Sex and the Single Girl (1964)

Director:

Richard Quine

Writers:

Helen Gurley Brown (book)
Joseph Heller (writer)

Release Date:

25 December 1964 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Tagline:

She wrote the book on love!

Plot:

A womanizing reporter for a sleazy tabloid magazine impersonates his hen-pecked neighbor in order to get an expose on renowned psychologist Helen Gurley Brown.

Plot Keywords:

Tabloid | Psychologist | Book | Magazine | Sex

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Tony Curtis	...	Bob Weston
Natalie Wood	...	Helen Gurley Brown
Henry Fonda	...	Frank Luther Broderick
Lauren Bacall	...	Sylvia Broderick
Mel Ferrer	...	Dr. Rudolph (Rudy) DeMeyer
Fran Jeffries	...	Gretchen
Leslie Parrish	...	Susan
Edward Everett Horton	...	The Chief
Larry Storch	...	Motorcycle Cop
Stubby Kaye	...	Cab Driver 'Speed' Vogel
Howard St. John	...	Randall
Otto Kruger	...	Dr. Marshall H. Anderson
Max Showalter	...	Holmes
William Lanteau	...	Sylvester
Helen Kleeb	...	Hilda

Runtime:

110 min | 114 min (TCM print)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Certification:

Germany:12 (TV rating) | West Germany:18 (original rating) | Finland:S | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles International Airport - 1 World Way, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Fernwood Productions Inc.

Trivia:

This film was the main inspiration for Down with Love (2003), with Renée Zellweger and Ewan McGregor.

Quotes:

Helen Gurley Brown: You know, when you smile like that, you *do* look like Jack Lemon!

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in "That Girl: Stocks and the Single Girl (#4.20)" (1970)

Soundtrack:

Sex And The Single Girl

A Total Waste - Cartoonish Garbage

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.