The Little Hut (1957).....serves as a prime example of why the title "1950's sex comedy" is an oxymoron.
Anyone searching for actual sex in a 1950's sex comedy would need a magnifying glass or possibly a lab microscope.
And anyone searching for actual sex in a British 1950's sex comedy would need the Hubbell Telescope.
Yet there's still reasons to enjoy this oh-so-stiff-upper-lip elegant farce that plops two Brits (Stewart Granger, David Niven) and a smokin' hot bombshell (Ava Gardner) on a castaway tropical island.
But given Granger and Niven's perpetually civilized demeanor here, you'd better believe that lips are the only thing in this movie that get stiff.....
Even before this uppercrust bunch find themselves marooned on an Oscar Wilde version of "Gilligan's Island", it's already established this bunch is one tangled trio.
Granger's a gung-ho Captain Of Industry who generally ignores his hubba hubba wife Gardner........and thinks the enormous amount of time Niven and Gardner spend together are devoted to just 'good clean fun'......(snicker, snicker, snicker....)
So of course all three take an ill-fated sea cruise together......and once stranded among the coconut trees, Granger's take charge know-how leaves the clumsy, hapless Niven consigned to his own 'little hut'......... while Granger constructs, for himself and Gardner, one of those luxurious bamboo condos that only exist in Hollywood tropical island movies.
Niven's straight-laced but determined lust for Gardner, however, won't be denied and he demands equal wokka-wokka time with Gardner in that Hilton hotel-worthy love nest.....which even features a phone line consisting of seashells on a string.
Granger's solution to this problem of who beds the voluptuous Gardner and how often constitutes the comedic Second Act twist to this story.....which we won't reveal here since it's really the only thing the storyline has going for it.
As for any real sex you might think arises (so to speak) from all this witty cavorting.....remember again what year this was made....
Beyond silly, but so very British (and at the same time, so very MGM backlot) we freely admit we smiled all the way through it. Niven and Granger are in top form and Gardner, at the peak of her movie-star goddess self looked like she had a great time......(even though we later found out she cared little for the film and only did it under contractual obligation.)
There's even a wild card thrown into the mix, in the form of Italian comic actor Walter Chiari, whose appearance we won't discuss in detail, since it functions as a funny surprise entry into what we thought was strictly a three-hander comedy.
"The Little Hut" remains a miniscule trifle of a movie, but for lovers of 50's cinema comedies, it gave us a bunch of chuckles. For such a modest effort, that was more than enough for us.......3 stars (***).
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