Friday, March 27, 2020

A Man About the House (1947)

Two stiff upper lip single Englishwomen Agnes (Margaret Johnston) and Ellen (Dulcie Grey) own a school in rainy London but are pretty hard-up. Then they unexpectedly inherit an Italian villa near Naples from their uncle. They go out to Italy with the expectation to quickly sell the villa but are quickly seduced (in more ways than one) by Naples and the hunky Salvatore (Kieron Moore) who likes to go about shirtless as much as possible...

However Salvatore was originally promised the villa by his ex-master. Others note that he seems to be taking the loss of his inheritance pretty well. Or does he have a secret plan? When Agnes, who by now is smitten to Salvatore, falls ill is there a darker reason why?

The contrast between the repressed English and the happy Italians is amusingly large, especially as both sides are pretty heavily sterotyped in their own way. An enjoyable film though not without it's flaws.