Sweet November (1968)

A tightly wound up businessman (Anthony Newley) meets a kooky free spirit (Sandy Dennis) and she proposes he live with her for the month of November whereupon she will attempt to change him into less of a conformist. Directed by Robert Ellis Miller (THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER). A positively absurd plot, Dennis takes a different man a month at a time to "fix" him, that can't hold up under the strain of a silly sentimental script. I love a good tearjerker as much as the next person but but it needs to have at least one foot partially standing in reality. Considering the material, Sandy Dennis is amazingly good but Anthony Newley isn't so lucky and there's not much chemistry between the two. It's hard to care much about what happens to them and the film's finale tries too hard to pull the tears out. Strangely, someone thought it was a good idea to remake the film in 2001 with Charlize Theron and Keanu Reeves in the Dennis and Newley roles. With Theodore Bikel, Sandy Baron, Martin West, Burr DeBenning, Marj Dusay and Virginia Vincent.