Boys' Night Out (1962)

Three married suburbanites (Tony Randall, Howard Duff, Howard Morris) talk their unmarried friend (James Garner) into renting a plush bachelor pad where they can share a blonde (Kim Novak), each of them one night a week. What they don't know is that Novak is a sociology student doing a thesis on "Adolescent Fantasies Of The Adult Suburban Male" and using them as guinea pigs. Directed by Michael Gordon (PILLOW TALK), this is a typical 60s sex comedy but instead of Doris Day/Rock Hudson/Tony Randall, we get Kim Novak/James Garner/Tony Randall. It's all handled deftly and amusingly and remains a superior example of the genre. The lovely Novak is a bit stiff but Garner is in his element. The cinematographer Arthur E. Arling (an Oscar winner for THE YEARLING) makes excellent use of the CinemaScope frame. I can only imagine how terribly awkward it would look in a pan and scan format. The large cast includes Janet Blair, Patti Page, Anne Jeffreys as the wives, William Bendix, Jessie Royce Landis, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Fred Clark, Jim Backus, Larry Keating and Oscar Homolka.