About people bashing this film

Umm, it's obviously 1960s , not the beginning of the 1900s. Loren's character was born in Hong Kong to her Russian refugee parents which puts the setting just right.

Yeah, it's not a particularly bad movie.

It's certainly not must-see Chaplin material though.

I mentioned it to my mother and she remembers seeing it when it first came out in 1967! (She's a fan of both Brando and Loren. She had completely forgotten it was directed by Chaplin.)

She remembered it because when she saw it, she hadn't been to the movies for a while. (My brother was born late in 1965 and with two kids (me born in 1964) she didn't get out much for quite a while.) She remembers enjoying it. She was surprised when I said it has a reputation for being a bad movie. She doesn't remember anything about reading or hearing that it was a colossal bomb when it first came out.

Janet! Donkeys!

also, no way is sofia looking better than ever in this, her skin is pale and she's wearing baggy clothes most of the movie. some rough cutting, and at one point the changing of scenes looked like when a tv movie breaks for commercial. though she looks better on the cover and the dvd meny, and sophia hasn't exactly got dogs around her in this movie, still it's funny how she really stands out. the funniest scene of the movie i thought was the one with margaret rutherford, the granny from the old black and white "murder she said" movies that tcm airs, i didn't know who that was first time i saw this. unexpected the hitchcock actress tippi hedren showing up when the movie is close to over, and she gets big credit for that part. considering the stars and this being an easy accessed movie, i didn't expect this board to have such little buzz on it.



youre trouble and i want no part of it,
as you seduced till i forgot it,
resisted till the passion from your hotness,
threw your hair and played with treat,
till you got your claws in me,
and for you i reached.

It's definitely not the worst movie in the world, but the bad chemistry between Brando and Loren definitely undermines what could have been a solid screwball comedy. The screwball style, by the way, is what critics means when they say the movie was made "in the wrong decade." The 1960s-- particularly 1967, the year COUNTESS came out-- was seen as a time of radical cinematic change, so Chaplin making a sweet old-fashioned romantic comedy would not seem anything but anachronistic in comparison.