Casting Pays Off For ‘Carats’

Los Angeles Times

Wed June 27, 1973

Can a woman of 40 find happiness with a young man 18 years her junior?

The answer is assuredly yes-when it happens in “40 Carats’ (at the Hollywood Cinema, Avco #1 Westwood, and El Monte Drive-In). Based on the popular play, it’s a transparently make-believe as the age of its heroine, lovely Liv Ullmann, who in actuality is only 33.

However, since this handsome M.J. Frankovich production doesn’t pretend to be anything but pretend it arrives as a light, summer refreshment, old fashioned yet reliably tonic as a pitcher of lemonade.

Having had a brief romantic fling with a handsome young American youth (Edward Albert) while on holiday in Greece, Miss Ulmann, a divorcee, returns resignedly to her Manhattan real estate firm-only to find Albert, by sheerest coincidence, dating her daughter (Deborah Raffin). Even so, it’s still her mother he wants.

Wisely, director Milton Katselas and adaptor Leonard Gershe make no attempt to disguise either the film’s theatrical origins or its predictable plotting. Instead, they concentrated on developing likable people for their fine actors to play.

Katselas and Frankovich, in fact, spent considerable time on casting, and it’s paid off. Miss Ullmann, so firmly established as an Ingmar Bergman favorite, seemed an unlikely choice for a romantic comedy. However, because she is as accomplished an actress as she is a beautiful woman she makes “40 Carats” heroine not merely sympathetic but thoroughly believable. Therefore, as frothy as the film is it does suggest that hang-ups over age can be absurd and does reflect a woman’s liberation spirit. (After all, if nobody thinks twice about a 40-year old man marrying a 22-year old woman why should he if those ages are reversed?)

Albert has charm and conviction as the determined suitor, and Miss Raffin makes a winning screen debut as a teenager capable of thinking for herself. Nancy Walker scintillates savvy secretary.

“40 Carats is an unabashedly glamorous Hollywood production with gorgeous Jean Louis gowns for the ladies and gleaming camera work by Charels B. Lang. It may be a trifle, but it’s been made with care.