'ANY WEDNESDAY'........IF IT AIN'T WOKE, DON'T FIX IT......

Any Wednesday (1966)   By now, you BQ visitors know of our obsession with 1960's cinema.....especially the romantic comedies that attempted, awkwardly, to straddle the transition from the chaste puritanism of the 40's and 50's to the oncoming anything-goes of the 60's Sexual Revolution....

             We could claim that we look upon these films only as historical artifacts of a long-ago bygone era of political incorrectness, female objectification and dominating male entitlement......

               But to be honest with you, sometimes we find ourselves laughing at the stuff in these movies that was supposed to be funny.........and still is.

             "Any Wednesday", first conceived as a hit Broadway show, contains all sorts of tropes and situations now considered way beyond toxic.......about as un-woke as you can get.......

               Consider the archetypes of our two leads......the High Powered Wealthy Lothario (Jason Robards, suavely overpowering) and his quarry and latest conquest, the Manic Pixie Dream Girl (Jane Fonda, relentlessly bubbly and sweet).

               Robards, whose rapacious, serial philandering tycoon resembles the late unlamented Jeffrey Epstein, manages to wear down Fonda's resistance while she's recovering from hepatitis.......

                Since he's a married, professional adulterer,  Fonda allows him to buy her spiffy 60's romcom apartment and turn it into a once-every-Wednesday love nest......funded by his company as a corporate lodging.

                We're supposed to swallow all this like a candy cane because.....A:. Robards, for all his swaggering tycoon-ery, is a witty charmer (he's like an greedy, upscale version of the quirky comedy writer he played in "A Thousand Clowns").....and B:.....Fonda plays the cutest, most adorable kept mistress in film history, a male fantasy of a kewpie-doll whore.)

                  But wait!  Complications ensue. Robards ditsy secretary reveals the Love Nest location to a young entrepreneur looking for a place to stay while pitching a new product to the boss...(loudly overplayed by Disney Guy-Next-Door, Dean Jones). Even worse, the secretary also gives the address to Robards' wife (Rosemary Murphy), who has no idea what Robards uses the apartment for......

                   When both these characters show up, Fonda goes into a panicked swoon and starts guzzling wine  as if Prohibition's making an imminent comeback......

                     This gives Rosemary Murphy, the only holdover from the original show,a chance  to strut her stuff playing the typical Wealthy-Wife-Hostess-With-The Mostest........she gets the bulk of the film wittiest gags, and tosses them off with a seemingly knowing wink.....as if she already knows how this all ends..

                       Being the Manic Pixie Dreamgirl, Fonda immediately falls head over heels for Jones and once Robards pops in to the Love Nest, it's all about hiding the truth from Murphy........which means Jones and Fonda launch into a labored ruse of pretending they're a happily newlywed couple.....(sending Robards into a simmering jealous fit)

                        Holy crap, was that ever exhausting to describe........and we'll go no further with any more turns of plot.......except to mention the film does something fascinating in its middle section.....

                      When all four characters get crammed into a traffic jammed cab, the storyline reveals the true nature of Robards' tycoon. The suave mask gets stripped off, starkly revealing him  as a petty, bullying obnoxious control freak.........and more than deserving of the expected climax awaiting him in the film's Third Act.....

                        We'll just confess that "Any Wednesday"s one of our 60's Guilty Pleasures......loaded with the typically smooth patter and double-entendres of the era........it even makes a creative effort to disguise its one-set play origins, spicing up the talky scenes with split screen conversations that glide in and out of the frame according to the actors' movements.

                          But you know times have changed.......if they remade this film today, Robards' character would probably suffer multiple indictments.......and begging the jury's mercy by showing up at his trial with a walker, crutches, or a cane.....maybe all three....

                         In the still relatively innocent 1966 however, "Any Wednesday" remains a fluffy Technicolored bauble......3 stars (***)