Sex and the Single Girl (1964)

A womanizing reporter for a sleazy tabloid magazine impersonates his hen-pecked neighbor in order to get an expose on renowned psychologist Helen Gurley Brown.

Director:

Richard Quine

Writers:

Helen Gurley Brown (book), Joseph Heller (screenplay)

Stars:

Lauren Bacall, Tony Curtis, Natalie Wood

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Tony Curtis	...	Bob Weston
Natalie Wood	...	Helen Brown
Henry Fonda	...	Frank Broderick
Lauren Bacall	...	Sylvia Broderick
Mel Ferrer	...	Rudy De Meyer
Fran Jeffries	...	Gretchen
Leslie Parrish	...	Susan
Edward Everett Horton	...	The Chief
Larry Storch	...	Motorcycle Cop
Stubby Kaye	...	Helen's Cabbie
Howard St. John	...	George Randall
Otto Kruger	...	Dr. Anderson
Max Showalter	...	Holmes
William Lanteau	...	Sylvester
Helen Kleeb	...	Hilda

Storyline

Using Helen Gurley Brown's book as a jump off point, we follow the adventures of a supermarket tabloid editor as he tries to parlay an interview with the author of the book into headlines and sales. Of course, a romantic entanglement ensues.

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Plot Keywords:

extramarital affair | f rated | sex comedy | zoo | tabloid | 

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Taglines:

Tony Curtis, Natalie Wood, Henry Fonda, Lauren Bacall and Mel Ferrer bring you the world's greatest example of dedicated do-it-yourself!

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Genres:

Comedy | Romance

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

During filming, My Fair Lady (1964) was shooting on the next sound stage. It starred Audrey Hepburn, who was at the time married to Mel Ferrer, one of the stars of this film.

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Goofs

The first dart Bob throws at Helen's picture lands right in the middle of her head, blocking her face. Yet when the scene is cut and he walks away from the dart board, her face is now exposed, dart removed, ready for the camera to zoom in on her picture.

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Quotes

Gretchen: Wait till you hear this!
[singing]
Gretchen: Mention sex, And the single girl is cool and shy, She objects, To discussing sex with any guy, You can bet, She's as interested as he, If sex was 50/50, Where would everybody be? Mention sex, And the single girl will blush a lot, Though she wrecks, Every single guy with what she's got, Then a guy she can't ignore, Tells her what she's waited for, And suddenly she's not single any more.

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Connections

Spoofed in Sex and the Single Vampire (1970)

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Soundtracks

Anniversary Song
Music based on "Valurile Dunarii (Danube Waves)" by Iosif Ivanovici
Music adapted by Saul Chaplin
Lyrics by Saul Chaplin and Al Jolson
Sung by Fran Jeffries, with Count Basie and His Orchestra

User Reviews

A Game Cast Keeps This Screwball Sex Comedy Afloat and Then Some

I actually find this scatterbrained 1964 comedy a surprisingly amusing screwball farce all these years later despite its titillating title. So apparently does director Peyton Reed since he based most of his 2004 comic pastiche, "Down with Love", on the storyline of this movie and less so on any of the Doris Day/Rock Hudson romps of the same era. Regardless, they all have the same brew of conjugal misunderstandings, mistaken identities and leering though never explicit sexuality because those were the days when a woman's virtue would never be compromised for anyone but the right man. Directed by the heavy-handed Richard Quine ("Paris When It Sizzles") and written by Joseph Heller (later the author of "Catch-22") and David R. Schwartz, this ridiculous comedy benefits from a game cast headed by Tony Curtis still riding high from "Some Like It Hot" (which is referred to for easy laughs in the story) and Natalie Wood who shows her comedy chops with dexterity here.

Curtis plays Bob Weston, a sleazy magazine writer for a men's magazine whose editors are intent on exposing Dr. Helen Gurley Brown as a fraud as a sex expert. Author of the best-selling "Sex and the Single Girl", Brown is not at all the clench-jawed celebrity author who wrote the real book and appeared on "The Tonight Show" constantly. Instead, she is a gorgeous, intellectually prodigious 23-year-old who extols female empowerment in the bedroom. Showing off his moral depravity, Weston steals the marital woes of her next-door neighbors, pantyhose magnate Frank Broderick and his acerbic wife Sylvia, and comes to see Dr. Brown as a patient. The rest is predictable but still a good amount of fun. Curtis was still at the top of his game here showing how he can easily elicit laughs from such a vile manipulator, but it's Wood who surprises as Brown. Displaying a nervous but infectious energy that feeds nicely into the two sides of the doctor, she is funny and sexy in a way that she could never quite balance as well again in her career. Witness the hilariously conflicted drunken scene in her apartment for evidence of her talent.

Quine was smart to cast three sharp stars in the key supporting roles - Henry Fonda as the put-upon Frank browbeaten into a sad man by Lauren Bacall pulling all the stops as the shrewish basket case Sylvia is, and Mel Ferrer as Brown's somewhat ambiguous colleague. Add a sultry Fran Jeffries who performs two numbers (including the title tune) for no apparent reason except to sell records, an even sexier Leslie Parrish ("The Manchurian Candidate") as Weston's secretary, and a genuinely funny extended car chase scene, and you have the makings of an under-appreciated sex comedy. The 2009 DVD, part of the six-disc "The Natalie Wood Collection", includes a Warner Brothers cartoon ("Nelly's Folly") and the original theatrical trailer.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 December 1964 (USA)

Also Known As:

Sex and the Single Girl

Filming Locations:

Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$6,490

Company Credits

Production Co:

Fernwood Productions Inc., Reynard

Technical Specs

Runtime:

110 min 114 min (TCM print)

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1