A Countess from Hong Kong

Fun at Sea! His Cabin, His PJs, Her Move!
A Countess from Hong Kong (1967)
6.5/10
14 154
—
no scores
6/10
204
6.1/10
7700
Rate the movie:
Release date
Budget
$3 500 000
Revenue
$2 000 000
Director
Scenario
Composer
Producer
Actors
Photo Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando
Ogden Mears
Photo Sophia Loren
Sophia Loren
Natascha
Photo Sydney Chaplin
Sydney Chaplin
Harvey Crothers
Photo Tippi Hedren
Tippi Hedren
Martha Mears
Photo Michael Medwin
Michael Medwin
John Felix
Photo Oliver Johnston
Oliver Johnston
Clark
Photo John Paul
John Paul
The Captain
All actors and roles (10)

Short description

A Russian countess named Natascha, who has been living in Hong Kong and working as a dancer, hides aboard an ocean liner in the stateroom of Ogden Mears, an American diplomat and oil magnate's son. She hopes the voyage will take her to the United States and a new life. Her presence is discovered, and Mears finds himself in an awkward position: he has been appointed ambassador to Arabia, and his wife Martha is waiting to meet him along the way. What begins as an inconvenience develops into an attachment between the two.

Charlie Chaplin directed, wrote and produced the film, the twenty-second of the twenty-two features he directed, arriving a decade after A King in New York. Marlon Brando and Sophia Loren head the cast as Mears and Natascha, with Sydney Chaplin, Tippi Hedren, Patrick Cargill and Michael Medwin in supporting roles; forty-two performers are credited in all. The production, backed by Universal Pictures and Chaplin's own company, cost around four million dollars and returned roughly half that amount at the worldwide box office.

On IMDb the film holds a rating of 6.1 from about 7,700 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 6 out of 10 from 203 votes, indicating a modest but persistent level of viewer interest. A critics' rating of 4.7 out of 10 from seven reviews places it below the audience scores on both platforms.

What's left behind the scenes

  • "The Countess from Hong Kong" was Tippi Hedren's first film after her breakup with Alfred Hitchcock. The actress had high hopes for the film, but upon seeing the script, she realized she would be playing the episodic role of the main character's wife and was disappointed.
  • Marlon Brando (1924-2004) always admired the work of Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977), but they didn't get along very well on set. In his autobiography, Brando called Chaplin a "sadist." Chaplin, in turn, claimed that working with Brando was "simply impossible."
  • The film's premiere in London in 1967 was shown through a special spherical lens (this was required for the film shown immediately before Chaplin's film, and the equipment was simply forgotten to be turned off and removed). This resulted in the distorted spherical image that critics immediately attributed to Chaplin's "fatigue." This was not the case at all, but the film flopped at the box office, causing Chaplin to fall into a deep depression.

Similar movies

What stayed with you from this film?

To leave a comment, please log in or sign up. Free sign up!

© ACMODASI, 2010-2026

All rights reserved.
The materials (trademarks, videos, images and text) contained on this site are the property of their respective owners. It is forbidden to use any materials from this site without prior agreement with their owner.
When copying text and graphic materials (videos, images, text, screenshots of pages) from this site, an active link to the site www.acmodasi.in must necessarily accompany such material.
We are not responsible for any information posted on this site by third parties.