Promise Her Anything

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Warren Beatty and Leslie Caron in Promise Her Anything (1966)

A young woman is left with a baby to raise alone. She decides that the baby needs a father figure and decides to marry a psychologist. She hides her son with a neighbor upstairs until she ge... Read allA young woman is left with a baby to raise alone. She decides that the baby needs a father figure and decides to marry a psychologist. She hides her son with a neighbor upstairs until she gets her man.A young woman is left with a baby to raise alone. She decides that the baby needs a father figure and decides to marry a psychologist. She hides her son with a neighbor upstairs until she gets her man.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

5.2/10

649

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

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User reviews15

5.2649

Featured reviews

3moonspinner55

"In America, sex never changes--in Denmark, it changes!"

Exceedingly thin comedy from screenwriter William Peter Blatty (paying his bills) about a cheesecake filmmaker in Greenwich Village under duress from his mail-order distributor to spice up the action. Meanwhile, he's got a new neighbor, a young French widow with a rambunctious son...and a shapely behind! Tepid picture from talents seen to better advantage elsewhere. Warren Beatty looks flustered and performs listlessly, while Leslie Caron is all spunky externals and no depth. The entire plot is laid out for us in the first 15 minutes, while Beatty's competition in the love department is none other than sexless Robert Cummings, he of the mannequin's grin. You know you're in for it when the opening montage consists of a toddler wreaking 'comic' chaos in a jewelry store, playing peek-a-boo for the camera while reacting to animated credits hovering about his head. *1/2 from ****

5SnoopyStyle

so close but no cigar

Struggling filmmaker Harley Rummel (Warren Beatty) is under pressure to make something revolutionary in his mail-order films but he refuses to make porn. He may have to and he has a new neighbor in single mom Michele O'Brien (Leslie Caron). She has her eyes on her boss, child psychologist Philip Brock. He actually hates kids and she keeps her toddler a secret. While Rummel babysits for Michele, he comes up with a new filmmaking idea.

I thought the movie came out with a brilliant idea when Rummel puts the toddler in a movie. I thought he was going to film only the baby and show it to a female audience. I thought it's a great turn but then he just puts the baby in his hoochie coochie movies. Who would want that? The premise falls apart from that point on. It comes so close and yet so far away. Without the right premise, the comedy doesn't hold and non of it feels right.

4Jeremy_Urquhart

Quite bad

Promise Her Anything feels a bit like what you'd get if you took a Billy Wilder comedy and removed all the funny jokes. It's a strange, baffling mess of a film, only sporadically entertaining because of the occasionally strange things that happen. Examples: the opening credits reveal this was partly written by the author of The Exorcist (somehow), Donald Sutherland (RIP) shows up in an uncredited bit part, and Warren Beatty gets a baby drunk. The randomness and lack of coherency enables you to play a game of "what the hell is going to happen next," but it's otherwise not much fun.

I will forget about it almost straight away and that's okay. It's a bit of a waste of Beatty and Leslie Caron, with the former looking a bit embarrassed to be here in some scenes. At least Bonnie and Clyde was on the horizon for him by this point.

5boblipton

Never Act With Small Children

This is a prime example of this show biz dictum. Beatty and Caron both act as if they are embarrassed to be in this cheap, poorly written, smutty comedy, and well they should. Apparently they were having an affair at the time and would rather be off alone. So would you if you were in this movie. Give it a miss unless you're a fan.

2JasparLamarCrabb

Broken Promises...

Forget ISHTAR and TOWN AND COUNTRY if you're looking for Warren Beatty's worst film --- PROMISE HER ANYTHING is it. Beatty's an "art film" director saddled with sitting for divorcée Leslie Caron's baby. He's lecherous enough to try and fool her into thinking he's not what he is in hopes of getting her into bed. She has her sights on psychiatrist Bob Cummings. There is very little that's funny despite the presence of comic experts like Cummings, Lionel Stander, and Hermione Gingold. Caron is not bad and she's extremely beautiful, but Beatty is completely at sea and obviously very uncomfortable playing in a farce. For some reason it's set in Greenwich Village but filmed in a studio in England. It looks and feels that way...and that's not a compliment! Promise yourself that you won't bother with this dog. Beatty would have A LOT more luck with comedy ten years later by creating the biting satire SHAMPOO.

Storyline

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Trivia
By the time this movie premiered Leslie Caron's husband had divorced her, as she had been in a long term affair with Warren Beatty. Because Beatty had been determined the reason for the divorce, the British court ordered him to pay for all of the court costs.

Goofs
In the 'building-block bridge' demonstration for John Thomas, Harley places a red block on top which becomes blue in the subsequent wider shot.

Quotes
Dr. Philip Brock: But you don't understand, he is a very exceptional child.
Harley Rummel: Of course, he's an exceptional child - he's mine.
Dr. Philip Brock: No. Absolutely not. You have signed a release.
Harley Rummel: I want my baby. I can't live without him!
Dr. Philip Brock: Mr. Rummel, don't you want your baby cured?
Harley Rummel: I want him home.
Dr. Philip Brock: But you must leave him here - in the interests of science.
Harley Rummel: Science! Science! what does science know of a father's love? Can it mend a broken heart?
Dr. Philip Brock: Now you listen to me. Now this child remains here tonight. We've got to photograph him before...
Harley Rummel: Photograph him! Don't you dare turn a camera on that child. Do you hear? Who gave you the right, who gave you the permission to exploit my son?
Dr. Philip Brock: No one is exploiting your son. Cinematography is an invaluable tool of medical research.
Harley Rummel: It's a tool of the devil!
Dr. Philip Brock: Oh, it's nothing of the sort. It's almost on a par with x-ray when it comes to scientific...
Harley Rummel: Don't tell me what movies are good for him. Just give me the kid!
Dr. Philip Brock: No! Absolutely not. You signed a release. The child remains here. You can have him back tomorrow.
Harley Rummel: Doctor, I will pray on bended-knees for socialized medicine!
[exits]
Harley Rummel: .