This breezy romp, which tirelessly mimicked the Doris Day/Rock Hudson movies of the era, was co-written by Joseph Heller.......the celebrated author of one our all time favorite novels, "Catch-22". (A truly unsettling moment for the BQ.......it's as if we found out that Ernest Hemingway wrote "Pillow Talk" or Jack Kerouac scripted "Viva Las Vegas"......)
Not surprisingly, underneath the bright, shiny, Technicolored Warner Brothers gloss, you can still sense Heller casting his scathing, satirical eye on the both the media and culture of the period.
Appropriating only the title of the Helen Gurley Brown bestseller (along with her name, awarded to Natalie Wood's character), the script simultaneously lampoons tabloid journalism and the proliferation of self-help books written by people who fundamentally didn't know what the hell they were talking about. (We still recall these annoying phonies haunting the late night talk shows....)
Tony Curtis and the executive board of "Stop", the sleazy celebrity rag he writes for, constantly engage in orgies of self-congratulation about the soulless depravity and cheap sensationalism of their publication. Their constant goal: exposing 'Sex and The Single Girl' author and marital expert Dr. Helen Brown as a......as a......(dare we say it out aloud in 1964??)...as a VIRGIN! Whew.....pardon us while we stop to catch our breath and calm down......
Curtis's master plan here involves posing as a patient of Wood's......for his fictitious backstory, he freely borrows the marital woes of his bickering, middle-aged next door neighbors...(Lauren Bacall and Henry Fonda, who either smooch 'n coo or verbally hammer away at each other like Jackie Gleason and Audrey Meadows in "The Honeymooners")
The ever smooth Curtis has no trouble rendering the sweetly high-strung Wood smitten....but remember, this being a 1964 studio romantic comedy, nobody gets anywhere near a bedroom. True love, however, finds a way to intervene and further complicate the plot.......
Unlike other more severe critics of this movie, we didn't mind its wacky, fly-off-the-rails third act, which sends the entire cast off on a "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" Los Angeles freeway chase......which ends at the airport, with a frenzied Highway patrolman (the frenzied Larry Storch) threatening to arrest everyone, including arriving and departing flights. (This guy would be the logical choice for enforcing Trump's immigration bans...)
All in all, a superb 1960's time capsule souvenir, (and an obvious inspiration for "Down With Love", that studied 2003 Day/Hudson pastiche with Rene Zelwegger and Ewan McGregor).....with loads of delightful moments and folks to remember. Such as.......
*That benevolent old wheeze Edward Everett Horton, playing Curtis's ultra penurious CEO, installing coin-operated water fountains and executive washrooms, where a peak in the mirror and a paper towel costs you a quarter each....
*Sexy-as-hell nightclub singer Fran Jeffries, romping around the movie as Curtis's extremely temporary girlfriend, until Tony realizes he's fallen for you-know-who....
*The bizarre sight of Lauren Bacall and Henry Fonda dancing....the Twist. We guarantee you won't see anything like it in any other romantic comedy...
*The dawn of modern meta-gags......with Curtis in a woman's bathrobe constantly referred to as resembling Jack Lemmon in ...."that movie where the guys dress up as girls...."
At close to 2 hours, it's a shade too long for so much fluff, but we liked it anyway.....and we'll pucker up for 3 virginal stars (***) for "Sex And The Single Girl".....until the very end, we know in our hearts that Natalie's titanium chastity belt will remain unlocked......
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