Director's Comments
Dimitri de Grunwald had a Moss Hart sketch, which had been adapted by his old Russian friend Monja Danischewsky, (a member of the Ealing comedy team) which he thought would be a good vehicle for Roger Moore and Sophia Loren.
When I read it I thought the central theme had promise, but in general it was not very relevant to today, (hardly surprising since Hart was born in 1904). Dimitri soon agreed with me that a new writer was needed, and after interviewing several, we chose Jack (John) Briley. He had a nice sense of humour, and apart from his screenplays up until then (he later wrote 'Gandhi' and 'Cry Freedom') he had written some comedy sketches for the USA Air Force after he moved to the UK from America.
As Roger had to spend a limited time in the UK, various countries were considered, and moving on from Paris, Dimitri's and my favorite city, I suggested Brussels, home to NATO and the European Union, and where it seemed both organizations had recently been having some difficulties which could lead to comic possibilities.
Dimitri then invited myself, Roger and his then Italian wife, to lunch in Paris to meet Sophia Loren - she never appeared. We never discovered the reason, maybe she just read the new script, in which Jack had changed one of the main scenes which now required the leading lady to clamber along a parapet in the pouring rain, so soaking her dress and hair, and that for Ms Loren perhaps the days of playing a bedraggled peasant girl were over……
……… anyway, that was the reason the gutsy, beautiful Susannah York played the lead so brilliantly.
