Un dimanche à New-York

If you're looking for a perfectly dated view of premarital sex, you'll be hard-pressed to find another gem like Sunday in New York. Jane Fonda, in a totally adorable role, plays a conflicted "beginner". She's refused to sleep with her boyfriend, Robert Culp, and in her confusion, seeks refuge with her airline pilot brother, Cliff Robertson. Cliff assures her that being a virgin isn't a bad thing and that he himself doesn't sleep around. Of course, he's desperately trying to sleep with his girlfriend, Jo Morrow, and hides that from Jane. To top it all off, Jane meets Rod Taylor and decides to pretend she's more experienced than she actually is.

Adapted from Norman Krasna's hit Broadway play, this 1960s romantic comedy is just that: romantic and hilarious. Jane's comic timing is always great. "In movies, this is where the screen usually goes dark," she says when Rod's kisses make it clear he wants to take things further. When he finally learns she's a virgin, he slams on the brakes. He doesn't want to be responsible for ruining her reputation, and Jane finds his reasoning absurd. He wouldn't have any hesitation in sleeping with her if, say, in a week's time she'd already had a lover. "Call me next week!" she shouts, frustrated that her innocence is off-putting.

It's really a very cute movie, but women's libbers out there will probably hate it. You're better off watching The Electric Horseman or The China Syndrome; Jane is in a strong, feminist role in those movies. In Sunday in New York, she's cute as a button, but not the most liberated tool in the shed. I loved her in this one, and found her just as visually and comically adorable as she was in Barefoot in the Park.

Yes, it's dated. In the early 60's New York apparently was inhabited entirely by good-looking middle-class white people, smoking was sexy (yuck), and the double standard between men and women was still in full unchallenged swing. But there's something strangely engaging and sweet about this movie, partly because New York is shown in such an innocent light, partly because the chemistry between the actors, particularly the young Jane Fonda and not-so-young Rod Taylor, is playful and endearing. At times it bumps along as it switches from the Fonda/Taylor plot line to Cliff Robertson's lovelife difficulties, but the music and the setting alone are almost enough to keep you interested. (Loved that multi-level apartment!) And the farce that ensues as Eileen's (Fonda's) brother, potential fiance and potential paramour tangle with each other is sometimes genuinely funny. I was surprised - though it has its flaws, I found the film to be a pleasant sigh from a more innocent time.

One of the best romantic comedies I've ever seen. Jane Fonda has just been dumped because she wouldn't have sex before marriage and decides to spend a week in New York to forget her problems. She meets a guy on a bus and before long they're having coffee together. One thing leads to another and they're in her brother's apartment in bathrobes and her ex walks in! He assumes the guy is Jane Fonda's brother, and that's when the movie starts getting incredibly funny. It's like a screwball comedy with Cary Grant, and played very well by all the actors. Her real brother ends up playing someone else. Rod Taylor is really charming and cute and the brother is hilarious with a whole other subplot concerning his girlfriend and how all of their dates fall through. I'd never heard of this movie until it was on TCM and I'm surprised it's not more well-known. A real hidden gem, highly recommended!

If you're one of those shallow enough to complain, as another reviewer does, when a film "betrays it's Broadway roots," you're probably not sophisticated enough to appreciate the very real pleasures of a film like Sunday IN NEW YORK where the lines in the screenplay actually contribute enormously to the enjoyment of the film. While not quite as well crafted as the classics of the genre, Neil Simon's BAREFOOT IN THE PARK or Jean Kerr's MARY, MARY, Sunday IN NEW YORK benefits enormously from Norman Krasna crafting the screenplay from his own successful Broadway play.

Krasna is, in fact, prescient in several of his lines where he acknowledges that "in the future" people will take these things more in their stride - at least to the extent of premarital sex at the age of these characters - but while the age of experience may have shifted, the frustrations and anxieties of initiation probably never will and following "innocent" Jane Fonda, her protective but experienced brother, Cliff Robertson and the object of her temptation, Rod Taylor, through these beautifully filmed 105 minutes will provide not only enormous fun for those grownup enough to enjoy the ride without explosions and chase scenes (actually, there are a couple of those!) but a wonderful window on how we viewed our sex lives only a few years ago.

Sunday IN NEW YORK may be on a craft level of Neil Simon's first Broadway (and film) hit, COME BLOW YOUR HORN, but Krasna had been providing satisfying works for both Hollywood (WIFE VS. SECRETARY, MR. AND MRS. SMITH, WHITE Christmas) and Broadway (DEAR RUTH, KIND SIR) for decades before Simon started, and this represents some of his best comedy writing. It's a second tier joy. Consider making it a "flying double feature" (Robertson plays an airline pilot with TWA which is complicating HIS sex life) with the British BOEING BOEING, and you've got a great Sunday's escape in any city you please. Solid literate fun.

When it came to sex comedies involving mistaken identities, Norman Krasna was the master. This breezy comedy is based on one of his more modestly successful plays but it's been transferred to the screen with a generous glimpse of New York City backgrounds and de luxe apartment interiors, all in gorgeous Technicolor.

Furthermore, it has 22 year-old JANE FONDA in one of her early charming roles (before she took up politics), and two attractive male co-stars in CLIFF ROBERTSON (as her brother, an airline pilot) and ROD TAYLOR, as the man she happens to meet on a Fifth Avenue bus.

Jane's problem is that she lost her chance for marriage because she turned down sex beforehand and comes to New York from Albany to ask her brother for his advice on the subject. She isn't in the big city long before she meets ROD TAYLOR and that's when the plot goes into full swing. When her real boyfriend shows up unexpectedly at her apartment, she passes off Taylor as her brother. Naturally, this is Krasna's set-up for the rest of the story.

It's all completely innocuous but offers passable entertainment for a rainy day. Fonda is cheerfully ditzy most of the time and Taylor plays his role with his usual masculine charm. Robertson makes the most of his role as her playboy brother.

Enjoyable fluff, a bit dated, but fun.