Sex and the Single Girl (1964)

Such a frustrating disappointment

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The first two acts of SEX AND THE SINGLE GIRL set up and develop the basic situation. Helen(Natalie Wood) has written a best selling book called, well, you know that. She's being pursued by Rudy (Mel Ferrer), a fellow psychiatrist, but won't give him the time of day. Bob Weston (Tony Curtis) works for a tabloid and is obsessed with exposing Ms. Brown as a "23 year old virgin" and he does indeed used the previously forbidden word "virgin" more than once.Frank (Henry Fonda) is Bob's neighbor. Frank is married to Sylvia (Lauren Bacall) and their numerous loud arguments keep Bob from getting to first base with Gretchen (Fran Jeffries), a singer with Count Basie's Orchestra.Finally, in the long second act, Bob finds a way to get to know Helen up close and personal. He'll pretend to be Frank and go to her for therapy. This is complicated by the fact that as soon as these two incredibly good looking people are within physical proximity of each other they fall head over heels in love.Of course, they have previously spoken with each other on the phone and shared a mutual loathing. I would point out how similar this is to the premise of PILLOW TALK five years earlier, but I've got better manners than that. The lovely Leslie Parrish is a secretary casually involved with Bob. Edward Everett Horton is Bob's boss. Otto Kruger plays Helen's boss.The plot thickens. Complications ensue.Although this isn't billed as a musical, Ms. Jeffries sings three songs. Two of the three are fine material- "The Anniversary Song" and Cole Porter's "What Is This Thing Called Love?"- and a novelty title song. During "The Anniversary Song" Frank and Sylvia "dance" something resembling The Twist. Their dance moves are totally unrelated to the song itself, and I was unsure whether the songs were to extend the film to feature length or to provide three opportunities for audiences to run out for popcorn and Cokes.The disappointing thing about the film is that, for much of its running time, it just isn't all that funny. The only laugh out loud moment in the first two acts was at the anniversary party for Frank and Sylvia: the cake is, in honor of their constant arguing, decorated with a boxing ring motif.There are wonderful actors at work here. Richard Quine is a solid director. Joseph Heller was the primary writer credited. Edith Head did the costumes. Neal Hefti wrote the original score. Charles Lang photographed the film. But too much of the film just lies there limp and pale.It's strange to see a film in wide screen and color (and thanks, Turner Classic Movies, for getting such a great print) where scene after scene involves people indoors talking. There's a brief scene where Bob and Frank go golfing, with some business with golf carts that foreshadows the third act, but it's mostly set up like a TV sitcom.Then, in the third act, Quine and company throw caution to the wind and have all the primary characters racing to the airport so that at least one pair of lovers will go to the Fiji Islands.This gets the characters literally in motion, adds three points to my score, and introduces new characters such as a cab driver (Stubby Kaye!), an increasingly frustrated motorcycle cop (Larry Storch), and an elderly couple (Burt Mustin and the wonderfully named Cheerio Meredith) out for a drive in their antique car.At the end of the story Bob and Helen are together, Frank and Sylvia are lovebirds, and, Gretchen and Rudy find happiness.The film pretends to be very daring in its sexual attitudes, but I was literally horrified when Bob proposes marriage to Helen, and one of her first reactions is "But I'll have to quit my job!" It was like watching a Friday the 13th movie, except instead of "Don't go upstairs!" I was shouting "Queen Victoria died at the beginning of the century!" As the son of a career woman (college professor) and grandson of a career woman (newspaper editor) I found the idea that a woman couldn't have a successful career and a great marriage repulsive. Of course, that line could have been thrown in to appease the censors for having suggested that Bob and Helen might possibly have had a honeymoon night before the wedding day.Interestingly, Henry Fonda worked with far more sophisticated material relevant to sexual politics twenty some years before this film in Elliot Nugent's hilarious adaptation of Nugent's and James Thurber's THE MALE ANIMAL in which Fonda played a professor who fears losing his strong- willed and independent wife to his old friend who's an athlete.Still, SEX AND THE SINGLE GIRL was ultimately fun and gave me a chance to watch some of my favorite actors wear good clothes in nice settings. And Mom needn't have worried:Parents' note: As racy as a Doris Day movie or an episode of The Love Boat. Hipsters will be distressed by the fact that a couple of characters are seen smoking.

The sixties sex comedy can be considered a genre into itself. This entry into that franchise holds lots of promise at the outset and includes some wonderfully ironic comedy slants and in-jokes. But the impostor/deception angle that propels the film has been done often before and much better. Soon the film seems to come off as merely a framework in which Fran Jefferies gets to warble and wiggle at predetermined intervals.It's no stretch for Tony Curtis to portray a sleazy writer for a bottom-of-the-barrel tabloid magazine; he inhabits the role well as this is familiar territory for him. Natalie Wood- who could fall face- first into a septic treatment plant and still emerge luminous- tries hard with her character. But I can't decide if this material is wrong for her, or is it the other way around. If for no other reason than perhaps they "owed someone a picture", Lauren Bacall and Henry Fonda are inexplicably present to portray the bickering long-married neighbor couple. It's hard to imagine that either of these giants would be here by choice.And nothing clears up misunderstandings and solves problems like a good old car-chase scene! There's a right way (and a right reason) to shoehorn such a spectacle into a movie, but you won't find that here. The result is a juvenile, silly, and pointless finale. A running sight gag involving pretzels is the only ingredient that makes it even slightly amusing. They're crisp and salty and satisfying...everything this movie isn't. Too bad.

What could have been a sharp satire on 60's sexual attitudes runs basically lame throughout, the script simply comes up short. The basic mistaken identity plot device fails to provide laughs and it is so much the base of the film's story that it's failure prevents the whole from going anywhere.However, all is not lost. There is a saving grace, and that is the presence of the then 25 year old Natalie Wood, playing the sexologist Helen Gurley Brown. Wood, in this film is staggeringly pretty. She had, at that age, a natural girl next door beauty that has rarely if ever been rivaled in film history. Seeing this film and Wood again recently for the first time in decades was a revelation. About her, not the mediocre film.

I've seen this one a few times over the years and wish it would come out in DVD. Natalie Wood was never more beautiful, and the battle of the sexes was never more fun. It's great to see a love story that doesn't resort to foul language or adult humor, but simply witty dialog and the vagaries of human nature.Tony Curtis plays a tabloid reporter trying to get the goods on Helen Gurley Brown (played by Natalie Wood) and her personal life to find out if she actually knows anything about sex and relationships. To this end, he impersonates an acquaintance (played by Henry Fonda) whose having problems with his jealous wife (played by Lauren Bacall) so that he can pose as a patient and seek her advice.The confusion caused by this impersonation just leads to more problems. However, this is just a sideshow to the reporter's seduction of Dr. Brown and the glorious mayhem that ensues.Her constant comparisons of Tony Curtis to Jack Lemmon (Curtis' co-star in Some Like It Hot) will appeal anyone who's seen that classic.