Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed?

Dean Martin and Elizabeth Montgomery are great in this movie. So great, in fact, that they actually manage to slip some odd stuff by the early 60's censors! Martin plays an actor who is so believable as a sage TV doctor that some people believe he really is the character he plays. Oddly enough, some of the people who believe it are the wives of his poker buddies. (The buddies all work in the TV industry, so you'd think their wives would know better.)

Jack Soo's character sums it up best when he comments "Once a man's tasted married women..." The fact is that after initial resistance, Martin's character actually begins to groove on married women. Also, each married woman brings her own, unique fetish to the bedroom. There's the woman who plies him with food, the one who seduces him with dancing, and the woman who massages him into relaxation. Add to all this, Jason's fiancée, Melissa (Elizabeth Montgomery), who when she finally learns what's going on, proves that she's the kinkiest one of all.

Maybe it was all unintentional, but I doubt it. Written like it was dreamed up by Ed Wood on a good day, this movie features some hot sixties babes and a very strange plot.

Who's Been Sleeping In My Bed was made at a time when two wise young television doctors ruled the television ratings. Richard Chamberlain as Dr. Kildare and Vincent Edwards as Ben Casey were at their television heights when Dean Martin's satire of their characters hit the big screen.

Had this been done at Universal, this would have been a perfect Rock Hudson vehicle, in fact Hudson probably was the actor best suited for the lead. He had played the earnest and sincere Dr. Bob Merrick in Magnificent Obsession and he probably would have loved to have spoofed that image. But Dino isn't too bad in the part.

Dino's show Dr. Adam is ruling the ratings and he both dispenses medicine and advice, the latter without prescription. He looks so good doing it that the wives of his poker playing buddies, Yoko Tani, Jill St. John, and Macha Meril are falling for that image. And they all try to get at Dino.

All this is really putting a crimp into his marriage plans with Elizabeth Montgomery who was about to debut herself on television in Bewitched. But she's got a girl friend in Carol Burnett who's going to fix everything.

Carol Burnett made her film debut in Who's Been Sleeping In My Bed and imagine Lucy Ricardo as a supporting part and you've got what Carol's doing here. It's like Lucy trying to bring Fred and Ethel together after they've hit a rough patch. She really does steal the film, her best scenes are when she has to strip for her supper in a Tiajuana dive and later when she's showing up in all kinds of places trying to explain to Dino all the schemes she's been pulling.

Dino's poker playing buddies include Martin Balsam, Elliott Reid, Richard Conte, Jack Soo, and Louis Nye. However Johnny Silver as his houseman really gets some very droll lines from the script.

The comedy is a bit dated, it debuted in December of 1963 and was made during the optimistic New Frontier Days. No doubt some of the humor was not well received by a mourning country at that time. Still it does showcase a cast of fine players, especially Carol Burnett.

A great movie that was billed in it's day as a sex comedy but actually spoofs matinee idols, psychiatry and the movie business in general. Carol Burnett's first movie. She does a hilarious strip tease at the end. Elizabeth Montgomery also does a sexy dance and she has never looked more gorgeous. This movie has all the charm and fun that so many movies lack today. Look for Psycho's Martin Balsam in a very funny scene where he hypnotizes Dean's character. Jill St. John is also sexy as ever. This movie is basically about Dean's fear of marriage and giving up his glamorous life as a TV star. Liz is his fiance who is worried he's not going to marry her and is coerced by Carol Burnett in a zany scheme of jealousy. If you like old fashioned sex comedies without nudity or foul language, than you will like this movie.

Dean Martin, as a TV doctor along the lines of the then-popular "Ben Casey", is besieged by the unhappy wives of his poker pals; they all want the doctor's advice for curing the marital blahs, which causes Dino to reexamine his relationship with steady girlfriend Elizabeth Montgomery. Plastic bedroom farce which showcases some curvy, classy ladies but doesn't give Martin anything to do but react. He's on auto-pilot anyway, only lively when trying to skirt around dance-crazy Jill St. John. The supporting players upstage the leads, with Carol Burnett a stitch as Montgomery's wiseacre gal-pal, Martin Balsam lively as a head-shrinker, and droll Johnny Silver playing Martin's seen-it-all houseboy (who makes frequent trips to the liquor store). Not much happens here to justify the 103-minute running time, although director Daniel Mann does manage some funny bits of satire and frantic comedy, including Burnett's striptease in a Tijuana bar. ** from ****

I'm not sure how much starpower a film has to have before being considered for release on DVD or video but you'd be hard pressed to find another (with the exception of maybe the also tragically unreleased "What A Way To Go") that carries more megawattage than "Who's Been Sleeping In My Bed?". Dean, Elizabeth, Carol should have been enough to lift this film out of obscurity. But add in all of the wonderful character actors and the delectable Jill St. John (at the peak of her charms!) and you've got enough to make your own 60's rat-pack- style TV special! Granted the script is a bit dated (standard 60's sex comedy) but isn't that why we love these films? Elizabeth Montgomery shines with pre-Bewitched impossible youth and beauty. Carol Burnett is incredibly zany (possibly not yet learned to control her comedic powers). My only guess is that it is copyright issues that have kept this little gem from the video market. Dino alone must have an incredible fan base to keep the constant flow of his re-released material pumping out the way it seems to do. So I don't think it's an issue of this not being a profitable venture. Keep you eyes peeled on the TV schedule and set the VCR or Tivo and capture this laugher!