Sex and the Single Girl (1964)

This film is a product of its times. In 1964, film standards and society's standards in general had changed dramatically from the so-called 'good old days'. Folks were now talking more openly about sex and the success of Helen Gurley Brown's book "Sex and the Single Girl" led to this completely fictionalized film of the same name. While Natalie Wood supposedly plays Brown, this is a movie version--one that looks gorgeous, not scary. And in this film she is a writer AND psychotherapist. Her nemesis is the editor of a sleazy rag (Tony Curtis) and he wants to get to know her better in order to write some sexy exposee. At the same time, his neighbors (Henry Fonda and Lauren Bacall) fight constantly and they give him an idea--pretend to be his neighbor and see Dr. Brown for therapy--and eventually seduce her.This film tries to be edgy and the word sex if used 1832413 times. However, if you strip away all the edginess, you are left with a bad film--with a plot that seems amazingly dated and silly. Additionally, the dialog is equally horrible--ridiculous and dated. An embarrassing film that tries to be hip but just seems dated, boorish and a bit sleazy.

Now I'm sorry I raced through this movie last night and told the DVR to go ahead and delete! I thought it was quite hilarious, in a screwball, self-referential, meta-fictional way! You've gotta love a film that continuously refers to how much Tony Curtis looks like Jack Lemon. I just never thought the studios allowed such tongue-in-cheek buffoonery on screen! Yes, Natalie Wood here is the most beautiful & desirable woman in the world. Henry Fonda does his gravitas routine to brilliant comic effect. Lauren Bacall is timeless & ageless in the role of a justifiably paranoid wife.I keep thinking: who was the wit who concocted such a script? Joseph Heller, the author of catch-22, one of the most highly-acclaimed novels of the 20th century. This film is amazingly & woefully under-appreciated!

I knew that Sex and the Single Girl was going to be one of those 1950s-1960s films that depict a woman with a professional career or a business as an incompetent, unfeminine woman who just needs to find a husband and give up this silly career idea. But I didn't know that Sex and the Single Girl was going to be such a lamely done, poorly acted example of such a film.There are three things worth seeing in this film. The first is the great Edward Everett Horton as the fourth-generation publisher of STOP magazine. The bit where he congratulates his staff for turning the genteel magazine his great-grandmother founded into a sleazy, vulgar, highly profitable tabloid is a hoot. The second thing worth seeing also takes place at STOP headquarters. There's a running gag that shows that everything in the office has a coin meter attached, including the drinking fountain, the sink faucets, the mirrors and the paper towel dispensers in the men's room, etc. Also, during the much too long chase scene/slapstick silliness that is the last quarter of the film, munching on pretzels becomes a great running sight gag.Otherwise, the film is bad. Henry Fonda and Lauren Bacall's supporting roles could have been delights, but their parts are poorly scripted and badly realized. The slapstick chase scene at the end goes on and on, flattening every laugh the situation might have generated.

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.