Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

BoardChiri Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Brendon Jones It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Michael Morrison Two men and a woman are stranded on a desert island. If they are English, there is no problem: They haven't been introduced. If they are Spanish, there is no problem: One of the men will kill the other. If they are Italian, there is no problem: The woman will kill one of the men. If they are American, there is no problem: They will be too busy talking about business. If they are French, there is no problem. Alas for this story, the two men are English, and the woman is American, and they already knew one another well -- perhaps too well. The story, from a French play more risqué, or even downright explicit, is reasonably plausible, by Hollywood standards, rather well acted, but so badly edited it is a crime. There are way too many scenes that do not match: For example, from one angle, a character has his arms crossed, then the next shot shows him with his arms at his side. "The Little Hut" is full of such bad continuity or bad editing or bad directing ... or combination thereof. Still Ava Gardner, an enchanting and under-rated actress, in her various abbreviated costumes almost makes this worthwhile all by herself. Almost.

eschetic-2 Barely three and a half years after just scraping out a month's run (7-31 Oct. 1953) at Broadway's Coronet Theatre (on west 49th Street; since renamed the O'Neill), MGM relied on the earlier solid London success of the play to lavish a wonderful cast and - for the most part - carefully "opened up" production on a sadly trimmed down screenplay of this slyly subversive boulevard comedy and were rewarded with a modest hit.Ava Gardner is the increasingly frustrated wife of Stewart Granger, an internationally successful and entirely complacent "workaholic" (before the term had been coined) using the perpetually frustrated David Niven to attempt to rekindle passion in her spouse. When the "second honeymoon" cruise Gardner inveigles Granger into leaves the trio (and Granger's dog) marooned on a south sea island (were there other survivors? That's for later plot developments), Granger continues right on managing the world around him - building a big hut for himself and his wife and a little one of the title for Niven - or the unattached male.The core of the actual plot of the play only gets going about half way through the film when Niven proposes that Granger and he alternate as tenants of the Little Hut - sharing the only female on the island as Granger has been willing to share the only pair of shoes (his).Reason (which Granger considers his strong point) reigns and frustration reigns supreme - for a while.David Niven and Ava Gardner are superb in their appointed roles of suave would-be seducer and seductress, and Stuart Granger - usually called upon merely to be handsome and virile in action roles and the odd miscast specialty (a crowing pretty-boy as Apollodorus in Shaw's CAESAR AND CLEOPATRA in 1945) - gives one of the better acting performances of his film career as the husband who may actually be as smart as he thinks he is. 33 years later he would again show this suave urbanity opposite Rex Harrison in Granger's first (and BOTH their last) Broadway engagements in a hit revival of Somerset Maugham's THE CIRCLE which only ended with Harrison's death. We'd be far richer if Granger had used these skills more often.As promising as the menage is, this is, after all, a very British Boulevard Comedy AND Hollywood in the 1950's which is to say that (unlike the source play) very little sex actually goes on. To be frank, if you don't give yourself over to the ideas driving the contrivances it does get a bit silly. The same basic plot is far more satisfyingly developed three years later in the Cary Grant/Deborah Kerr/Robert Mitchum/Jean Simmons (Stewart Granger's actual wife) THE GRASS IS GREENER, based on an even less successful play, 'though for some reason that superior trifle failed at the box office, and much earlier in J.M. Barrie's superb THE ADMIRABLE CRICHTON.As lavishly as MGM set the piece, there were unfortunate lapses - the silliness which ends the stay on the island is cartoonishly presaged in what should have been a moment of genuine excitement - the sinking of the yacht that PUTS them on the island. Ultimately we only get about three quarters of an hour of the real Little Hut, but ninety good minutes of David Niven, Ava Gardner and Stewart Granger that make the film a fun diversion. Not high culture, but a worthy guilty pleasure.We even get some very nice garnish in Walter Chiari (reputed to be Ava's actual lover at the time). As one of his better speeches goes: "Boola, boola!"

vilaalbert The script of "The little hut" was written by the French writer André Roussin (1911-1987), based on his play "La petite hutte"(1947). Both play and script are, in fact, a plagiarism of another play in Catalan, written by the novelist and play writer Carles Soldevila (1892-1967), "Civilitzats tanmateix" ("Nevertheless civilized")(1921). This play was known in France much before the robbery of Roussin, through a translation by Adolphe de Faigairolle and Francesc Presas, published in 1927 in the magazine "Candide". Recently "Civilitzats tanmateix" has become a musical by Albert Guinovart, with the title of "Paradís" (Paradise).

evelynruthragan Not everyone who sees "The Little Hut" will understand the humor displayed. It is a more worldly comedy from another time--fifty years ago. What made us laugh then or 100 years ago or even now, is different, because we are products of the time period and location in which we live.Ava Gardner portrays Lady Susan Ashlow, a play on a previous character from "The Sun Also Rises", Lady Brett Ashley (also released 1957). Stuart Grainger, who co-starred with her in "Bhowani Junction" the previous year and David Niven, who co-stared with her later in "55 Days At Peking" also star. It's tongue-in-cheek repartee are over the heads of most of the "X" generation that only can read enough to access information on the internet. If you've never read a book, don't bother seeing this movie--you won't get it. But if you remember: Kennedy, cocktail hour, the bomb, etc. you will understand and enjoy this movie.