Boeing, Boeing

"Boeing, Boeing" is a very unusual film for the time because although Jerry Lewis is one of the stars of the picture, he neither directed nor wrote it. He's simply there as an actor and isn't quite the same goofy guy he is in his other films. In fact, in some ways he's quite a jerk...a definite departure.

The story is about a super-selfish guy. Bernard (Tony Curtis) is a major womanizer. He's arranged his life in Paris so that he's engaged to three different stewardesses at the same time. It works out because each thinks she's his only woman and because their schedules work out so, they are oblivious to his machinations. However, two things upset his plans...the arrival of Robert (Lewis) and the women's schedules...which suddenly start getting discombobulated. So for most of the film, Bernard works tirelessly to hide each woman from the others...sometimes with Robert's help and sometimes Robert seems to be out for just himself.

This American-made bedroom farce suffers because Bernard and Robert are jerks...and two of the three fiancees seem pretty nasty. The third fiancé is just kind of dumb. Because of all this, the film doesn't work as well as it could and it's obvious that the director and stars try to make up for a somewhat weak plot by putting TONS of energy into their performances. It's not unpleasant but can understand why this isn't one of Lewis' or Curtis' more famous efforts.

1965's "Boeing Boeing" is a dated but mildly amusing film starring Tony Curtis, Thelma Ritter, Jerry Lewis and Dany Saval. Curtis is a swinging bachelor living in Paris who is juggling three flight attendants at one time, all of whom live with him, and all of them are his fiancees.

He's able to do this with the help of his able housekeeper (Ritter) and his carefully worked-out airline schedules. Unfortunately, the new fast planes are goofing up the schedules. Adding to the confusion is a visit by his friend Robert (Lewis), a reporter. The two men and an exhausted Ritter try to keep the women from running into one another at the apartment as their arrivals overlap.

"Boeing Boeing" was originally a play that had a very brief run on Broadway in the 1960's and went on to become the mainstay of dinner theaters throughout the U. S. After a very successful run in London, it has recently been revived on Broadway starring Christine Baranski as the maid, Bradley Whitford in the Tony Curtis role, Gina Gershon as an Italian flight attendant and Maureen McCormack as a German one.

Not having seen the original play, it's hard to know what if anything in the film was changed from the play. In the current Broadway production, the Jerry Lewis character, done to great acclaim on both continents by Mark Rylance, is totally different - he's a shlub who's never seen a woman before. Lewis would have been perfect playing it that way - instead, in the film, the character of Robert is very against type, quite serious.

The handsome Curtis does comedy well and is a perfect playboy. Baranski currently does the Ritter role with a French accent, which wrecks most of the dry humor that Baranski, like Ritter, brings to a role. Ritter is very funny as she changes the photograph on the desk, cooks sauerkraut for the German flight attendant, tosses it when the French flight attendant arrives and makes a soufflé instead and basically wears herself out.

"Boeing Boeing" is pleasant and fun to watch as an example of that great comedy form, the farce.

I first saw "Boeing Boeing" almost exactly a year ago when it came on TV, and I must say that I was delightfully surprised. While it was no comedy masterpiece, it still offered many genuinely amusing moments. The pairing of Tony Curtis and Jerry Lewis worked perfectly and it was interesting to see Thelma Ritter (who appeared in Hitchcock's "Rear Window") as the over-employed housekeeper.

Good entertainment, if you can ignore its staginess (the film takes place almost entirely in one apartment).

In my mind Jerry Lewis and Tony Curtis are two of the best actors of that era, and they both bring to this film a star quality, which I don't think the film could do without. Jerry Lewis proving himself to actually be a good actor without having to resort to over the top slapstick. And I really don't think I need to say anything about the greatness that Tony brings.

The plot though kind of cute isn't all that, and I suppose nowadays is considered to be quite politically incorrect. However the plot is secondary to the interactions between the two main characters and the housekeeper which is really what the film is about.

I used to watch this film on a very regular basis, and I would encourage everyone else to do the same!

Boeing Boeing is known primarily today as the film where Jerry Lewis stepped out of his schnook character and played a lead role in a Sixties sex comedy. Jerry does all right in expanding his range on this one, but the whole thing itself is not the greatest these type of films ever.

It's more of a warmed over version of The Tender Trap than anything else with Lewis playing not quite so second a banana to Tony Curtis as David Wayne did with Frank Sinatra.

Curtis has a great little operation going over at his place, he's got three fiancés, all airline stewardesses working at different airlines who live at his rather sumptuous bachelor pad in Paris. He keeps complete track of the schedule of Dany Saval for Air France, Christine Schmidtmer for Lufthansa, and Susanna Leigh for British Airways. But one fine day schedules change. Not only that, but an old rival Jerry Lewis comes into town and watches in amazement.

I'm still trying to figure out just how Tony Curtis could afford the living quarters he was in together with live-in maid Thelma Ritter who helps him keep the pretenses up. Just how a Jewish maid from Queens got to be living in Paris is also a mystery. All this mind you is on a reporter's salary and no one said that Curtis was Carl Bernstein.

Good thing he could afford her because Thelma Ritter as usual is the best thing in the film despite the statuesque proportions of the ladies involved. Especially Schmidtmer as Ritter caustically commented.

In his memoirs Tony Curtis says he liked making Boeing Boeing and thinks highly of Jerry Lewis as a person and comedian. He also said Lewis even when not doing his usual shtick in a film was still the greatest scene stealer on the planet with whom he had to stay constantly alert.

It's not a bad comedy, some will find it incredibly sexist for their taste. It does suffer by comparison to The Tender Trap.