping and escapes back to New York. Regaining the cherrished stability she has conquered as a lady executive, she settles down on her lovely apartment where she lives with her daughter and her mother. Until - very much in the fashion of every Broadway farce there is - they receive an unexpected visitor. Peter Latham, the man our main character had an affair with while in Greece. But now, he is introduced as a friend of her daughter's.

After constant bickering, they decide to get married, but will their relationship last?

'40 Carats' is a light, entertaining and cheerful movie, filled with beautiful, rich people whose vain problems serve as the basis for an plot. The characters have social status written all over their foreheads and their reaction to the plot's major complications are clever one-liners encouraged by greek drinks and the prospect of a happy, happy ending. The film does not attempt to be deep, for it's subject is a rather delicate one - the producers were aiming for time-filling entertainment and they really did it.

But this film suffers mostly from the miscasting of Liv Ullmann, Ingmar Bergman's norwegian muse. No matter how versatile the wonderful Ms. Ullmann can be, she is a rather indelible case of typecasting - used to play such profound characters whose heartaches and emotional flaws we can relate to, she seems uncomfortable portraying a futile woman whose psyche isn't that complex, after all. The one scene in which her character really makes the transition between a woman caught in a whirlwind of happenings and a woman whose pain is overwhelmingly intense, nevertheless, is a cinematic gem. In this scene she confronts her future in laws.

Another highlight of the film is Michel Legrand's beautiful soundtrack that includes the love theme 'In Every Corner Of The World', and Gene Kelly's performance as Liv Ullmann's annoying first husband.

All in all, this is a movie whose delicate subject provokes a barrier that keeps it from being a great film, but is, nevertheless, sheer cinematic delight.