Eine tolle Nummer

Besides being a slightly better-than-average romantic comedy, this movie features several very familiar television supporting stars -- if you're an old coot like me anyway! -- including Eva Gabor ("Green Acres"), Edgar Buchanan ("Petticoat Junction"), Harry Morgan ("Dragnet" and "M*A*S*H"), Frances Bavier ("The Andy Griffith Show"), Richard Deacon ("The Dick Van Dyke Show"), Marion Ross ("Happy Days"), and last, but not least, the Batmobile!

Air Force staff sergeant Joe Fitzpatrick (Glenn Ford) meets showgirl Maggie Putnam (Debbie Reynolds) at a charity. She's trying to find a rich man, but he won't take no for an answer. He plants a magical first kiss on her and she falls head over heels.

I'm sure that back in the day, Joe is seen as playful and romantic. That's how I choose to see him. Debbie Reynolds remains endearing even as a gold-digger. She's not a gold-digger for that long anyways. The meet-cute is definitely eventful. This is fine as a rom-com. For comic book fans, the car's first appearance would immediately strike you dead. It's the Batmobile. For that, this will go down in cinematic history.

I'll admit, the main reason I watched this was for the car. As is mentioned in the Trivia Section, the car in question is a Lincoln dream car from the mid 1950's. Very rarely do these cars make appearances in the `real world', as most don't really function. They usually have no engine, or are made from some material that would be ruined if actually driven. These cars spend their life on a turntable at an auto show with fashion models in, or on them. After they serve their purpose, they get destroyed, or stored. Few, if any turn up in movies, as this Lincoln did, and then go on to TV stardom, as well! Ford later sold the car to custom car designer George Barris, and it became the basis for the Batmobile in the TV series "Batman". And if you were a kid like me at the time, IT was the star of the show. Sorry Batman and Robin!

This is what was best described as a `Bedroom Comedy'. Rock Hudson, and Doris Day made movies like this, with a light amount of `sexual tension' sewn into a light comedy movie. You never saw 'anything', it was left to the viewers imagination, what happened.

The film itself is decent enough. I like most anything that Glenn Ford did, and Debbie Reynolds turns in another good performance here. The supporting cast is peppered with plenty of folks who, like the car, went on to fame on TV, Eva Gabor, Harry Morgan, Edgar Buchanan, and of course, Francis Bavier.

The country side of Spain is beautiful, the acting is competent, so I'll give it a 6 out of 10.

Glenn Ford is 43 and has been a sergeant for approximately twenty-five years. What is wrong with him?

Again, young female talent is paired with much older male talent at MGM -- a pattern that is so often repeated that it is the norm.

This could have been something that stood out, but instead follows the MGM pattern circumspectly. Reynolds is good in her role; why not give her a young male star to play off? Instead, MGM gives her a daddy, just like in most all other musicals they produced.

This is a waste of Debbie Reynolds' talent, although she does sparkle when she is alone and can sing.

I saw this film with my parents at a drive-in in 1959, and I was mesmerized by the fabulous Lincoln Futura, the best of the 1950s "dream cars".

As a devoted sci-fi fan, this car was the very essence of the "future". The Futura implied predictions of a future similar to those presented in movies like "Forbidden Planet". It was an example of the kind of superior technological design which I eagerly anticipated in the decades to come.

Predictions like this were why I loved to watch Disney shows like "Mars and Beyond", "Tomorrow the Moon", and "Magic Highway USA".