Review of Sex and the Single Girl

Screwball romantic comedy, involving 3 actual or potential pairs : two of which are not determined until the last few minutes. This includes Henry Fonda and Lauran Bacall as Frank and Sylvia Broderick: a squabbling middle age couple married for 10 years. Then, there's cute young Fran Jeffries, as Gretchen: an aspiring singer/dancer, who gives us a few samples, including the theme song. Her live in boyfriend is womanizing Bob Weston, played by handsome Tony Curtis, who is a writer for the gossipy sleazy rag 'Stop'. Recently, he has written a critical piece about Helen Brown: 23y.o. clinical psychotherapist and author of the bestselling book "Sex and the Single Girl", her name and the name of the book taken from the recently published book. Her platonic psychologist boyfriend, Rude, is played by Mel Ferrer. In addition, good looking blond Leslie Parrish serves as Bob's secretary and office girlfriend, they sometimes being seen stretched out together on the office couch..........The screenplay may usefully be divided into 4 segments. The first, we might term the introduction or pre-impersonation stage. The long second segment is dominated by Bob's impersonation of Fran Broderick, as an excuse to meet Helen in person, pretending to have several psychological complaints. Bob suspects that Helen's book is based entirely on her readings, rather than personal experience, and that she is probably a virgin. Bob claims to be married to Frank's wife: Sylvia, thus inhibiting Helen from acting on her growing infatuation with Bob. Bob points out that, in her book, she enumerates the advantages of single girls having an affair with a married man. The third segment features a long multicar chase, involving the 6 principals, who occasionally change cars and partners. They are chasing Frank or Helen, who claim they want to go to Fiji, or perhaps Hawaii. In Helen's case, her flight was instigated by the discovery that 'Frank', whom she has fallen in love with, is actually the hated Bob Weston! A motorcycle cop and one of the taxi drivers also get involved in the vehicle switching, to add to the hilarious confusion. This is the favorite section for some reviewers(including me), while others brush it off as mindless slapstick. The brief last segment occurs at the airport, after all the cars have convened. The 'final' romantic pairs are established just before all board a flight over the Pacific.........Sure, there's plenty of unrealistic aspects that one can point out. For example, Natalie overacts her rage at Bob's article about her. Natalie's psychological meltdown at the end, when she is prepared to renounce her profession and become Bob's presumably stay-at-home wife, is pretty unbelievable, yet is an important part of the overall message of the film, meant to dramatize the coming common conflict in women between a challenging career, and marriage and motherhood. After a promising feminist start, Natalie has succumbed to anti-feminist fears and desires. The theme of the film thus is exactly the same as that experienced by Doris Day in the popular 1953 film "Calamity Jane", in which she is an extreme tomboy, who is gradually falling in love with handsome Howard Keel, playing Wild Bill Hickock, who dismisses her as a viable marriage partner until she changes her ways. Like Bob's revelation that Natalie is largely a fake, Hickock complains that Calamity is an obvious fake in trying to show that she is as good as men in doing manly things. Whether she agrees or not, Calamity gets the message, and magically transforms into a feminine '50s bride. ..........Of course, with the coming feminist movement, unlike the black vs. white dichotomy between pro and anti-feminist behavior presented in these films, many women have since managed to juggle a career, sometimes in a traditionally male-only field, along with a successful marriage or sometimes a live in arrangement, including kids. Sometimes, the career and the marriage and kids are sequential, rather than simultaneous........The very next year, Tony and Natalie would again be paired to costar along with Jack Lemmon in the controversial slapstickish film "The Great Race", which continues the battle of the sexes over women's liberation. Although poorly received at the time, it has since attracted an enthusiastic following, including me. I heartily recommend seeing both these films!