Chambre à part

Amazingly, 2 days ago, to be exact, the name Joan Howell popped up on the phone. I wasn't even typing anybody's name. She popped up as a suggested contact. So I looked the name up, and then this movie showed up in search results.

Come to find out, Joan Howell is someone my brother-in-law works with. But naturally, given what I just discovered in search, I have to watch this movie again! I didn't even remember that her name was Joan!

Another Joan synchronicity to add to my Joan journal. So fitting, considering how the film opens, with a word on all the planets in our galaxy, and how everything moves together in some kind of order. It's got me to thinking - out of all the people in all the world, isn't it amazing that Joan Howell popped up as a suggested contact?!

There are no coincidences, only Godwinks!

Good movie, by the way! It's exactly the kind of 1960s rom-com I adore, with the perfect look and everything. As I said in another review for another Sandra Day film, there is something very special about the look of a 60s rom-com. And I don't just mean in terms of fashion, but in terms of the look of the film stock itself. There's something very distinct about it.

Relatedly, anyone who wants to see kind of a remake of this film, I would recommend the Jennifer Lopez movie Maid in Manhattan (2002). It's not an official remake, but there are definite parallels enough to where it feels like this movie totally influenced that one.

This movie is fun to watch 60's romantic comedy. Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee play the girl and the boy deceives each other, falls in love, and finds each other's deception before they can confess.

The pattern alone is fun to watch over and over; even today the film industry still tries to recapture the 60's romantic comedies yet falls short.

While we are having fun with the main couple, one cannot help but notice the supporting cast. I will not name them all but they have been seen in many movies and TV programs of that era. There is Donald O'Connor ("The Bell Telephone Hour" .... Host) as Bobby Darin's friend and boss, Nita Talbot ("Hogan's Heroes" .... Marya) as Sandra Dee's roommate and confidant, and Leo G. Carroll ("Topper" .... Cosmo Topper "20 episodes, 1954-1955") as the understanding Irish Pawnbroker.

A great Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee film that transcends this film is "Come September" (1961).

That Funny Feeling marked the last film that husband and wife Sandra Dee and Bobby Darin made together. Soon after this they split, but the passion was so strong they never remarried.

I'm thinking that around this time Rock Hudson was getting set to depart from Universal and I'm sure the studio thinking was that Darin and Dee could step right into the shoes of Hudson and Doris Day. Ten years earlier Rock and Doris would have made this film no doubt about it.

Sandra lives in a cracker box apartment with her friend Nita Talbot when she meets man about town Darin. Among other things Dee does to make the rent is clean apartments and she cleans Darin's though she never met him. Not knowing who he is, she pretends that his apartment is her's while Darin is supposed to be away on business.

The business he's on is trying to protect and hide the assets of his boss Donald O'Connor in the Tony Randall role, to wit some modern art paintings, hideous to some, valuable to others from being part of a divorce settlement. After this film gets positively zany in the Rock and Doris tradition.

O'Connor has some of the best lines in the film. I suppose had the Rock&Doris type comedies stayed in vogue O'Connor might have had a second career in these parts. A lot of other familiar faces dot the supporting cast, again like a Rock and Doris flick.

Darin even sings the title song over the credits of That Funny Feeling. What more could you want?

That Funny Feeling is so incredibly dated, it could never be remade today, but if you like sex comedies from the 1960s that have absolutely no relevance in the modern era, you'll probably enjoy watching it. And if you like seeing the adorable sparks between Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee, add this one to your list.

Sandra Dee plays a maid who feels ashamed of her lowly station when the wealthy Bobby Darin asks her out on a date. Even right there, the movie's dated. Thanks to Love Story, poor girls don't think twice about going out with rich boys. Bobby and Sandy go out, get along, but when he wants to see her home safely, she panicks and takes him to one of the apartments she cleans! This is 1965, so he just sees her to the door and leaves, by the way. What she doesn't know is that the apartment she's pretending is hers is actually his! It's actually a really cute story and meet-cute, but it's so dated you're going to have to put on your '60s goggles before you watch it.

Of course, there are tons of sex jokes and will-she-or-won't-she situations that were hilarious at the time but now just evoke a chuckle. Bobby's friend and sidekick is Donald O'Connor, and his advice for his bachelor friend is very funny. In my opinion, there's no reason why Pillow Talk has stood the test of time over That Funny Feeling; they both involve dated plots, deception, misidentities, and an endless quest to get the virtuous lady in the bedroom. Give it a try if you like this type of comedy!

"That Funny Feeling" doesn't by any means test the acting capabilities of Darin, or the glamour of Dee, but it is nonetheless a delightful, funny, and even colorful, film. As a bemused and confused victim of "Joan"'s bizarre method of dealing with an unacceptable home address. There are some great visuals, Darin climbing out of the upstairs window to avoid a confrontation in his own apartment with "Joan", the phone booth scene, the moment when he gets in the cab and in answer to the question, "where to?" simply says, "I don't know." Darin and co-star Sandra Dee look great together - no wonder that happened! And it is always fun to see Donald O'Connor too. I'd have loved to hear more songs from Darin, but the plot just didn't call for them. The title song is a very catchy, though. It is a movie that takes me back to what was best in the '60's - innocent fun and romance with humor and charm.