O Bem Amado

The names Bud Yorkin and Norman Lear always look good on the credits for a comedy--until you realize Lear's success was relegated strictly to the tube and Yorkin has no sense of humor. Add to the mix a script based on the play by the highly uneven Neil Simon, and you have a slick but scattershot affair. Frank Sinatra sleepwalks through role as swinging New York bachelor (now there's a stretch) who takes his gawky younger brother under his wing, much to the chagrin of their mother and father (the torturous Molly Picon and Lee J. Cobb, both giving the term 'Old World' a bad rap). Just about every one-liner falls flat, Tony Bill is hopeless in his debut as the kid brother, and Sinatra's one song (the title cut) is mediocre. Assets: Dean Martin has a cameo that's not bad, and Dan Blocker is wonderfully big and colorful as a disgruntled businessman. *1/2 from ****

This film is the first one based on a Neil Simon play and the screenplay is by Norman Lear. According the IMDb, Frank Sinatra's character is actually based on Simon's older brother--a playboy who apparently was quite the lady's man. While Sinatra is good in the film, he was badly miscast as he is easily old enough to be his brother's father! In fact, he and the father (Lee J. Cobb) are about the same age--and so I had a seriously hard time believing Sinatra was Tony Bill's brother.

The film begins with a young man showing up at his brother's bachelor pad. Apparently he's moving in and it's quite the surprise. However, he IS welcomed by his brother--but not the over-protective parents who want this young man to return home. The younger brother (Tony Bill) seems quite naive and he's in for a shock when he sees that his brother is quite the player--and is currently stringing three ladies along at the same time! But, when he can't possibly make all his commitments to the ladies at the same time, the naive brother is convinced to help! What's to happen to the sweet younger brother and will his older brother ever grow up and become responsible and settle down? The acting was fine in the film and the writing very good. In fact, apart from Sinatra's age, I have no serious complaints about the film. It is a bit of a trifle of a film but enjoyable throughout--and is well worth your time.

I have to agree with most of what the previous commenter says; this is a largely disappointing movie. Neil Simon's wit here is not yet up to "Odd Couple" or "Sunshine Boys" speed, and some of the acting is lame. Jill St. John is a tad too cutesily dumb, and Tony Bill's Buddy is somewhat grating, especially after his unconvincing conversion from youthful innocent to roue. However, Sinatra is always worth watching and listening to, especially in the masterful Nelson Riddle's arrangements (here an original song, actually). However, the movie is almost worth watching solely for Lee J. Cobb's performance as papa Baker; his sidesplitting performance as the terminally frustrated Mr. Baker is a study in comic skill, particularly in the scenes where he invades the brothers' apartment. I had never see Cobb do comedy before; now my estimation of him as an actor has increased immeasurably. Catch this one just for Cobb.

I really like this movie, but I like Frank too. Sinatra had some really good movies, and some not so hot, but fun to watch like this one. Anyone who doesn't get this movie is a square. It's fantasy, it's light comedy, it's fun, and it's free. Hard to swallow Dan Blocker as someone other than Hoss, and I love the women in this one. When I was 10 and watched this, I used to think this was real life, and I couldn't wait to be just like Frank. Of course, I'm a little smarter now, but I still wish my young adulthood had had this kind of time, even once. So, the movie substitutes nicely, just like the Elvis movies do. Instead of the "swinging bachelor" life, I am married 30 years with grown kids, and quite happy. I think also having an older brother and younger brothers gives me a neat perspective on this film. Not reality, not meant to be. I also love anything New York, like the waiter who delivers the peas and potatoes because "they come with the meal." Now THAT'S New York customer service at it's best. Just a great evening watching a fun movie. Sinatra in many of his movies, kept his rat pack persona on display. Sinatra was one of a kind. Then again, so was Dean Martin, Sammy, and some of the other "cool cats". Sinatra did quite well. Not bad for a kid from Hoboken.

Round up the usual suspects. This being a Frank Sinatra comedy, there has to be a Cahn-Van Heusen song, arranged by Nelson Riddle. Dean Martin pops up in an under-rehearsed cameo and Jill St. John is Frankie's Bimbo. "It's a business like any other business," says Frank. Was he talking of manufacturing wax fruit, or cranking out cynical sex comedies?

The Baker brothers are out for fun. Alan is a thirty-nine year old playboy who, to his parents' chagrin, remains unmarried (Sinatra was in fact bewigged and fifty-one). His kid brother Buddy (Tony Bill) escapes from the stifling jewish domesticity of Yonkers and joins Alan in his Manhattan bachelor apartment. Drinks, dames and snappy clothes ensue. Because this is 1963, Frank thinks it's the height of cool to shave with an electric razor, use roll-on deodorant and furnish his kitchen in orange plastic. Impressively for 1963, he has a car phone and a remote control device to work his stereo, but were the snapbrim hat and the plaid raincoat REALLY the last word in style in the era of the Rolling Stones?

Essentially a bourgeois jewish comedy of the Neil Simon type, "Come Blow Your Horn" is a bit of froth which does not repay close analysis. There is a cute little phallic joke (the cannon in the movie playing on TV) and Frank's character almost goes somewhere with his 'oldest swinger in town' realisation, but ultimately this is a lazy, shallow little project.

Lee J. Cobb is the long-suffering jewish father, Molly Picon the depressingly stereotypical jewish mom. Hoss from TV's "Bonanza", Dan Blocker, appears briefly as the irate cuckold Eckman. Jill St. John is in simpering Marilyn Monroe mode as Peggy The Babe, not yet showing the intelligent irony on display in "Tony Rome". Tony Bill is good as Buddy, the kid brother corrupted by the philandering Alan, and Barbara Rush impresses as Connie, the good girl.

However, the film's central premise is flawed. The script does not explain (because it can't) how feckless, jobless Alan can afford swish tailoring, ski vacations in Vermont and an apartment the size of Shea Stadium. There is a lame suggestion, right at the end, that some unseen broad can be sweet-talked into donating the bachelor pad to Buddy, but it fails to convince. Rather like the film, really.