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Movies y™ A Countess from Hong Kong is every bit as tepid as they say it is. How on earth was that accomplished? For, computerizing the odds against anything less than an nth power sockeroo, one thinks of tepidity against such odds as very nearly a creative achievement, like an underdone egg extracted from the maw of Vesuvius.

Consider: co-stars, Sophia Loren and Marlon Brando; writer, director, scorer, Charles Chaplin; moreover, a prodigality of Chaplin family talent, with Sydney in a lengthy supporting role and two of the girls fetching in bit parts; for resources, color and Cinema Scope; for environments, Hong Kong, Hawaii, the broad blue heaving Odyssean seas and a millionaire’s shipboard suite: add it up: a producer’s dream.

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Hugh Kenner

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Movies y™ A Countess from Hong Kong is every bit as tepid as they say it is. How on earth was that accomplished? For, computerizing the odds against anything less than an nth power sockeroo, one thinks of tepidity against such odds as very nearly a creative achievement, like an underdone egg extracted from the maw of Vesuvius.

Consider: co-stars, Sophia Loren and Marlon Brando; writer, director, scorer, Charles Chaplin; moreover, a prodigality of Chaplin family talent, with Sydney in a lengthy supporting role and two of the girls fetching in bit parts; for resources, color and Cinema Scope; for environments, Hong Kong, Hawaii, the broad blue heaving Odyssean seas and a millionaire’s shipboard suite: add it up: a producer’s dream.