Love Is a Ball

1963

Comedy / Romance

1
IMDb Rating 6.0/10 10 712 712

french riviera poor naive girl

Plot summary

Etienne makes a good living out of marrying off poor but titled young men to rich but untitled young ladies. Millicent is now in his sights on the Riviera, and Grand Duke Gaspar is the bait. But what if Millicent starts to fancy planted chauffeur John instead, and Gaspar takes a shine to Etienne's secretary Janine?

Director

David Swift Photo
David Swift

Top cast

Ricardo Montalban Photo
Ricardo Montalban as Duke Gaspard Ducluzeau
André Luguet Photo
André Luguet as Maurice Zoltan
Telly Savalas Photo
Telly Savalas as Dr. Christian Gump - Millie's Uncle
Hope Lange Photo
Hope Lange as Millicent 'Millie' Mehaffey
480p.DVD
997.92 MB
850*364
Unknown language 2.0
NR
30 fps
1 hr 52 min
Seeds 4

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by planktonrules 7 / 10

Quite enjoyable.

"Love Is a Ball" is a very strange sort of matchmaker movie. Instead of doing things the NORMAL way, Etienne Pimm (Charles Boyer) is one sneaky guy! He finds poor members of nobility and pairs them up with super-rich spouses. However, he IS sneaky....and doesn't tell the rich folks he's doing this. Instead, he and his crew are actors who ingratiate themselves to the rich family and covertly arrange for the pair to meet and fall in love! It's all very mercenary and Pimm is really good at his job. However, in the care of Millie (Hope Lange) he has an unexpected problem...over time, instead of falling for the poor nobleman (Ricardo Montalban), she starts to fall for her new chauffeur (Glenn Ford)! What's next in this cute little romance? See for yourself...This is a nice and inconsequential romantic comedy--the sort of date film that is fun to watch with someone you love. It won't change your life but will make you smile...unless, of course, you're a nasty jerk-face who doesn't like happy endings and romance.
Reviewed by a_chinn 6 / 10

Routine but enjoyable 1960s romcom from a strong cast

Completely bland and predictable romantic comedy is propped up by a solid cast. Set on the French Riviera, Charles Boyer plays a matchmaker for penniless aristocrats. Boyer is this time helping goofy Ricardo Montalban woo Hope Lange, and brings on John Wood (Professor Falken from "WarGames") to give him English refinements and also Glenn Ford to help him with race car driving because of Lange's dream to participate in the Grand Prix. In typical romcom fashion, Lange and Ford accidentally meet and at first annoy each other and then fall in love. The story is fluff to the point of annoyance and at times feels as if it's trying too hard to be 1960s cool, but the cast are likable, which also includes Telly Savalas as Lange's father, and that's enough to carry the film. It also helps that there's a peppy score from Michel Legrand ("The Thomas Crown Affair" "Summer of '42" "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg") and has breezy direction from David Swift, who memorably wrote and directed "The Parent Trap" and "Pollyanna." Overall, you'll likely completely forget about this film after the credit roll, but it's fairly entertaining while you watch.
Reviewed by bkoganbing 7 / 10

Team Gaspard

In Love Is A Ball Glenn Ford is a down on his luck charter boat captain who is asked to join an unusual enterprise by Charles Boyer. Ford has his charter boat business on the French Riviera which is a great place to be if you're down on your luck. This project involves training Ricardo Montalban in the fine arts of royal behavior. Montalban is royalty all right, but the exiled and impoverished kind. Still he does have a somewhat tarnished title the kind that rich folks might marry for the prestige.This is a plot situation that goes back to authors like Henry James and Mark Twain, the rich Americans getting together nobility down on its luck. You can still find a flock of them today on the Riviera. The problem is that Montalban as Prince Gaspard lacks a lot of polish, in fact he's from the Inspector Clousseau school of unpolished. Hence Boyer as his manager has assembled his team to give him that. Ford's job on the team is to teach him race car driving and horseback riding, he's done both in the past.The object of all this prince preparation is heiress Hope Lange who is visiting the Riviera with grandmother Ruth McDevitt and uncle Telly Savalas. Ford also is hired on as a chauffeur for wild child Lange to watch the investment for the team.The most interesting performance in the film is Montalban's who shows a nice comic touch with some tender moments of self reflection with Boyer's secretary Ulla Jacobbson. He realizes more than anyone else what an essentially useless life he leads. Though Clousseau was not yet on the scene, Montalban had the rich comic genius of Jerry Lewis to get some of his moves down for this film.Ford and Hope Lange were an item at the time and the film was made around the tail end of Ford's career height as a box office star. It's got some nice cinematography of the French Riviera, a place like Hawaii it's impossible to get bad pictures of and a cast that delivers the goods for the viewer.What's not to like?
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