Appartement pour homme seul

Suave and fastidious British archeology professor "Patterson" (Terry-Thomas) is forever fending off the attentions of his amorous female students, so hopes that the announcement of his engagement to "Helen" (Celeste Holm) might calm things down. He's in for quite a shock though when her daughter "Libby" (Tuesday Weld) shows up having absconded from boarding school. Now he knew nothing of her, nor she him so when she catches him in the shower - well that's just the start of the misunderstandings galore that follow. None of this is helped by his youthful neighbour "Mike" (Richard Beymer) who quickly takes a bit of a shine to her. Poor old "Patterson" is quickly out of his depth as the scenarios become sillier and the intervention of a certain four-legged "Jessica" adds even more mayhem as she fancies a gnaw on his recently arrived ancient dinosaur bone. It starts off quite engagingly but does rather fall into a repetitious frying pan to fire series of predictable scenarios that even the naturally talented Terry-Thomas struggles to rejuvenate after half an hour of romantic, under the bed, semi-slapstick. Beymer and Weld look like they are enjoying themselves though, and the few scenes with Holm make it a watchable enough comedy that epitomises the spirit of the British stiff upper lip contrasted with a good dose of American free love and even a bit of French joie de vivre too! You'll never remember it, but it passes ninety minutes effortlessly.

The very British talents of Terry-Thomas and the American comic genius of director Frank Tashlin produced a rather indifferent comedy in Bachelor Flat. Only in the last 10 minutes of the film do we see Terry-Thomas in his usual rakish, devilish character.

As his neighbor Richard Beymer says he's got a problem that every American male would like to have, he has to beat women off with a stick. Even though he's engaged to Celeste Holm who is in Paris and has rented him, her beach house the women just keep coming on to him. Especially the coeds at the college where he teaches paleontology.

One thing that Holm forgot to tell him is that she has a teenage daughter of her own from a previous marriage. And when Tuesday Weld drops in to the beach house for an unexpected visit that sets in motion a whole chain of events.

Bachelor Flat scored well at the box office due to current teen favorites Weld and Beymer. But Tashlin and Terry-Thomas have both done far better work. Even the good sight gag of a large dinosaur bone that Beymer's dachshund keeps trying to steal and bury worked a whole lot better in Bringing Up Baby. The film is all right, but everybody in the cast has done better work.

The line in the "Summary Line" is one of the last in this film - uttered by that consummate Englishman Terry-Thomas. Throughout the film he is usually carrying his brolly, but at this last moment it finally becomes useful.

This nice little film came out in 1962, but failed to do for Terry-Thomas what LOLITA or DR. STRANGELOVE or THE PINK PANTHER did for his fellow comic actor Peter Sellers: turn him into a super star. It really could not do so, for Sellers genius was to transform himself into dozens of different personalities, whereas Terry-Thomas usually played a bounder who got into comic difficulties because of his plotting, or character flaws, or circumstances he could not control. But in BACHELOR FLAT he was playing a decent sort, who finds himself (without intending it) to be attractive to females because of his pleasant English manners and erudition.

Terry - Thomas is Professor Bruce Patterson, a paleontologist who is teaching in Southern California. He doesn't plan to, but his crisp, clipped English manner has won many fans among the ladies in the university and in the neighborhood that he is residing in. He lives near his girlfriend Helen Bushmill (Celeste Holm), who is headed for Europe for a couple of weeks. Patterson, left on his own devices, soon finds that he is the center of a great deal unwanted attention from the ladies. One of them seems to be a young girl named Libby Smith (Tuesday Weld) who actually turns out to be Helen's daughter. He is assisted in trying to solve his problems with Weld and the others by his room-mate Mike Pulaski (Richard Beymer). Pulaski is soon attracted to Smith.

In the background, midst all the problems with the ladies, is Patterson's career goal. He has located a large dinosaur bone, and wants to return to the foreign country where he found it to do more digging for the rest of the fossil. This requires financing, and has brought up the attention of Dr. Dylan Bowman (Howard McNear), who is a "friendly" rival in the paleontology field.

Bowman starts sniffing about to find out what Patterson's discovery is (the latter has not shown the bone to anyone). But when the bone is accidentally buried, Patterson is seen by Bowman digging in the beaches near the bungalow he lives in, and retrieving the bone. As a result, of course, Bowman starts thinking the potential site for the dig is in the California beach that Patterson resides near.

As career and girls collide, and as Bushmill returns early, things get out of hand for our doctor. Among other things Bushmill thinks Patterson has become a ladies man. Patterson finds that his quiet lifestyle has been invaded by the ladies (they put a hole accidentally into his favorite derby hat, in one memorable slow burn). He asks Pulaski what to do to win back Bushmill, and in the process of being told what is expected from him as a male, he gets drunk - and proceeds to let his libido take over memorably.

The comedy was actually quite sweet, as Terry-Thomas played an average man in over his head. The rest of the cast ably supported him, especially McNear as his sneaky, spying rival - who got the last laugh in the film. It may not have been in the same class as DR. STRANGELOVE, but it was a good showcase for it's star. He didn't always have to play comic cads and bounders.

British archaeology professor at a Southern California university, living at the home of his fiancée--a world traveler who is currently away--finds himself saddled with a young chippie who claims to be an escapee from reform school; turns out she's the 17-year-old daughter of his future wife, who somehow failed to mention she was the mother of a teenager. Budd Grossman adapted his play along with the film's director, Frank Tashlin, yet neither seems able to tell the difference between shrill one-liners and clever repartee. The cast is manic and cartoonish, dashing in and out of the professor's pad on the beach as if this were a "Carry On" farce from the 1950s. Terry-Thomas isn't as offensive as the younger players, but working strenuously at a piece of fluff is ultimately disastrous for the picture and the star. Farce doesn't seem to be Tuesday Weld's strong suit (she's metallic and grating instead of charming), while Richard Beymer as a smitten law student is merely a hole in the screen. Not much headway from 1954's "Susan Slept Here", which Tashlin also directed, although this one at least has a cute dachshund with a fetish for dinosaur bones. *1/2 from ****

Bachelor Flat is one of those well done early 60's lightweight comedies that is not a great standout, but a movie one cannot help but like. Terry Thomas is superb as the steadfast British professor trying to keep his stiff upper lip heritage intact in a youthful environment of early southern California culture. Thomas is very well supported by the rest of cast who play off against the professor's stiff British bearing. The true delight to this movie is when Thomas shows his ability to play off against this British bearing with comedy antics that predate anything comedy group Monte Python would do so well later. Tuesday Weld is also quite good as the "wayward teenager" along with Richard Beymer who does a very competent job of playing the professor's young neighbor and friend. I found this movie quite charming in it's own way, and everyone ends up doing the right thing. I would recommend it for anyone who needs a nice diversion from the often heavy handed and simplistic comedies of today.