There's a Girl in My Soup

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There's a Girl in My Soup is a 1970 British

Robert Danvers is a vain, womanizing and wealthy host of a high-profile television cooking show. He meets Marion, a no-nonsense 19-year-old American hippie who has just broken up with her British rock musician boyfriend Jimmy. After a halting start, they begin an affair, and she accompanies him on a trip to a wine-tasting festival in France, where she embarrasses him by getting extremely drunk, but they enjoy their time together on the coast in the South of France. However, when they return to London, Marion makes up with Jimmy and turns down a desperate proposal of marriage from Danvers. Throughout the film, Danvers' favourite line with women is: "My God, but you're lovely" – which, in the final scene after Marion has gone back to Jimmy and Danvers has made a date with another woman, he says to his own reflection.

Cast

• Peter Sellers as Robert Danvers
• Goldie Hawn as Marion
• Tony Britton as Andrew Hunter
• Nicky Henson as Jimmy
• Diana Dors as John's wife
• Judy Campbell as Lady Heather
• John Comer as John, the porter
• Gabrielle Drake as Julia
• Nicola Pagett as Clare
• Geraldine Sherman as Caroline
• Thorley Walters as manager of the Carlton Hotel
• Ruth Trouncer as Gilly Hunter
• Françoise Pascal as Paola
• Christopher Cazenove as Nigel
• Raf De La Torre as Monsieur Le Guestier

Production

The film is based on the stage comedy There's a Girl in My Soup, written by Terence Frisby, produced by Michael Codron, directed by Bob Chetwyn and starring Donald Sinden, Barbara Ferris and Jon Pertwee.^[3] It ran for six and a half years in the West End, from 1966 to 1973, including three years at the Globe Theatre (now The Gielgud), breaking records to become London's longest-running comedy.^[4][5] This record was later broken by No Sex Please, We're British and then Run for Your Wife.^[6][7]

Film rights were bought in 1967 by Columbia and Nat Cohen.^[8] Eventually Mike Frankovich became producer and the Boultings directed.^[9]

Goldie Hawn signed in January 1969.^[10] The movie introduced Christopher Cazenove, who later co-starred on Dynasty, and Nicola Pagett, who played Elizabeth Bellamy on Upstairs, Downstairs.^[11][12]

It was one of a series of supporting roles for Diana Dors that revived her career.^[13]

A novelisation of the film, written by Raymond Hitchcock, was published in 1971.^[14]

Goldie Hawn was unhappy that she was coerced into doing a nude scene for this film. "It was my first nude scene in a movie and I didn't want to do it. I was getting out of bed and putting on a coat and the director finessed me into doing it nude. There was absolutely no reason on earth for me to get out of that bed naked. Roy Boulting , the director, told me he'd clear the set and he really played on my insecurities, making me feel that it was my duty as an actress to trust him. I gave in, and, in retrospect, it was the conduct of somebody who didn't want to stomp off the set and be labeled as a bitch."^[15]

Release

The film had its world premiere at the Astor Theatre in New York City on 14 December 1970.^[16]

Reception

Box office

There's a Girl in My Soup ranked as the seventh most profitable film at the British box office in 1970.^[17][18]

Critical response

Variety found the film "a delightful surprise: a rather simple legit sex comedy (by Terence Frisby) transformed into breezy and extremely tasteful screen fun."^[19]

Roger Greenspun in The New York Times, dismissed the film as "without illumination or wit or good humor or good sense", and concluded "The only performance to praise is that of Tony Britton, who, as Danvers's very much married publisher and friend, achieves a level of sophisticated pleasantness that actually, suggests comedy. Peter Sellers, on the other hand, is at his least inventive. And Goldie Hawn, who I think might be fun in another part, mostly indulges in bad habits with her too-expressive eyes. In fairness, both Miss Hawn and Mr. Sellers are handicapped by roles in which any attempt at a characterization must seem an imposition."^[20]

Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film 1.5 stars out of 4 and wrote that Sellers had "his first decent role in several years" and gave a "completely sympathetic performance", but "no amount of humor is able to wake up the film's tired story premise."^[21]

Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times was positive, writing "Escapist entertainment it assuredly is, yet Frisby has wisely provided enough quiet moments between his gags to allow his characters to become real enough to care about."^[22]

Tom Milne of The Monthly Film Bulletin stated that Sellers was "hopelessly miscast" and that the film "would have been much better served by a straight romantic lead."^[23]

The website Allmovie comments that "Soup was different in its day, as the heroine of the piece was not a Doris Day-type eternal virgin, but a sexual being who not only gives herself freely to a man but is upfront and unapologetic about her willingness. The movie has little going for it beyond this premise, and it wanders rather aimlessly, if agreeably, before abruptly resolving its insignificant conflicts."^[24]

Awards

Frisby's script won The Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award for Best Screenplay in 1970.^[25]

Goldie Hawn was nominated for