Dinosaurier bevorzugt

I recently saw this film on AMC. Personally, I think this is one of the best movies i've seen in a while! Here's a plot summary:

Terry Thomas is an english-born college professor with women-problems: he can't get away from them! To complicate things, his fiances' long-lost daughter appears and poses as an escape school-girl. Thomas' young roommate Richard Beymer is 'nutty' for her. What follows is a series of misadventures that include women doing anything possible for Thomas, the acquisition of a dinosaur bone, and a crazy Mr. Hyde-like change!

It's basically one of those 60's feel good movies in which all the strange little plot details come together in the end. BACHELOR FLAT is a fun and entertaining way to pass the time on a lazy Saturday afternoon.

The line in the "Summary Line" is one of the last in this film - uttered by that consummate Englishman Terry-Thomas. Throughout the film he is usually carrying his brolly, but at this last moment it finally becomes useful.

This nice little film came out in 1962, but failed to do for Terry-Thomas what LOLITA or DR. STRANGELOVE or THE PINK PANTHER did for his fellow comic actor Peter Sellers: turn him into a super star. It really could not do so, for Sellers genius was to transform himself into dozens of different personalities, whereas Terry-Thomas usually played a bounder who got into comic difficulties because of his plotting, or character flaws, or circumstances he could not control. But in BACHELOR FLAT he was playing a decent sort, who finds himself (without intending it) to be attractive to females because of his pleasant English manners and erudition.

Terry - Thomas is Professor Bruce Patterson, a paleontologist who is teaching in Southern California. He doesn't plan to, but his crisp, clipped English manner has won many fans among the ladies in the university and in the neighborhood that he is residing in. He lives near his girlfriend Helen Bushmill (Celeste Holm), who is headed for Europe for a couple of weeks. Patterson, left on his own devices, soon finds that he is the center of a great deal unwanted attention from the ladies. One of them seems to be a young girl named Libby Smith (Tuesday Weld) who actually turns out to be Helen's daughter. He is assisted in trying to solve his problems with Weld and the others by his room-mate Mike Pulaski (Richard Beymer). Pulaski is soon attracted to Smith.

In the background, midst all the problems with the ladies, is Patterson's career goal. He has located a large dinosaur bone, and wants to return to the foreign country where he found it to do more digging for the rest of the fossil. This requires financing, and has brought up the attention of Dr. Dylan Bowman (Howard McNear), who is a "friendly" rival in the paleontology field.

Bowman starts sniffing about to find out what Patterson's discovery is (the latter has not shown the bone to anyone). But when the bone is accidentally buried, Patterson is seen by Bowman digging in the beaches near the bungalow he lives in, and retrieving the bone. As a result, of course, Bowman starts thinking the potential site for the dig is in the California beach that Patterson resides near.

As career and girls collide, and as Bushmill returns early, things get out of hand for our doctor. Among other things Bushmill thinks Patterson has become a ladies man. Patterson finds that his quiet lifestyle has been invaded by the ladies (they put a hole accidentally into his favorite derby hat, in one memorable slow burn). He asks Pulaski what to do to win back Bushmill, and in the process of being told what is expected from him as a male, he gets drunk - and proceeds to let his libido take over memorably.

The comedy was actually quite sweet, as Terry-Thomas played an average man in over his head. The rest of the cast ably supported him, especially McNear as his sneaky, spying rival - who got the last laugh in the film. It may not have been in the same class as DR. STRANGELOVE, but it was a good showcase for it's star. He didn't always have to play comic cads and bounders.

Mike Pulaski (Richard Beymer) narrates in the beginning that the British have been stealing American chicks ever since the War of Independence. He is both jealous and an admirer. He's a carefree hound-dog living in a trailer on the beach. His neighbor Prof. Bruce Patterson (Terry-Thomas) is both his friend and his mentor. Patterson's upcoming marriage to Helen Bushmill (Celeste Holm) is breaking the hearts of all his female students and many female acquaintances. He is surprised by Libby Bushmill (Tuesday Weld) who shows up out of nowhere. Helen had failed to tell him about her daughter.

I am of two minds about Terry-Thomas. On the one hand, he is far from Indiana Jones and I don't get all the female attention. On the other hand, it prevents him from developing any chemistry with his female pursuers especially Libby. Ultimately, Tuesday Weld steals the movie. The teenage performer has a great surprising voice. Quite frankly, her character should be the lead although this is strictly a male fantasy comedy with plenty of slinky babes. It has some moments of fun which elevates its light weight quality.

This is such a wonderful little, "feelgood" film. Terry Thomas is just wonderful and so is Tuesday Weld. All the different characters work so well together. There are about 5 or 6 different storylines, all interwoven. This film is just the sort of film to relax with at the end of a hard workweek. Even the dog has a storyline!! If you are looking for a little film that will have you smiling at the end, I highly recommend this one.

Critics tend to ignore director Frank Tashlin's films, except for the two starring Jayne Mansfield. When they do review Tashlin's work, they invariably mention that he began as an animator (Warner Brothers' Looney Toons), and that Tashlin's live-action movies tend to feature cartoonish characters and impossible sight gags. 'Bachelor Flat' is unusual for Tashlin, in that the main characters are all plausible human beings. Even more interestingly, 'Bachelor Flat' appears to be Hollywood's attempt to turn Terry-Thomas into a light-comedy romantic lead, rather than a comic villain.

Terry-Thomas here plays a veddy British professor at one of those California colleges where all the students are young, tanned, and impossibly good-looking. Terry-Thomas's character is named Bruce Patterson, which sounds to me more like an Australian name! The dialogue identifies Patterson as an 'archaeologist', but he's clearly a palaeontologist: did they think we wouldn't know what this word means? The movie's premise maintains that Patterson is irresistible to women, due to his English accent and his charming manner.

The young romantic leads are Tuesday Weld (as a flighty teen runaway) and Richard Beymer (as a swot). Weld is supposed to be all cute 'n' adorable, and we're supposed to want to hug her, but I just wanted to slap her and call her an idiot. For one thing, she runs away from boarding school wearing high heels!

What on Earth can explain the brief success of Richard Beymer? This tall handsome non-entity displays no acting talent whatever. In 'The Diary of Anne Frank' he utterly failed to convince me that he was European. In all his romantic roles (including 'Bachelor Flat') he quite fails to convince me that he has any interest in women. Beymer's best-known role is the male lead in 'West Side Story' (however did he get THAT part?), yet his utter blandness was the biggest flaw in that great film.

Tuesday Weld and Celeste Holm are meant to be playing daughter and mother, yet their characters have almost no footage together. I was impressed with one clever transition by Tashlin: a shot of Weld in bed with a photo of Holm, then cutting to a shot of Holm in bed with a photo of Weld.

Celeste Holm and her real-life husband (character actor Wesley Addy) have made generous donations to many charities, and they have been friendly to me personally: Holm has kindly granted me the time to interview her about her early days performing with George M Cohan. I really want to like her on screen ... yet Holm has never given a movie performance that impresses me. She's just dull here, playing an unsympathetic character. Allegedly, she's romantically involved with Terry-Thomas, but their characters have almost no screen time together.

Francesca Bellini (who?) gives one of the worst performances I've ever seen in a Hollywood sound film, and an unbilled American actress in the role of Miss Pilkington attempts an unconvincing English accent. Howard McNear is just as annoying here as he was in Mayberry. Rather a lot of this movie is implausible without being funny. If a tiny dachshund really did steal an immense dinosaur bone, dragging it slowly along inch by inch, would the dog really make TWO circuits round the same sand dune? Not likely.

I laughed heartily at one sight gag involving Terry-Thomas and a Cro-Magnon skull. The gag was reworked from a similar gag with Jules Munshin in 'On the Town', but it's funnier here and more imaginative. The film's prologue, featuring Terry-Thomas as a predatory redcoat in the days of Paul Revere, is amusing ... but it unfortunately sets the wrong tone for everything that follows. I liked the views of early 1960s California, although (based on this movie) there doesn't seem to be anyone in the entire state who isn't white. 'Bachelor Flat' features impressive production values, but there's really very little of interest here. I'll rate this movie just 4 out of 10.