Synopsis
Cary Grant plays Sir William Rutland, British industrialist. He has arrived in Tokyo two daysearlier than his hotel reservation, and what with the Olympics going on, there isn’t a room to behad. He fast-talks his way into sharing the apartment of Samantha Eggar, a young woman withobsessive clock-watching habits. She isn’t thrilled to be sharing her apartment with a man, and iseven less thrilled when Grant brings home prickly architect/Olympic athlete Jim Hutton. Eggar iseng…ged to be married, but Grant thinks she can do better (namely with Hutton) and sets about tomake this happen. Walk, Don’t Run is light on its feet, with plenty of sparkling dialogue. Manygood-natured jokes are made at the expense of Grant, playing with the fact that he is no longer amatinee idol, and he seems to delight in mocking himself. There’s also a nice bit where hewhistles the theme to Charade, his last great film, and itself made shortly before this one. A light,frothy, bonbon of a film, and I defy you not to be smiling by the end.
Audio
The soundtrack is mono, and that’s fine. I’d rather a clean mono than a hissing, staticky stereoremix, and this mono is clean. The music (by Quincy Jones) is given a crystalline reproduction(you’ll barely notice it isn’t in stereo). The dialogue, upon which the bulk of the humour rests, isperfectly clear, and the quality of the tone is very consistent. The soundtrack hasn’t noticeablyaged at all.
Video
The picture comes in both full and 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen versions. Given how widethe widescreen is, you’d be nuts to watch the film in 1.33:1. The print is in excellent shape, withspeckling almost completely nonexistent. The image is very sharp, and the colours and contrastsare, for the most part, superb (they are, admittedly, at their best in the studio-shot scenes). Theflesh tones are also very fine. Grain is effectively absent too. There is a little bit of edgeenhancement visible when the characters are wearing dark clothing.
Special Features
Nothing much here: the theatrical trailer, along with those for It Happened One Night andHis Girl Friday.
Closing Thoughts
Grant’s farewell to the screen, though not as well-known as Charade, is still well worthseeing, even on as bare-bones a release as this.
Special Features List
- Theatrical Trailers
