Surprise Package

Stanley Donen may have been the producer and director and the stars might be Yul Brynner and Mitzi Gaynor, as well as Noel Coward, but this comedy is a British production, filmed mostly on the island of Rhodes and shot, not in picture-postcard colour, but in black and white. The thin plot has deported gangster Brynner planning to steal exiled king Noel Coward's crown and the largely British cast includes George Coulouris, Warren Mitchell, Lyndon Brook and Eric Pohlmann as a corrupt police chief. Brynner does his best but he's not a natural comic actor and this is one of his poorest performances and try as he might, even a miscast Coward can do nothing with the mostly limp material, (though at least he does stop the show when he sings the title song). The film's real surprise is Gaynor as Brynner's moll. She's no actress but she sure is sprightly in that perky Mitzi Gaynor way of hers. It's not terrible; in fact, it's quite amusing in its very daft way but it's hardly Donen's finest hour.