Daily Archives: December 15, 2017

Sunday in New York
Directed by Peter Tewksbury
Written by Norman Krasna from his play
1963/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] Eileen Tyler: You said you hadn’t slept with any of them!

Adam Tyler: That’s the loophole! Sleeping![/box]

Jane Fonda grapples with her virginity in this early sixties romcom.

Twenty-two year Russ Wilson (Robert Culp) over his desire to have pre-marital sex.  She travels to NYC from her home in Albany to get advice from her older brother Adam on this issue.  His feeling is it is not OK and particularly not OK for Eileen. Adam, on the other hand, is involved in a hot and heavy affair of his own which keeps getting interrupted by his pilot duties.

While in New York Eileen meets cute with studly Mike Mitchell.  They have the usual rocky start.  She decides to seduce him to get her virginity off the table.  Mike refuses when he learns she is a “beginner”.  Then Russ shows up unexpectedly to propose only to find both Eileen and Mike in bath robes.  He assumes Mike is Eileen’s brother.  The usual hijinx ensue.  Anyone who does not guess the ending has just not been paying attention.

Ah the sexual dilemmas of a more innocent time …  It’s the old story with a new twist.  Pretty dumb but the leads are so charming we don’t care much.

Beach Party
Directed by William Asher
Written by Lou Rusoff
1963/USA
Alta Vista Productions
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime

[box] Cappy: Can I ask you something, Professor? Are you studying these kids sex lives, or you getting involved in it?[/box]

The first of seven “beach party” movies distributed by American Pictures International is most interesting as a memento of a time, place, and attitude.

Perpetual teenage sweethearts Frankie (Frankie Avalon) and Dolores (Annette Funicello) hit the beach during school vacation with a crowd of other like-minded teenages.  It’s all surfing, all the time until nightfall when it’s all party all the time.  Anthropologist Professor Sutwell (Robert Cummings) and his comely assistant Marianne (Dorothy Malone) are there to observe rituals of this teenaged “tribe”.  The sex ritiuals are the most interesting, obviously.  With Harvey Lembeck as Eric Von Zipper leader of the Rat Pack motorcycle gang, Morey Amsterdam as the beatnik operator of the local coffee house, and Vincent Price in a surprise cameo.

Romcoms in the early sixties are all obsessed with sex – not doing it, necessarily, but talking and making jokes about it.  This movie is representative.  It’s not very good but should be fun for anybody who remembers the time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkhGmZPJIHY