Oui ou non avant le mariage ?

I've been catching up on a few of these early sixties semi-sex comedies, while in Covid essential isolation. I'm starting to fall in love with Carol Lynley though sadly, she died about a year ago. Jack Lemmon is always funny and interesting, Edie Adams is forever appealing and Paul Lynde, as the frustrated repressed wannabe letch is amusing to watch.

Yes, I was entertained throughout, yes it was relatively original and yes, I recommend it. However, it does go on for a bit too long without veering direction and there's never a moment when you don't know where it's going to end up. It was, after all, 1963, when the Hays code was starting to be lifted but wasn't quite there yet. Young people in the country were preparing for the sexual revolution but they weren't quite there yet, either. By 1967, the year of Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduate and the year after Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, the dynamic between this couple would have been entirely different. And by 1974, the film could have gone in a wide assortment of directions. In 1963, again at the time of the almost sex comedy, there was really only one way this film could go. Watching it get there was entertaining but again, it needed a few more turns and twists to justify the length.

Norman Fell's landlord character from The Graduate ended up as the landlord on Three's Company. It might have been interesting to see this landlord replace him.

Robin Austin (Carol Lynley) is concerned about her compatibility with boyfriend Dave Manning (Dean Jones). She convinces him to live together first. Her divorced aunt Dr. Irene Wilson (Edie Adams) is moving out of her apartment to move in with her boyfriend Dr. Charles Howard. Hogan (Jack Lemmon) is the womanizing neighbor landlord and he's more than eager to rent the place to Robin.

It's a little bit of fun especially with Lemmon. It could be funnier. It should be funnier. Lemmon and Jones could be a fun rivalry but her choice is never in doubt. Lynley is plenty pretty enough and she is fine. There is some attempt at 60's sex comedy humor but the bite isn't sharp enough and it doesn't bite deep enough. This may be edgy for a 50's sex comedy but feels safe for the 60's. For Lemmon fans, this is interesting to complete their list.

Ben Mankiewicz noted on TCM that Jack Lemmon was not happy being assigned this film version of a semi-hit Broadway sex comedy from 1960, and you can see why. As the libidinous landlord of a California complex who rents out only to nubile young things, he's playing an absolutely awful man, and for all his comic finesse, he's charmless and irritating. In Lawrence Roman's oversexed plot (he adapted his play with director David Swift), Lemmon's Hogan mistakenly rents a beautiful one bedroom (for $75 a month; oh, to be in 1963) to undergrad Carol Lynley, who plans to share it platonically with her fiancé, Dean Jones, who had played this part on Broadway. And from there it's one long smirk, with Lynley wiggling her fanny in short-short outfits, Jones bemoaning how difficult a no-sex policy is, and Lemmon mugging and being thoroughly unpleasant. Edie Adams, as Lemmon's ex and Lynley's aunt, is a pro, and Paul Lynde, as a horny-for-young-girls (ha) gardener, and Imogene Coca, as his disapproving wife, wring what laughs they can out of repellent material. If you want to know what '60s sex comedies were like, with endless jokes on will-she-won't- she-lose-her-virginity, this is a good example, typically over lit and supplemented with a cutesy Frank DeVol score. And Lynley and Jones are charming. But given the change in morality in intervening years, it looks it was made on another planet.

Lawrence Roman's popular stage farce comes to the screen seeming a bit undernourished, with everyone playing 'perky' to perfection but without benefit of any funny lines. With a whole apartment complex full of sexy, single gals, landlord Jack Lemmon becomes fixated on innocuous college girl Carol Lynley, who has just moved in with her boyfriend--a platonic arrangement that has Lemmon up in arms (and on the roof!). A shiny package with nothing inside, and Lemmon visibly strains to give the proceedings some bounce (tough to do since his wolfish character is thoroughly loathsome). The script, adapted by David Swift (who also directed), tries for snappy repartee, but since none of the characters are particularly sharp, the results here lack wit, sparkle and imagination. *1/2 from ****

It's been so many years since I've seen this, but I remember watching it as a teenager and thinking -- these are grownups here. *I'm* old enough to know what's going on. And this isn't funny. It reminds me of Matt Groening's Paradox:

* The French are funny.

* Sex is funny.

* Comedies are funny.

Yet, NO FRENCH SEX COMEDY IS FUNNY. Replace "French" with "Jack Lemmon", and, had you stumbled onto this film as your first and only exposure to that otherwise great actor, you might be tempted to banish Lemmon from your living room forever.