Walter Eckland is a filthy beast. He admits it himself and is rather proud of the fact. Catherine Freneau is a goody-two-shoes, and she, too, is proud of it. So what happens when you take a filthy beast and a goody-two-shoes, strand them on an island in the middle of a war, and throw a handful of homeless girls into the mix? A great movie, of course.
Walter Eckland (Cary Grant) is an irresponsible wanderer who spends his life puttering around in his boat. Disenchanted with the structured life he used to lead as a college professor, he has put any form of structure far behind him. He is asked by the British be a spotter, to live in a little shack they will provide and spy out Japanese aircraft flying overhead, radioing headquarters when he sees one. He’s reluctant at first, but they bribe him: a bottle of whiskey for every plane he sees. Feeling a bit thirsty, he takes them up on their offer.
Late one night, the rain is coming down hard on his little island shack when his radio crackles. One of the spotters on another island has gone missing and they want Walter to go see what’s up. They promise to give him all the bottles of whiskey he has coming to him, all at once, if he’ll take a trip to see what’s what. What ends up being what is not the what he went to discover – a woman (Leslie Caron) with seven young girls, hiding in the spotter’s hut and the spotter, dead and buried.
The Japanese are taking over the island and Walter has no choice but to load the girls into his small craft and take them back to his own island. He’s not used to girls and they’re not used to filthy beasts, but he manages it anyhow. Then word comes down from HQ – they can’t send a plane or a boat in to get the girls for some time. Walter is going to have to keep them.
The rest of the movie is delightful as we see him trying to acquaint himself with the softer side of life and her trying to put up with him. They banter back and forth most beautifully, the humor flying like Frisbees even in the midst of the war. I highly recommend this movie for romance and for humor.
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