The April Fools

Typically good Jack Lemmon performance enhances this uneven Hal Dresner script that strains too hard to be whimsical. Great supporting cast, with Charles Boyer, Myrna Loy and Peter Lawford standouts. Catherine Deneuve is impossibly beautiful in this, one of her few American films, and her melancholy is nicely balanced by Lemmon's trademark veneer of glibness masking a streak of cynicism. Lovely score by Marvin Hamlisch, with the title song by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Very 60's in milieu and cinematography, but the two leads especially lend some unexpected poignancy to the plot shenanigans.

The April Fools, starring Jack Lemmon and Catherine Deneuve is a likeable, though not outstanding film. The film, somewhat bereft of a script, deals with Lemmon's character who arrives at his extremely trendy boss's apartment for a social gathering, which, to Lemmon's sheer amazement, is a fully-fledged swinging 60's hip shindig in classic over-40's type psychedelia. Deneuve plays the rather neglected wife of Lemmon's boss and of course the two meet at the party and do a terribly unconvincing job of falling in love. Deneuve, while pretty to look at, strolls through this film acting like she's hanging around for her agent to come up with something better. And in this film Lemmon just doesn't cut it as a romantic interest. The scene stealers are Lemmon's two drunken cohorts.

This film is far more interesting as a time piece, however. It's fun and engaging to watch this film and see how Hollywood was interested in projecting the late '60s high-class psychedelic world. The scene where Jack Lemmon takes Catherine Deneuve to the private club which is completely fitted out like the jungle and features sexy waitresses who slink around in various animal skins, with the only way to attract their attention is to shoot them on the bottom with a cap gun, really does make you marvel at the fact that clubs like this really did exist. Ah! Those were the days....

I saw this film years and years ago, but was listening to a "best of"

CD the other day and heard Dionne Warwick singing the title tune

of "The April Fools" - I remembered how much I loved this film. The

truth to the performances of Jack Lemmon and Catherine

Deneuvre, along with great performances from Peter Lawford and

Sally Kellerman, makes this film a classic of the late sixties in the

vein of Breakfast At Tiffanys. There is something pure, haunting

and deeply bittersweet about this movie - well worth a viewing.

Critics often get it wrong and this movie is proof of that. If you watch this movie in the cold and analytical way that critics often do you will see its countless flaws. But if you do this you will also miss its warmth,charm the masterly performances of its cast and a super sixties Bacharach theme song. I urge people to see it and make up their own mind. My guess is you won't fail to be touched.

Worth it just for the look at the sixties beautiful people. But on top of that, excellent love story coupled with hilarious comedy. Plus it has one of our last looks at the sexiest actress of all time - Myrna Loy. This should be hailed as a classic. Shame on the stupid critics.