Walk Don't Run (1966)

During the housing shortage of the Summer Olympic Games in 1964, two men and a woman share a small apartment in Tokyo, and the older man soon starts playing Cupid to the younger pair.

Director:

Charles Walters

Writers:

Robert Russell (story), Frank Ross (story)

Stars:

Cary Grant, Samantha Eggar, Jim Hutton

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Cary Grant	...	Sir William Rutland
Samantha Eggar	...	Christine Easton
Jim Hutton	...	Steve Davis
John Standing	...	Julius D. Haversack
Miiko Taka	...	Aiko Kurawa
Ted Hartley	...	Yuri Andreyovitch
Ben Astar	...	Dimitri
George Takei	...	Police Captain
Teru Shimada	...	Mr. Kurawa
Lois Kiuchi	...	Mrs. Kurawa

Storyline

British industrialist Sir William Rutland - "Bill" to his friends - is in Tokyo on a business trip during the time of the Summer Olympic Games there in 1964. Having actually arrived in Tokyo two days before his original planned arrival, he has problems finding a hotel room because of the Olympics. Spotting an ad posted on a British Embassy message board of a room available to sublet, Bill is able to wrangle his way into the apartment of Christine Easton, who is renting out the sitting room of her one-bedroom apartment as a bedroom for the duration of the Olympics. Bill's short-term living situation in Christine's sitting room is despite her solely wanting a female roommate. Soon thereafter, Bill meets Steve Davis, an athlete with the American Olympic team who seems to be reluctant to disclose in which event he is competing. Like Bill, Steve has arrived in Tokyo two days early of his scheduled arrival, has nowhere to stay for those two days, and without Christine's knowledge also ...

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Plot Keywords:

olympics | embassy | housing shortage | lead actor's last film | racewalking | 

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Taglines:

Walk, don't run...to the land of the rising fun!

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Genres:

Comedy | Romance

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Japanese

Release Date:

29 June 1966 (USA)

Also Known As:

Walk, Don't Run

Filming Locations:

Shimbashi, Tokyo, Japan

Company Credits

Production Co:

Sol C. Siegel Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

114 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

To confirm this was his last film, Cary Grant's character did not get the girl.

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Goofs

At the race, the announcer says an Australian race-walker took 9th place with a time of 4 hours 53 minutes. 9th place was actually taken by Charles Sowa of Luxembourg with 4:20:37.2. 4:53:00 would have taken 28th place.

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Quotes

Christine Easton: After 7:45, you can have the bathroom all day if you'd like.
Sir William Rutland: I wouldn't know what to do in the bathroom all day!

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Connections

Features The Man from Laramie (1955)

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Soundtracks

Charade
(uncredited)
Music by Henry Mancini
Whistled by Cary Grant

User Reviews

A Tokyo Location

I'm sure that Cary Grant was dangled the prospect of a nice all expenses paid for location shooting in Tokyo for his final film, Walk Don't Run. It's the reason he did the film I'm sure.

It's not a bad film to go out on, not near as good as say The Shootist was for John Wayne, but no Cuban Rebel Girl like Errol Flynn had. It's a remake of an earlier Columbia Pictures hit, The More the Merrier that starred Joel McCrea, Jean Arthur, and Charles Coburn. Coburn got a best supporting Actor Oscar for his performance and Grant has his part.

The original film dealt with a tremendous housing shortage in Washington, DC during the World War II, a crisis of four year duration as opposed to a few weeks in Tokyo where because of the Olympics of 1964 there are no hotel rooms to be had.

On a whim, visiting industrialist Cary Grant answers an ad for a room mate posted at the British Embassy by Samantha Eggar. She gets the full court Cary Grant charm and after a bit of reluctance, allows him to stay. Then Grant lends half of his half to American Olympic athlete Jim Hutton.

Eggar has a fiancé, but foxy Cary works his wiles on both Samantha and Jim. The results are obvious.

Walk Don't Run has a few funny moments, Cary Grant style, especially when Grant strips down to his underwear to talk to Hutton during Hutton's event which is the long distance walk. He also has to pry Eggar's fiancé away to get Eggar and Hutton together. John Standing is Eggar's fiancé and he puts in a droll performance as a dull predictable British civil servant.

Cary managed to mine a few more laughs out of his last screen role, but you decide if the trip was worth it.