El Sexo y la Joven Soltera

"Mention sex, and the single girl is cool and shy She objects to discussing sex with any guy You can bet she's as interested as he If sex weren't 50-50, where would everybody be?"

I love me a sex comedy from 1964 that openly acknowledges female desire, sex outside of marriage, erogenous zones, and male impotence. "I'm gaining confidence," says Tony Curtis in one scene, clearly alluding to an erection. Meanwhile Natalie Wood is, well, Natalie Wood, just as gorgeous and magnetic as ever, even if it's in a silly film like this. This cast, my god ... Wood, Curtis, Henry Fonda, Lauren Bacall, Mel Ferrer (loved his little dancing), Edward Everett Horton (age 78!), Otto Kruger (his last film) ... with music from Count Basie and the sultry Fran Jeffries - it's fun to see them all here, and they all get at least a moment or two to shine.

The film tries to do a little too much, adding on the zaniness of an extended chase scene at the end which got a little exhausting. I liked the quieter things early on, like the running gag of coin-operated machines (the water cooler, the bathroom sink, the mirror, etc) which are all cleverly slipped in, and maybe suggest a changing world, one which goes along with women acknowledging their physical desires. There are also several humorous references to Jack Lemmon in "Some Like it Hot" when Tony Curtis finds himself in a women's robe, even though of course Curtis himself was in the same film. And then we have the scenes with Wood staring into Curtis's eyes and becoming aroused by his ear kissing, or her prancing out to answer the phone in a low-cut dress saying "And I shall insist on the right to have as many love affairs as I please. I'm certainly not going to sacrifice one iota of my freedom or dignity for any man." My goodness, she's a joy to watch.

Where the film falters, however, is in its treatment of women in the workplace - there's a secretary who is clearly a sexual plaything of her boss, and the main character melts as soon as she meets her new patient, abandoning any kind of professionalism. The story is kicked off when tabloid magazine writers all wonder if this young psychologist is a virgin, and her colleagues wonder the same thing. That's kind of ironic, because Helen Gurley Brown's book is about acknowledging and even using sexuality for one's benefit in a savvy way - a controversial concept for a feminist to be sure - but Wood's character doesn't show signs of this, and if anything, she's pretty naïve. It kind of erodes the equality aspect of the film. Women are as sexual as men, it says, but they either want to be dominated (as Jeffries' character prefers at the end) or they don't mind sacrificing their careers to get married (as Wood and Bacall's characters do).

Hey, the film is just a playful little comedy and in 1964 I guess you could look at it as a stepping stone of feminism, just as Brown's book was, despite its mix of progressive and regressive content - but these overtones and the lengthy car chase prevented me from rating it higher. Worth watching though.

There is something infectious about this comedy. The cast is about as perfect as you can get, but the subject matter was a bit awkward when compared to today's mores.

Before Carrie Bradshaw there was Helen Gurley Brown (Natalie Wood) a real life psychologist and businesswoman (she was editor of Cosmo for 32 years). Ms. Brown has just written a very controversial book about sex and the single girl (hence the title). It creates a firestorm amongst her male colleagues and her conservative patients. Tony Curtis is Bob Weston, a writer for a sleazy National Enquire-esque magazine called Stop. Bob wants to get an interview with Ms. Brown, but pretends to be a patient in need of marital counseling as a ruse. He uses his next door neighbors', Frank (Henry Fonda) and Syvia (Lauren Becall), volatile marriage as material. Of course a romance blossoms and then the normal confusion and hijinks ensue.

My issue with the film is the way Ms. Brown is portrayed. She is a befuddled, confused and weak female. She's also a terrible therapist. Despite writing a book on how a single girl can be successful, she immediately allows herself to become involved with a married patient. If I was the real Helen Brown, I would be appalled. Ms. Wood is gorgeous and I'm captivated by her screen presence, but she plays Ms. Brown as a woman who needs a man...the exact opposite of the book she wrote and my recollections of Ms. Brown in real life (mostly from reading her biography).

I understand this was set in the 1964 when views of male/female relationship skewed more towards male dominance, but it was still hard for me to accept that Ms. Brown could accomplish so much while being so desperate for a man...and a married one at that. Her therapy techniques violate every code of ethics you can imagine. Sure, it was a funny movie and I enjoyed it, but it left me feeling awkward at how simple women were portrayed.

The supporting cast is top notch and the movie's best selling point. Fonda and Bacall as the bickering neighbors are a treat. Mel Ferrer as Brown's fellow psychologist and potential love interest is hilariously smarmy and cocky. Fran Jeffries and Leslie Parish are attractive and funny love interests/secretary for Bob. Larry Storch appears in a cameo as a motorcycle cop during the finale's odd highway chase scene. Count Basie and his orchestra are here just to provide some gravitas, but don't really play any key roles.

There is a running gag about Tony Curtis wearing a woman's robe and everyone referring to him as Mr. Lemon. Curtis and Jack Lemon had starred in "Some Like It Hot" a few years before where they dressed like women. The gag was funny the first two times, but it got overplayed.

I have to say something about the chase scene. It seems that every romantic comedy in the 1960s had a chase scene. This one had a funny idea of the first three cars tossing a quarter to the toll taker. The last car leaves a dollar and takes the 75 cents. It was silly, poorly filmed, but made me laugh. Then there is another similar thing involving pretzels which I simply did not understand. I'm sure there was a point, but I missed it.

With this much talent, it was going to succeed and it does. I just wish Ms. Brown had been played a bit more wisely and not as such an easy mark for Tony Curtis' Bob Weston.

What could have been a sharp satire on 60's sexual attitudes runs basically lame throughout, the script simply comes up short. The basic mistaken identity plot device fails to provide laughs and it is so much the base of the film's story that it's failure prevents the whole from going anywhere.

However, all is not lost. There is a saving grace, and that is the presence of the then 25 year old Natalie Wood, playing the sexologist Helen Gurley Brown.

Wood, in this film is staggeringly pretty. She had, at that age, a natural girl next door beauty that has rarely if ever been rivaled in film history. Seeing this film and Wood again recently for the first time in decades was a revelation. About her, not the mediocre film.

Really, what's not to like? I'd watch Natalie Wood read the phone book, and this flick left me wondering why Tony Curtis wasn't a bigger star, and why Henry Fonda and Lauren Bacall were relegated to second-tier parts (though their roles were prominent).

Wood plays Helen Gurley Brown, author of the hit book of the film's name, and Curtis plays a magazine editor of a successful, seedy magazine that thrives on digging up dirt on people. Curtis sets his sights on scandalizing the virgin Brown. The laughs are many and frequent, with numerous subtle and not-so-subtle puns sprinkled liberally throughout. On the not-so-subtle side,the opening scene with magazine employees meeting with the CEO in the Board Room continually plays off the concept of the magazine seeking to feed off the lowest common denominator of human indecency. Another example occurred as cars raced along the highway, a sign noted that the highway's extension would be opening in December 1960. That was struck through and replaced with dates in 1961, 1962, 1963, and 1964, all struck through and ultimately replaced with something like "to be determined". I can connect with that jab even today.

Watching the movie caused me to research the 1962 book. Interestingly, the movie was loosely inspired by the book. And I mean loosely. The book is somewhat of a how-to guide, whereas the movie is a fictional imagining of the life of a much-younger Helen Gurley Brown, who was 40 at the publication of the book but 23 in the movie. Likely the movie's title was largely intended to parlay off the book's popularity. Good marketing.

It was also interesting and melancholy to note that the longtime delightful bit-part actress who played Emma Brand/Watson on the Andy Griffith Show, Cheerio Meredith, and had a minor role here, died on release day, 12/25/64. Burt Mustin also had a bit part. I always find it interesting to see actors such as Meredith and Mustin, who I mostly know from varying TV roles.

As usual, I loved seeing the sets and 60s style. I'm fascinated with the decade and enjoy seeing society's attitudes, fashions, and ideals in that era. This film brings that to life in spades.

Wood is the 'single girl,' a 20 year old doctor who just released a book on sex as a single girl, the catch is... she's still a virgin. Curtis is a sleazy reporter covering a story on Wood and her book. Curtis eventually falls for Wood's character, beneath all the lies he has told her. Cute side-stories with Henry Fonda and Lauren Bacall. Worth a watch just for the chase seen near the end.