Ask Any Girl

This is the film where I first fell under the spell of the quirky heroines SHIRLEY MacLAINE seemed to embody in her early screen roles--and continued to play long after the charm had worn off.

But here she's refreshingly innocent, naive, quirky, good-natured and easy to like. In fact, she has to carry the film even though she's playing opposite such pros as David NIVEN (rather stuffy here), GIG YOUNG (casual, relaxed performance), and ROD TAYLOR (always good in light romantic comedies).

But it's MacLaine's show all the way as a girl who stumbles into a job at a market research firm run by two brothers, opposite types, one of whom (Niven) decides to shape her into the kind of woman his brother should fall in love with. Naturally, his little scheme backfires and he ends up falling in love with his creation. If you detect a touch of "My Fair Lady" here, you're right.

Passes the time quickly in an era where most films did exactly that, lasting no more than an hour and a half.

This is a wonderful film. I loved Gig, David, Shirley, and even the guy who played Ross! They were GREAT! Meg Wheeler (Shirley) goes out into New York nieve and innocent and planning to stay that way. Little does she know that she's going to run into three men, two of them who plan on change her more...well....romantically. Little does she know that she's going to meet one guy...Sophisticated, a little snotty, but very reliable and when the time comes...He wants to change her physically so that she can hook up with his brother! It obviously takes a lot of talent to play a girl who has to be so many women at once to please one man and Shirley is your girl! You will love me. Trust me, ask any gir- Well no. Ask ANYBODY!

I forget how damned cute Shirley MacLaine used to be! I saw her in The Trouble with Harry, and loved her, and she is great in this one too! David Niven is wonderfully droll, and the sentimentality of the movie is fun too. Funny, how accepted sexual harassment was in the late fifties...Different world today!

It is a long time since I have sat alone and laughed out loud at a film, but this one made me chuckle, chortle and hoot enough times to make it an immediate success in my mind. Most of my laughter was because of Shirley MacLaine, who gives a wonderful performance -not as quirky as she is in many of her other films of this period, but full of fabulous subtleties in facial expression, tone of voice, body language and screen expression. Being a big fan of David Niven too, I was delighted to see how good the chemistry between him and MacLaine was -he often plays a little bewildered to her forthrightness, and is a perfect match to her good-meaning clumsiness ..always the gentlemen! The other actors give great performances ..especially Gig Young, and the film is superbly cast right down to the smallest one-liner part: they all have their little moments and are allowed to shine, which adds to the enjoyment of the film. The story swings along nicely and is thoroughly enjoyable, even though you know where its going ..but that may be part of its charm.

Just have seen the film and was amused.Because it happened so, that before seeing it on TV a bit earlier I had seen on video "Bridget Jone's Diary"...One film after another one:) It was interesting to see how similar are problems of singles in such different epochs as 1959 and 2001. At the same time something has obviously changed.Freedom in sex matters out of marriage,for example. Or position of a male in the relations...The film is very funny and dynamic, full of wit and doesn't produce sickly sweet feeling. What else is interesting - how plots of some well known plays have been interwoven into the script. "My fair lady" for instance. A Russian film " Moskva slezam ne verit" ( 1979) is worth seeing as one where the same problems have been discussed but at the different cultural background. ...And - as the third part of this " triptych":)- I see, of course ""Bridget Jone's Diary". Two worlds - three countries - four time periods - a lot of characters - much pleasure!!!