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Come Blow Your Horn (1963) More at IMDbPro »
16 out of 23 people found the following comment useful :-
The Fabulous Baker Boys, 31 July 2000
Author: Michael Coy (michael.coy@virgin.net) from London, England
Round up the usual suspects. This being a Frank Sinatra comedy, there has to be a Cahn-Van Heusen song, arranged by Nelson Riddle. Dean Martin pops up in an under-rehearsed cameo and Jill St. John is Frankie's Bimbo. "It's a business like any other business," says Frank. Was he talking of manufacturing wax fruit, or cranking out cynical sex comedies?
The Baker brothers are out for fun. Alan is a thirty-nine year old playboy who, to his parents' chagrin, remains unmarried (Sinatra was in fact bewigged and fifty-one). His kid brother Buddy (Tony Bill) escapes from the stifling jewish domesticity of Yonkers and joins Alan in his Manhattan bachelor apartment. Drinks, dames and snappy clothes ensue. Because this is 1963, Frank thinks it's the height of cool to shave with an electric razor, use roll-on deodorant and furnish his kitchen in orange plastic. Impressively for 1963, he has a car phone and a remote control device to work his stereo, but were the snapbrim hat and the plaid raincoat REALLY the last word in style in the era of the Rolling Stones?
Essentially a bourgeois jewish comedy of the Neil Simon type, "Come Blow Your Horn" is a bit of froth which does not repay close analysis. There is a cute little phallic joke (the cannon in the movie playing on TV) and Frank's character almost goes somewhere with his 'oldest swinger in town' realisation, but ultimately this is a lazy, shallow little project.
Lee J. Cobb is the long-suffering jewish father, Molly Picon the depressingly stereotypical jewish mom. Hoss from TV's "Bonanza", Dan Blocker, appears briefly as the irate cuckold Eckman. Jill St. John is in simpering Marilyn Monroe mode as Peggy The Babe, not yet showing the intelligent irony on display in "Tony Rome". Tony Bill is good as Buddy, the kid brother corrupted by the philandering Alan, and Barbara Rush impresses as Connie, the good girl.
However, the film's central premise is flawed. The script does not explain (because it can't) how feckless, jobless Alan can afford swish tailoring, ski vacations in Vermont and an apartment the size of Shea Stadium. There is a lame suggestion, right at the end, that some unseen broad can be sweet-talked into donating the bachelor pad to Buddy, but it fails to convince. Rather like the film, really.
12 out of 16 people found the following comment useful :-
"I Tell You Chum, It's Time To Come Blow Your Horn", 12 February 2005
Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York
This Neil Simon comedy, debuted on Broadway two years earlier, minus the song and a few characters and starred Hal March, Warren Berlinger, Lou Jacobi, and Pert Kelton. It had a respectable run for about a year and Frank Sinatra must have recognized a property tailor made for him when he saw it.
The eternal problem with filming plays is how to get them out of the theatrical confines and use the scope the movie camera offers. Primarily this is done with a Sinatra song with the movie title where he lectures kid brother Tony Bill that life ain't a dress rehearsal. Sammy Cahn, who put more words in Frank Sinatra's mouth than any other lyricist, put some of his best work into play here. It's a great Sinatra song and maybe it's inclusion qualifies Come Blow Your Horn to be a musical.
Lee J. Cobb and Molly Picon are the quintessential Jewish parents and they are grand. Cobb was a very underrated actor and an unhappy man because of his experience with the House Un-American Activities Committee. Sinatra purportedly befriended him and helped him over a few rough patches.
Molly Picon brought about 50 years of experience to her part as Frankie's mom. She was fresh from a Broadway triumph in Milk and Honey. She started out as a child in the Yiddish Theatre and was only now breaking out into a wider audience. She has a very funny scene alone in Sinatra's bachelor pad, trying to answer several phones looking for a pencil to take a message with disastrous consequences.
The women here are an eyeful, Phyllis McGuire, Barbara Rush, and Jill St. John and Sinatra's involved with all of them. I won't tell you which one he ends up with, but I think you'd figure it out. I think most of Frankie's fans would settle for any one of them.
Life imitates art and the real life Sinatra unlike his character Alan Baker didn't really settle down until fourth wife Barbara Marx married him.
There's a lot of similarities with the earlier Sinatra comedy, The Tender Trap. It's ground gone over before, but it's good topsoil.
A Quintessential Sinatra film, a must for fans of the Chairman of the Board.
10 out of 16 people found the following comment useful :-
Very few laughs..., 11 May 2002
Author: moonspinner55 from redlands, ca
The names Bud Yorkin and Norman Lear always look good on the credits for a comedy--until you realize Lear's success was relegated strictly to the tube and Yorkin has no sense of humor. Add to the mix a script based on the play by the highly uneven Neil Simon, and you have a slick but scattershot affair. Frank Sinatra sleepwalks through role as swinging New York bachelor (now there's a stretch) who takes his gawky younger brother under his wing, much to the chagrin of their mother and father (the torturous Molly Picon and Lee J. Cobb, both giving the term 'Old World' a bad rap). Just about every one-liner falls flat, Tony Bill is hopeless in his debut as the kid brother, and Sinatra's one song (the title cut) is mediocre. Dean Martin has a cameo that's not bad, and Dan Blocker is wonderfully big and colorful as a disgruntled businessman, but the rest of this "Horn" blows. *1/2 from ****
6 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
Classic Sinatra Comedy, 26 May 2006
Author: Ginger from United States
This movie is classic Frankie.
Frank plays a swinging bachelor with a steady stream of dollies coming to him--and one, true steady girl. His father greatly resents his lackluster job performance for him but, moreso, is upset with him for not being married, being "a bum" as he frequently puts it.
Then Frankie's square little brother decides that Frank is living the life. He runs away from home to have his big brother show him the ropes, much to his parents' dismay.
Thus ensues a great comedy. We get to watch Frank teach what he knows best--how to swing, and see his little brother comically pick it up. And pick it up maybe too well for Frank's comfort...
Wonderfully funny situations pop up all over the movie, beautifully intertwined with a solid plot and certain points being driven home. The cast couldn't be better (despite some comments about Frank's age--Frank always looked at least ten years younger than he was).
Frank is completely on the ball with this part and does it like the pro that he is; it was just written for him to play. There's plenty of girls for him to have a field day with, and it's so funny and such a pleasure to just watch Frank play this sort of thing. The rest of the cast couldn't be better, and it all just clicks right into place.
Hilarious situations and dialogue, a wonderful cast, a fantastic, unexpected cameo, a great capture of the excellent times when the movie was filmed, and overall wonderful Sinatra all add up to a movie you've got to watch if you love the Swingin' 60's, the Rat Pack, Frank, or just great comedies.
9 out of 15 people found the following comment useful :-
disappointing (but Lee J. Cobb, oy...), 21 November 2000
Author: Robert D. Ruplenas
I have to agree with most of what the previous commenter says; this is a largely disappointing movie. Neil Simon's wit here is not yet up to "Odd Couple" or "Sunshine Boys" speed, and some of the acting is lame. Jill St. John is a tad too cutesily dumb, and Tony Bill's Buddy is somewhat grating, especially after his unconvincing conversion from youthful innocent to roue. However, Sinatra is always worth watching and listening to, especially in the masterful Nelson Riddle's arrangements (here an original song, actually). However, the movie is almost worth watching solely for Lee J. Cobb's performance as papa Baker; his sidesplitting performance as the terminally frustrated Mr. Baker is a study in comic skill, particularly in the scenes where he invades the brothers' apartment. I had never see Cobb do comedy before; now my estimation of him as an actor has increased immeasurably. Catch this one just for Cobb.
7 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
A chore to watch, 8 May 2006
Author: Ripshin from North Carolina
Looks like a stage play......feels like a stage play.....acted as if the audience is sitting fifty yards away.....they just couldn't shake the roots of this production. Certainly, an insignificant Simon property, raised beyond oblivion by its casting. I'm not sure why they just didn't change the age of Sinatra's character to his actual 48 - he doesn't look remotely 39 - actually, he looks about 55. Tony Bill's role would play better on stage, where his over-emoting wouldn't be quite so grating.
Yes, the parents are perfectly cast, if you can tolerate the stereotypical Jewish mother and father, screeching incessantly. What children WOULDN'T run away from that?
The bachelor pad is certainly hip Early 60s - and unbelievable (regardless of the explanation of its affordability).
The song interlude is a bit jarring, although if they had to do it, it certainly works best where it is.
Overall, not a film I'll watch again.
1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
The Type of Movies That The TV adds The "un" to it !, 5 December 2008
Author: ahmed elshikh (ahmed_abd_elreheem@yahoo.com) from Egypt
Well, let me see. This is a comedy without any comedy. This is one of the worst movies had (Neil Simon)'s name on it ever. And this is the 1960s' most theatrical cinema I've seen.
Come to think of it, the conversations are too long and not even droll or try to be. (Bud Yorkin)'s direction is anything but cinematic. Moreover, (Lee J. Cobb) was four years older than (Frank Sinatra), and he played his father !. Not to mention that (Sinatra) himself as the bachelor playboy was 48 years old while his brother, Tony Bill, was 23 (Yes, 25 years between them !). I believe that Jill St. John is fiery sexy, though here she was boring !. (Sinatra) does an imitation of President Kennedy, and Dean Martin appears in dull cameo; they seem like inside jokes for Sinatra so his fellows ! And the title? Sorry, but I have to suspect a double meaning where the other one is lewd; as it's harmonizing with the 1960s' free swinging spirit, and the era's boldness's limits. And even if, the movie as a whole fails on the level of being a sex comedy, or sexy, or comic !
This is a memory from what looks now as a far faraway galaxy. It was lovely age, but (Come Blow Your Horn) is not its best, or an example for its entertaining works. Seeing it in the 2000s is a history lesson more than a nostalgic installment. To assure how even at those classic days, there were weak movies and with big names. Yet at least they were making them that polished (the movie had nominated for the Oscar of the Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color). Anyway thanks to the TV that keeps transforming the "forgettable" into "unforgettable".
So what's here to love?
The title's song, it's clever and I loved it, so the music.
2 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Come Blow Your Horn blew it, 25 September 2006
Author: stevenpwyner from United States
The movie truly stinks. Not much better than an Elvis cookie cutter film of the same period. One wonders what Frank was thinking coming off Manchurien Candidate, Some Came Running, Joker is Wild, Man with the Golden Gun etc. It would only appeal to a loyal FS fan such as myself. The movie appears to be a remake of Frank's earlier "Tender Trap" of the late fifties. The concept really did not need to be revisited in 1963. Regarding the previous reviewer's comments about Frank's hat and coat in the era of the Stones, the Stones hadn't happened yet, in America. Kennedy was still alive. The British invasion was still months away when the film was released. So Frank's outfit was still in vogue for a swinging single of the early 60's. Further, Frank was not 51. He was born in 1915. Try 48. He still lacked credibility as the swinging 39 year old with a 21 year old brother. Perhaps a better lead for the movie would have been Robert Wagner or even Steve McQueen. Later
1 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
The horn blows..., 14 September 2007
Author: pljewkes from Boston, MA
*** This comment may contain spoilers ***
An awful movie version of the Neil Simon stage hit. Frank Sinatra is woefully miscast as a Jewish mama's boy who invites younger (MUCH YOUNGER) brother Tony Bill to live with him and join in on his swinging lifestyle. The great Lee J. Cobb and Molly Picon are ideal as their overbearing parents, but the genealogy just doesn't mesh. The entire cast is at sea with what is really an unfunny script and even foxy leading ladies Jill St. John and Barbara Rush are upstaged by the the film's art direction (Sinatra's apartment is a quintessential '60s bachelor pad!) It's difficult to know what in this film could have appealed to Sinatra, he's way too old and completely unconvincing in a role perhaps better suited for Jerry Lewis (yes, Jerry Lewis) or even Tony Curtis. Directed, with extreme dullness, by Bud Yorkin.
0 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
whpratt1's reviews, 12 December 2006
Author: therson from United States
This comment was intended to be with PAL JOEY. Not sure how it got here.
whpratt1 obviously has a lot of time on his hands, to quote an old song he probably never heard of (why does he seem to enjoy displaying this fault?). Anyone that considers Pal Joey as a classic film musical has a LOT to learn.The film is not true to the source material and most of the roles are mis-cast. It's curious that, at the time Broadway musicals such as Oklahoma!, Carousel, and The King and I were faithfully and successfully represented (for the most part) on film, the makers of the film version of Pal Joey managed to ruin a perfectly good story and a eliminate most of the show's wonderful score. The casting and performance of Rita Hayworth in the leading female role has probably contributed a great deal to subsequent mis-casting of the role in subsequent stage productions: Patti LuPone and Lena Horne. How whpratt1 can consider this a classic film musical is beyond me.
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