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Here is a movie that could have been a 60s classic lampooning tabloid journalism, skin-deep psychology, proto-feminism, marital problems, hypocrisy, and sexual freedom. Instead, it is a cartoonish pastiche of amateurish slapstick, poorly-time jokes, silly contrived situations, and one of the most idiotic and long car chases in the history of cinema.
The idea of a sleazy editor doing a hatchet job on a 23-year-old virgin psychologist who has written a bestseller affirming the sexual lives of single women should certainly have hilarious possibilities - specially if he is a liar, she cannot handle her own feelings, and they are sexually attracted to each other. However, the script is ludicrous and inconsistent often degenerating into total silliness: at first, the story appears to take place in New York, then all the characters end up at the L.A. airport; a woman is singing with the Count Basie Orchestra and trying to land a recording contract, then she wants to fly away with any man anywhere; a man struggles with his business and marriage, then he just decides to fly away to Hawaii or Fiji.
The inept direction give us the sad spectacle of screen giants Henry Fonda and Lauren Bacall doing the twist while the Count Basie Orchestra is performing a swing song! They try saying their idiotic lines with utter lack of conviction - probably this movie was an embarrassment to them. Natalie Wood and Tony Curtis also fail at being funny although that is the script's fault and not their own. In the long run, it is hard to watch so much stupidity and wasted talent on the screen. Avoid it at all costs.
score 1/10
martys-7 7 April 2009
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2048646/ |
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30-3-2021 03:14:04