Ask Any Girl

This is one my favourite early Shirley Mc Claine films which didn't really tap her enormous acting talents, but gave the viewer a pleasant look at her comic talent. David Niven is the star of this film and is wonderful as the uptight, sexually oblivious brother of Shirley's love interest, who is of course a complete womanizer and twit. This movie also explores the different personalities of woman and how men react to them and vise versa. Rod Taylor also makes a good and memorable cameo

in the role of Shirley's boyfriend. The soundtrack is nothing special but is forgotten in the wake of the zany events of this film. I definitely recommend this movie to all lovers of predictable and sweet romantic comedies.

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!

Great comedy. Typical of the era. I have watched it at least 50 times. Each time you get a different perspective. David Niven and Gig young are brothers in a research firm David Niven (Miles Doughton) does all the work; while Gig Young (Evan Doughton) does all the researching mostly on female subjects. That is until Shirley MacLaine (Meg Wheeler) and David Niven applies the research to Gig Young. To this day, I can still use the proposition lines from Rod Taylor (Ross Tayford). He challenges Meg to have a mature relationship.

David Niven also plays similar characters in "The Statue" (1971), and "Prudence and the Pill "(1968). One of his best performances can be found on Amazon.com is "The Impossible Years"

Shirley MacLaine made her film debut a scant four years earlier in The Trouble With Harry and in her third film, Around the World in 80 Days, co-starred with David Niven. Reportedly they did not get along on the set, Niven felt she wasn't suited for the part of a Hindu princess and after seeing it I think you would agree.

MacLaine really made her mark in the following year by blowing all the rest of the cast off the screen in Some Came Running. Had it not been the year for Susan Hayward's I Want to Live, Shirley would have gotten her Oscar back in 1958. David Niven had won his Oscar in 1958 for Separate Tables so both of them were box office then.

Seemed only natural team them up again and this time MacLaine is most suitable for her role as a hopeful career girl in Ask Any Girl. Shirley's fresh from the country having made her way to New York in the hopes of getting a career going and/or landing husband. She develops quite a few potential suitors along the way.

Ask Any Girl is a combination of Sabrina plus elements of any number of Doris Day vehicles that came out at that time. Eventually Shirley winds up at an advertising agency run by two brothers. Older brother David Niven runs the agency and younger brother Gig Young views the place as fertile ground for female companionship.

MacLaine exasperates Niven, she's not real good at anything, but he's given up all hope in Young just settling down and tending to business. He sees maybe MacLaine just might be what Young needs, or maybe just what the elegant, but stuffy Niven needs.

The principal players go through roles they were all seasoned veterans at handling. Ask Any Girl is pleasant enough entertainment though looking back I wonder just what the very outspoken feminist Shirley MacLaine thinks of this husband hunting woman she plays here.

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!!!