Summer Under the Stars: Steve McQueen
Star of the Day: Steve McQueen
The Honeymoon Machine (1961) - Two sailors discover a way to beat the roulette tables in a Venice casino.
If you don't know much about Steve McQueen, I think one thing is just universally accepted about him: he was cool. Very cool. His '60s films like Bullitt, The Great Escape, The Thomas Crown Affair are all classics now. But I went for another choice when I looked up the movies on his day: I went with a caper comedy, The Honeymoon Machine, just because his roles are normally so serious, I wanted to see him in a comedy. Plus, I'm becoming a big fan of the Paula Prentiss/Jim Hutton partnership, and they're supporting characters in this film, so that was an added bonus.
The Honeymoon Machine was a fun caper set in Venice: it's all about Steve and Jim coming up with a way to always win at roulette using Navy machinery. They just have to keep it secret from the Admiral, and his daughter (who is played by a 17-year-old, which is skeezy looking back, considering she's in love with Steve's character and he was 31 at the time) gets wrapped up into the scheme as well. Paula plays a totally farsighted woman who falls in love with Jim's character.
It was fun, I really enjoyed it, but I do love these early '60s comedies.
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