Houseboat

Tom Winters is a widower and Washington lawyer who barely knows his three young children, since they were raised in the countryside by their grandparents after he and his wife separated. When he brings them to the city, the children struggle to adjust, and one of them runs away, only to be found by Cinzia Zaccardi, an Italian woman who has left her father, a famous conductor, while he tours the United States. The boy takes to her, and he and his siblings persuade their reluctant father to hire her as their housekeeper. She moves onto the houseboat where the family now lives, and although she knows little about running a household, she gradually wins over the children and, in time, their father.

Melville Shavelson directed and co-wrote the film with Jack Rose, who produced, and Betsy Drake. It was the first of the four features Shavelson directed, ahead of It Started in Naples, On the Double and Yours, Mine and Ours. Cary Grant stars as Tom, with Sophia Loren as Cinzia; Martha Hyer, Harry Guardino, Eduardo Ciannelli and Murray Hamilton appear alongside them, among a credited cast of sixty-two. Released by Paramount, the film took in about four million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds 6.6 out of 10 from roughly ten thousand votes, and on TMDB 6.4 from about two hundred. A critics' rating of 6 out of 10 from eleven reviews places it close to the audience scores.