Great cast makes this an enjoyable farce

stevepem

Tony Curtis and Jerry Lewis reversing roles as straight man and funny man, that alone is brilliant casting. Of course even as a straight man Lewis still manages to steal nearly every scene that he is in with his inimitable comic style. Leigh, Schmidtmer and Saval are delightful as the three nationalities of flight attendants. Thelma Ritter of course is terrific as the maid.

One thing that some of the other reviewers seem to have missed is that Robert (Jerry Lewis) actually helped Bernard (Tony Curtis) manage the crisis, rather than contribute to the crisis as some have suggested. The sole cause of the unraveling of the "perfect crime" had nothing to do with Robert's arrival, it was the sudden change in airline schedules due to the faster jets which caused Bernard's house of cards to start falling in. Robert, clearly in awe of the situation, was fully committed to helping Bernard keep the charade going. Yes, as a sub-plot Robert quickly became interested in siphoning off some of the action for himself, something that he had apparently done to Bernard before. However Robert was not a total heel. Initially he had no intention of going after Vicky (British United) when he thought that she was Bernard's fiancée. It was only after he learned that Bernard had two, no make that three fiancées that Robert started making some moves of his own. However in no way did Robert's presence (and move making) jeopardize the operation as some have suggested. Rather his help, oftentimes on his own initiative, turned out to be desperately needed by Bernard as the chaos unfolded. As the new schedules kicked in and one by one each fiancée arrived home sooner than expected, Robert played a vital role in keeping them separated and he also kept an increasingly beleaguered Bernard informed of the latest developments. In fact even before Robert arrived Bernard was using him as an excuse for why there were kidneys left over from breakfast. Robert and Bernard were at once both rivals and partners, a complicated relationship that in my opinion Jerry Lewis played brilliantly.

I refer to Boeing Boeing as being a farce because of one minor and one major problem with the plot that makes it totally unbelievable. The minor one is the aircraft references. In the late 50's and early 60's the introduction of jet passenger planes did in fact dramatically alter airline schedules, as the average speed jumped from around 325 mph for piston engine propeller airplanes to around 550 mph for jet airliners. In many cases what were previously overnight trips for the crew were now one day round-trips. However in the movie the drastic schedule changes were due not to the transition from propeller planes to jets, but a transition from existing jets to newer models with higher thrust. In reality, in spite of much higher thrust, jet airliners today fly at roughly the same speed as the original Boeing 707 that was introduced in 1958. Advances in jet engine technology sometimes resulted in increased range which meant fewer stops on some routes, and it is true that there are some minor speed differences between different models of jets (not counting the now-retired Concorde) but neither of these would have resulted in the drastic effect on crew schedules as portrayed in the movie. The original French play which debuted in 1960 was more realistic as it was based on the transition from props to jets which would have been going on at that time. However I can guess that in 1965 when the movie was produced the writers probably desired to modernize the script by having the plot revolve around new models of jets, even though technically this wasn't very realistic. The good news is that the airplane references were pretty accurate, i.e. British United actually flew VC-10's, Air France flew Caravelles, etc. One goof was when Robert informed Bernard that Vicky (British United) has arrived early, Bernard says "But the Super Boeing isn't due until midnight" to which Robert replies "Boeing, Boeing". However it had already been established that the new British United plane that Vicky was on was a VC-10. The VC-10 was built by Vickers-Armstrongs of England, not by U.S. based Boeing.

Aircraft inaccuracies in a movie are to be expected and can be forgiven, but the much larger, and perhaps unforgivable plot issue has to do with the fact that each of the three flight attendants lived in Bernard's apartment. That arrangement wouldn't last a week. I could believe that Bernard could juggle three girlfriends by meticulously tracking their schedules, and then coming up with excuses as needed as to why he couldn't see them or have them over when they were in town. However since all three lived in his apartment (which each had a key to) this meant that they would always go there when they were in town, even if he was at work. It would be impossible for Bernard to keep coming up with excuses why they couldn't go home to "their" apartment. Bernard couldn't control their schedules, only track them, so in no time an unavoidable "collision" would have occurred. Maybe if they all worked for the same airline and he was a crew scheduler (or he could bribe one) it could have worked, however they each worked for different airlines and he was a newspaper reporter with no control over their comings and goings. Allowing them to live in his apartment doesn't work even in a movie without total suspension of disbelief. If the writers had fixed this one thing the plot would have been much more believable. Would it have been funnier? I doubt it. So I have no real issue with the plot I'm just pointing out the facts. And actually now that I think about Christiane Schmidtmer being repeatedly dragged and carried unconscious around the apartment, all is forgiven.

score 7/10

stevepem 27 December 2010

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2359226/