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If you read the book it's more obvious that Ben has a stalking problem. In one scene his father comes to tbe boarding house he's staying in and tells Ben that he needs to see a shrink. We don't see this scene in the movie and it could have taken the film in a direction that would have made it more interesting but they chose not include it sending the film on a dull path. As Pauline Kael said this movie is a typical 60's comedy in many ways, which I agree with. It's right up there with "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken" if you think about it and even has a few characther actors from Bewitched. The filmmakers didn't want this to be a picture about mental illness so they tried to make it into a comedy which didn't really work in the end. Anne Bancroft is sexy in this movie, you can't deny that and I think people loved the fact that this movie was about the unthinkable, an older woman having an affair with a family friends son. At the time these things supposedly never happened and people must have enjoyed the shock of the idea. Now it's passe so I think you had to be there when it came out to really get it. It's very dated and not that enjoyable at this point in time.

For viewers that like to watch this over and over get a vcr that has a dial on the remote where you can go slowly through each clip, the party scene is the best place to do this, you see a lot of stuff that you miss watching the movie on regular speed.

For design buffs get a look at that beautiful Braun toaster in the Braddocks kitchen. The Robinsons house is very nouve riche. Check out the speakers in the bar and in the bedroom. These are made by a company called Nelco and they would be for someone with "New Money". The Robinsons lived through the depression and want it all in the 1960's. Bens parents house seems to be a little different, no bar and we see some of Bens gadgets in the bedroom. A nice portable tv(very expensive in those days, tv's were like portable computers now(i.e. IMAC)

If you haven't seen this don't worry it's on cable almost every week. Whenever I realize I haven't seen it in a while it comes on again. This is a really fun movie, much better then the sequel "Lady in Cement", my friend and I were really disappointed in the sequel that we couldn't wait to see. Anyway Sinatra plays a local Private Eye, sort of a Rockford Files without the trailer, Sinatra is in a houseboat. After a local rich girl ends up in a broken down motel and her pin is missing, Sinatra is hired by her father(the great Simon Oakland) to find out who stole her jewerly. This was filmed on location so you really get to see 1960's Miami, it's fun just for that. Gena Rowlands stars as Oaklands wife, Jeannie Cooper the soap star is married to Gena's ex, Joe E. Lewis of Car 54 fame is a bartender and it also includes a lot of other 1960s character actor regulars(watch for Joan Shawlee as "Fat Candy", she was one of my favorites in "The Apartment", the girl Jack Lemmon spends christmas eve in a bar with. Keep an eye on AMC or TCM, they seem to run it the most

After the New York Times gave it a great review and supplied great photos I had to see it. I should have waited until it came on network tv. I don't usually like Haynes movies but I thought this would be an exception, it wasn't. Haynes seems to be obsessed with Barbie dolls(see Superstar)and it was obvious from watching this movie. The characters were lifeless and so was the plot. I kept waiting for something interesting to happen, for this movie to go somewhere but it never did, spurts of ideas that were never fully developed. Why Haynes gets so much credit is beyond me. I think he got a lot of attention for the Carpenters movie and we never got rid of him. He is an artist but film doens't seem to be the right medium for him. Maybe a sculpture of Far from Heaven would have been more appealing.