Prudence... et la pilule

This silly romp is quite entertaining and even adorable. Its a lot of fun.

I am not the type of person who takes marriage and infidelity lightly. My attitude us be single or be married. Well this IS a farce and it does show how the complications that arise from sneaking around make it hardly worth the trouble.

The sexually-estranged wife of a London banker (named Hardcastle!) is suspected of infidelity by her hypocrite husband, who is cheating himself with a French lass. He replaces his spouse's contraceptive pills ("Thenol") with aspirin--to catch her in the act, I guess--an idea he gets after his sister-in-law tells of a scheme by her teenage daughter to avoid pregnancy before marriage by swapping out her own mother's pills in the same fashion. Hugh Mills adapted his smirking play for the screen, and might have been astonished to find most of the female roles filled by matronly women (married to very mature men). This is a blue-haired attempt at keeping up with the youth explosion in cinema circa 1968, but the material is highly unsuitable for its stars. Deborah Kerr, David Niven, Robert Coote (awful!) and Joyce Redman look embarrassed to be involved; Edith Evans, as the potential mother-in-law for sexually-active Judy Geeson, is the only cast member to rise above the juvenile plotting. Director Fielder Cook left the project midway after a disagreement with the producers, to be replaced by Ronald Neame. * from ****

In case you have any doubt as to the meaning of the title, I'll put you out of your misery: Prudence and the Pill is about the birth control pill. It's a hilarious British comedy starring David Niven and Deborah Kerr that proves you can get pregnant even if you think you're too old, and even if you think you're on the pill.

In the 60s, it wasn't as commonplace for women to be on the birth control pill as it is today-or was it? As David Niven's maid's boyfriend hides birth control pills in her vitamin bottle-so as to not insult her by suggesting she prevent a pregnancy-the maid switches her vitamins, which are really birth control pills, with Deborah Kerr's birth control pills, which are really just vitamins. Why are they vitamins? Because David and Deborah have a marriage in name only; they each have extramarital affairs, and in order to get a divorce and marry his mistress, David wants to prove his wife's infidelity. He switches her pills with vitamins-what's a better proof of infidelity than a pregnancy?

The plot is fast-paced and a little complicated, but if I didn't get confused, you won't either. The humor is very British, but I found it absolutely hilarious. If you like British comedies, you'll absolutely love this one. It's a sex comedy with references rather than raunchiness, so it's classy and funny and sexy all at the same time-just like David Niven! I love him anyway, so I was a little predisposed to like this movie, and it shows off his comedic talents wonderfully. Also, I know Deborah Kerr was more famous for her meaty dramatic roles, I actually like her better when she's being funny! Give this one a try and see which side of her you prefer.

I'm not sure what exactly attracted me to check out Prudence and the Pill. Partly is was the cast David Niven and Deborah Kerr, and also I was very curious about how a British comedy might handle this type of material. After a slightly interesting opening credits sequence we get down to business. It's all a bit silly really, but that seems to be the problem that it's only a bit silly when reality it needed a lot more silliness to pull this off and make it actually funny. As it is it's just slightly amusing at random bits throughout, but sadly for everyone involved it's more often slow and kind of dry. Not a completely unpleasant viewing experience for sure, it was somewhat watchable, just not as much as I had hoped for.

The main idea behind "Prudence and the Pill" is one that doesn't make sense to me. While birth control pills might have looked VERY different in the UK in the 1960s, all the ones I've seen look absolutely nothing like aspirins or vitamins--which are much, much larger. So how could people be replacing another person's birth control pills with aspirins without anyone realizing it?

This 1960s sex comedy stars Deborah Kerr and David Niven...both of which made quite a few sophisticated sex comedies in the 1950s and 60s (such as the horrible CASINO ROYALE, BEDTIME STORY and THE GRASS IS GREENER). In this film, Mr. and Mrs. Hardcastle have an open marriage and both have their lovers. In addition, Mrs. Hardcastle's niece (Judy Geeson) is sleeping with her boyfriend. However, someone is messing with these ladies' birth control pills and soon complications ensue.

Like most of the sex comedies of the era, this film talks a lot about sex (or, more rightly, INSINUATING a lot about sex) without really showing or saying much at all. Racy stuff for the time...very tame stuff when seen today. So, while it portrays folks who have affairs and premarital sex, it's done with 60s sensibilities--being both extremely broad-minded AND old fashioned at the same time.

So is this any good and is it worth seeing? Well, at least for me, no especially. I might have enjoyed it had it just been more interesting, made more sense or made me laugh. Plus, and I guess this makes me sound very prudish, but I thought the Hardcastles were a pathetic couple...and I really didn't care one bit about what happened with them. What was a kooky sex romp back in the day now just seems dated and sub-par despite the big-name stars in it.