绿苑春浓

A successful play from Hugh Williams and Margaret Vyner in London’s West End, inevitably a cinematic adaption is actualized, starring a quartet bankable names of the first water and THE GRASS IS GREENER is a Stanley Donen vehicle.

The Earl and Countess of Rhyall, Victor and Hilary (Grant and Kerr) have to resort to side hustles like selling mushrooms and permitting guided tours of their palatial mansion, to keep their aristocratic expenditure afloat, and after sending their children away for the opening day of the guided tour (hinting that no drawing-room propriety is in the offing), Victor will soon realize its pecuniary gain is not worth it at all, as one of the tourist, the American oil tycoon Charles Delacro (Mitchum), swimmingly sweeps Hilary of her feet, to the point that the two share a compulsive kiss merely 20 minutes into their first glance.

Charles and Hilary’s coup de foudre extends over the visiting hours, and when Hilary casually mentions that she intends to attend to her coiffure in London, while being entirely cognizant of her veiled motive to meet Charles there, Victor offers no objection, and one week later, he even invites Charles to their mansion for a weekend gathering, also present is Hattie Durant (Simmons), an American heiress who is Hilary’s best friend and Victor’s old flame, who sees the opportunity to insinuate herself into the household now that Hilary’s adultery is out in the open, only she wishes!

A chamber piece mostly takes place inside an opulent, authentic manor (including a cockamamie duel scene, nonetheless!) and boasts regal fineries for its quartet performers (those bowties, gowns, headwear, millinery and jewelry), THE GRASS IS GREENER is essentially a tongue-in-cheek farce about a respectable wife’s blatant affair and her equally respectable husband’s unorthodox countermove, all hemmed within the parameters of typified Britishness, staid, assertive but also self-consciously contradictory and humorous, whether it is a cuckolded husband’s resignation of his wife’s amatory emancipation toward another man, or a cunningly deployed scheme to gain the upper hand (to take a bullet in the arm with a stiff upper lip is a prerequisite), or a mint coat is all a woman needs to die for.

Occasionally Donen also surprises us with entrancing visual flair, like juxtaposing the almost identical reactions and conversations of the two parties at the ends of a telephone call, but underneath all its silk-stocking fluffy facade, the story’s liberal stance on matrimony, coruscating sophistication, hazy innuendos and droll exuberance are all over the place amid its fast-paced verbiage.

Accent aside, Grant’s star-spangle assurance is not particularly British, but he reels off the dialog with particular élan and his usuall nonchalance, athwart an arrogant but suave Mitchum, who has not an inkling of trepidation to court a married woman and is not deterred from any pretense of rejection; a flirtatious Simmons, who can pull off an open face to be quizzical over whether “primitive” is complimentary or not; and a demure but wholly unbridled Kerr, for once, shucking off her ladylike formality to something more unconventional, yet she demands respect and amazement from everyone else, between mushrooms and a mint coat, you can always rely on her to make the right choice; rounding out the cast is Trevor Sellers (Watson, the sole holdover from the original play), the butler who insists on deducting his wages to tide over his employer, and turns out to have many strings to his bow, even if writing a novel is not the right vocation.

referential entries: Donen’s CHARADE (1963, 8.1/10); Leo McCarey’s AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER (1957, 8.4/10).

这是黛博拉.科尔和加里.格兰特合作的最后一部影片。另外，简.西蒙斯也是著名演员，曾经看过《王子复仇记》，《远大前程》，还有《荆棘鸟》，年轻时很美，觉得有点像费.雯丽，在本片中的角色挺有趣的。罗伯特.米切姆也演得不错。他们四个都是老戏骨了。这是一部优秀的影片。英式幽默一本正经却让人忍俊不禁。有过婚姻生活的人应该能理解更深入。

一个关于婚外情的故事，情节很有趣，台词很不错。一对感情不错，有两个孩子，有点经济压力的夫妇的平静生活，在妻子偶然遇见一个百万富翁后被打破了。也许生活太琐碎平常，也许百万富翁有钱又有魅力。丈夫明明看出了妻子的变化，却并没有试图阻止妻子的不忠行为。用他的话说：我不能这么做，这会破坏我们之间的关系。等妻子的女友（同时也是他的前女友）过来看笑话时，他坦诚地说出了自己的感受 -- 愤怒、痛苦、迷失、寂寞，但同时又表示，他不知道没有了她会怎么样，洗澡时唱歌是因为他知道接下来要和她一起吃早餐。但他不愿意把她勉强留在自己身边，而心里还渴望着另一个男人。不得不佩服这个丈夫的理智，甚至有点超乎寻常。现实生活中，有多少丈夫能这样，明明知道自己的妻子背叛了自己，仍然保持理智的思考，掩饰好自己的情绪，并且很清楚自己需要什么，以及迅速想出应该怎么做。

接着，丈夫马上采取行动，邀请那个第三者过周末。这段让人捧腹大笑，两人在各自的地方打电话时，身边都有一个女人，都说着同样的话，都装作若无其事，但心里打着各自的算盘。周末四个人一起相处，开始装作都不知道，但实际两个女人互相知道，而女朋友和丈夫互相知道，妻子和第三者互相知道，于是妻子也明白丈夫已经知道了。很快，第三者说: He knows that I know he knows. 但戏还在继续演，妻子假装说无意间发现了一个箱子，大家都明白箱子里放着第三者送给妻子的名贵貂皮大衣。丈夫提议打开箱子，纵目睽睽之下，里面竟是乱七八糟的东西。

丈夫在礼貌、周到地待客的同时，时不时加入一些暗暗的调侃。接着，两个男人独处时把话挑明了。丈夫提出要和第三者用手枪决斗，起先第三者不同意，丈夫说，这样的话，妻子会因此感到伤害，于是同意了。两个老男人为此都戴上了眼镜。最后丈夫手臂受伤。然后夫妻俩展开了一场谈话。当妻子讲起洋娃娃的故事时意识到自己仍然深爱丈夫。加里.格兰特就是这样塑造了一个深爱妻子，给妻子自由，在发生危机时不失尊严地巧妙地让妻子重回自己身边的一个睿智的英国男人。这算是他对自己角色的新尝试，和以往那些有气场、有魅力角色不同，这里他是一个受伤的有点经济困难的丈夫，面对妻子的背叛和有钱又有吸引力的对手的交量。他既要隐忍自己受伤的情绪和痛苦，首先接纳妻子背叛的事实，又要不失体面的想出办法保护好自己的家。现实中，这样的丈夫估计很稀有。

后面貂皮大衣出现的情节很有趣。那个管家也很有意思。当然，还有妻子的好闺蜜Hattie，简.西蒙斯也蛮幽默。忽然想到，如果让西蒙斯演妻子，效果应该也不错，她在这里扮演的是丈夫的前女友和妻子的好闺蜜，有点乐得看戏的角色，因此也搭配的相应的妆容和服饰。西蒙斯扮演妻子的话会更迷人和有魅力，感觉更有说服力。黛博拉.科尔在和第三者碰见那段，感觉对于一个帅气的百万富翁没有那么有吸引力。闺蜜的角色需要一点略微夸张的喜剧效果，倒不是大多女演员能驾驭，也是第一次看到西蒙斯这样幽默的角色。

The grass is always greener on the other side of the hedge. 这就是片名的由来吧。

加里.格兰特后期影片里的表演对他而言感觉已经很自然了。他只要一出场，自带气场，沉稳、从容的表情、姿态和语言，都甚至不需要刻意去表演，自然而然地就和角色融为了一体，让人感受到其高贵、魅力和幽默的气质。后期有多部不错的作品。当然，好的影片不仅仅是演员的表演，但这应该是不可或缺的。