Sex And The Single Girl (1964)

A journalist (Tony Curtis) for a sleazy tabloid poses as his married next door neighbor (Henry Fonda) in order to do an expose on author (Natalie Wood) of the best selling non fiction book, SEX AND THE SINGLE GIRL. This causes all sorts of unforeseen complications that threaten careers, reputations and marriages. One could hardly say the film was based on the best selling book by Helen Gurley Brown since only the title is used but the catchy title might be one of the reasons 1964 audiences flocked to the Richard Quine (BELL BOOK AND CANDLE) comedy and made it one of the year's biggest hits. The film never delivers on the film title's risque promise. It's a rather typical 60s sex comedy with sporadic funny bits but overall it just seems to be trying too hard. Wood, looking overdressed in her Edith Head costumes, speaks double time and paces and waves her arms in the air to no avail. She's just not funny. Curtis fares better as a farceur but the material just isn't there. The film's co-screenwriter was Joseph Heller, the author of CATCH 22. There's a delightful cocktail jazz underscore by Neal Hefti though that speeds things along. With Lauren Bacall (at her most unattractive) as Fonda's jealous shrew of a wife, Mel Ferrer, Otto Kruger, Fran Jeffries, Leslie Parrish, Stubby Kaye, Larry Storch and Edward Everett Horton.