A Countess from Hong Kong (1967) on Netflix
On a liner bound for Saudi Arabia, the diplomat Ogden Mears finds Natascha, a stateless Russian countess, hidden in his cabin. She has stowed away hoping to reach the United States.
- Netflix2.6/5
- IMDb6.0/107,886 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes43%
Trailer
Plot summary
Ogden Mears is a wealthy American diplomat in Hong Kong, about to sail for a post in Saudi Arabia and in the middle of a divorce from his wife Martha. On his last night ashore, he and his friend Harvey join their old friend Clark at a nightclub, where three aristocratic Russian refugees are spending their final evening in the city. Ogden drinks more than he should and passes the night with Countess Natascha. The next morning aboard ship he finds her in his cabin, dressed in a ball gown and carrying no papers. Natascha is stateless and wants to reach the United States. A stowaway found in his cabin would ruin his career, so Harvey presses him to help her, and Ogden and his valet Hudson set about keeping her hidden from the crew and the passengers.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about A Countess from Hong Kong (1967)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The story is loosely based on a real Russian dancer, Moussia 'Skaya' Sodskaya, whom Charlie Chaplin met in France in 1921 and later described in his own memoir as a stateless former aristocrat marooned without a passport.
- Chaplin first wrote the script in the 1930s as a starring vehicle for his then-wife Paulette Goddard, but she signed with Paramount and left him, and a follow-up film the two had agreed to make together in their divorce settlement never happened.
- Chaplin originally wanted Rex Harrison or Cary Grant for the male lead that eventually went to Marlon Brando, and both Brando and Sophia Loren agreed to star in the film without ever reading a script.
- Filming was repeatedly derailed: Marlon Brando kept arriving late and was hospitalized with appendicitis, both Chaplin and Brando came down with the flu, and Sophia Loren married Carlo Ponti partway through the shoot.
- Instead of giving conventional direction, Chaplin acted out every cast member's role himself on set to show them what he wanted; Tippi Hedren said he would physically 'become Sophia Loren' or 'become me and Marlon' to demonstrate a scene.
- Marlon Brando was so insulted by Chaplin's directing style, and by how Chaplin treated his own son Sydney on set, that Brando wanted to quit and later called Chaplin 'a fearsomely cruel man' and 'an egotistical tyrant and a penny-pincher.'
- The film's music score, which Chaplin co-wrote, earned enough on its own to cover the movie's whole budget, and its theme song 'This Is My Song,' sung by Petula Clark, topped the charts in five countries.
