Walk, Don't Run to the 1964 Tokyo Olympics

Though the Tokyo Olympics has been top of the news these past two weeks, it only just hit me that a personal favorite film of mine, Walk, Don’t Run, used the 1964 Tokyo Olympics as its backdrop.

Starring Cary Grant, and co-starring Timothy Hutton and Samantha Eggar, I stumbled across this film on broadcast tv back in college and found it to be a charming romantic comedy; I’ve seen it many times and am always up to watch it when the opportunity arises.

Grant pays a business executive visiting Tokyo who, unable to find any lodgings due to the Games, convinces a reluctant young worker at the British embassy (Eggar) to sublet a room in her apartment to him. After meeting an athlete from the U.S. Olympics team (Hutton) in a similar predicament, he in turn sublets half of his room to the young man, to the dismay of Eggar’s character who is engaged and worried about the propriety of rooming with two men. Of course, the two young people initially don’t get on, but Grant ends up playing a sly and sneaky matchmaker to the couple. (If the plot sounds familiar, I only just discovered it’s a re-make of the film, The More the Merrier—I’m aware of this earlier film but have never seen it in its entirety, which I plan to correct.) A running gag is Hutton’s reluctance to tell anyone his sport.

The movie is partly noteworthy for being Grant’s last, believing that audiences didn’t want to see him, at age 61, not playing a romantic lead or as a third wheel in a supporting role—which is a shame because Grant’s performance is charming and effortless.

Much of the movie was filmed on location—it highlights Japan’s progress since the war just 20 years prior and makes a brief reference to the country’s fledgling electronics industry. Over the course of its story, the film takes advantage of its setting, serving as a travelogue for the country, offering glimpses into everyday life and Tokyo’s growing reputation as a cosmopolitan city. And as you’ll see in one of the stills accompanying this post, Star Trek actor George Takei has a small role!

As I learned on Wikipedia, the ‘64 Olympics was the first time the Games were held in Asia—Tokyo was initially slated to host in 1940 (following Nazi Germany hosting in 1936!), but its invasion and occupation of China resulted in the games being moved to Helsinki, Finland that year. The ‘64 games were also moved to October to avoid the punishing summer heat and humidity and typhoon season.

In any case, given the Tokyo Olympics winding down this week, this seemed a perfect time to highlight this delightful film!