So much average

Beautiful, moving film.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Now I'm sorry I raced through this movie last night and told the DVR to go ahead and delete! I thought it was quite hilarious, in a screwball, self-referential, meta-fictional way! You've gotta love a film that continuously refers to how much Tony Curtis looks like Jack Lemon. I just never thought the studios allowed such tongue-in-cheek buffoonery on screen! Yes, Natalie Wood here is the most beautiful & desirable woman in the world. Henry Fonda does his gravitas routine to brilliant comic effect. Lauren Bacall is timeless & ageless in the role of a justifiably paranoid wife.I keep thinking: who was the wit who concocted such a script? Joseph Heller, the author of catch-22, one of the most highly-acclaimed novels of the 20th century. This film is amazingly & woefully under-appreciated!

I was reading in the Citadel Film Book Series The Films Of Lauren Bacall that the real Helen Gurley Brown was less than thrilled with the film made of her work which was a landmark in feminist literature. Turning it into a poor man's version of a Rock Hudson-Doris Day sex comedy she probably never envisioned.The Rock and Doris roles are taken by Tony Curtis and Natalie Wood. Tony plays a writer for a Confidential style magazine, today it would be the National Enquirer. He's already done articles debunking her credibility as far as being an expert on sex. Now Curtis proposes to publisher Edward Everett Horton to really get to know this person and embarks on a campaign to seduce the sex expert with all the cunning of Ashton Kutcher on the punk. But as what happens in all these films he actually falls for her.Of course it doesn't help that he gets in to see her pretending he's hosiery manufacturer and neighbor Henry Fonda and using his marital problems with Lauren Bacall as his entry to the pop psychologist's office. In this film Helen Gurley Brown is not the editor of Cosmopolitan Magazine, but a Joyce Brothers type psychologist.I wish I could remember who said it, but I read a review of this film once where the reviewer said that the parts Fonda and Bacall played in cheaper productions years ago would have been played by Edgar Kennedy and Dot Farley. I should only have said something that brilliant. Watching Fonda I did see traces of the slow burn and Bacall is certainly more chic than Dot Farley. Nevertheless the way they bicker at each other could be the best thing about Sex And The Single Girl. Neither Fonda or Bacall is terribly proud of Sex And The Single Girl. I wonder what could have induced them to appear in this film?It's not the worst film that any of the leads or an exceptionally talented name cast of character players ever appeared in. Still these kind of films were being turned out regularly in the late Eisenhower- Kennedy years and this one dates real badly.Helen Gurley Brown's name and real contributions to feminism have stood the test of time better than this film has.

I had not been a big fan of Natalie Wood but have become interested in her since meeting young Natalie who reminds me very much of the actress. So I have been seeing some of her old movies here and there. This one has been released on DVD and it is a very nice one.Tony Curtis stars as Bob Weston, the most sleazy writer for the magazine "STOP" that prides itself in sleazy reporting. He has done an article on 23-year-old single therapist, Natalie Wood as Helen Gurley Brown, who wrote the book "Sex and the Single Girl." The article went on to ridicule the young therapist by saying a young, single virgin could not be a very credible sex therapist. Quickly she found her appointments being canceled because of the article.But Bob Weston has an even grander plan, he will romance the young doctor and get enough inside information to write an even harder-hitting expose'.Bob's neighbor and friend is ladies hosiery manufacturer and sales manager Henry Fonda as Frank Broderick. Frank's wife is Lauren Bacall as Sylvia.As soon as Bob realizes that Helen knows who he is and will not let him even in the same room, he hatches a plan, he will pretend to be his neighbor, Frank, and ask for help with relationship issues between himself and his wife. But Frank and Sylvia know nothing about this.The interplay between Curtis and Wood is great, and many very funny situations result. When Helen eventually finds out what is really going on she decides to skip out to Fiji with an admiring co-worker, but Bob, Frank, and Sylvia all end up in a madcap chase scene on the Los Angeles freeway system, that also involves a cab driver, an ice cream vendor, and a motorcycle cop. It is madcap, and it is funny.Nothing in the story is plausible but it doesn't have to be. It is just a funny story with funny characters. A classic from the 1960s.

I've seen this one a few times over the years and wish it would come out in DVD. Natalie Wood was never more beautiful, and the battle of the sexes was never more fun. It's great to see a love story that doesn't resort to foul language or adult humor, but simply witty dialog and the vagaries of human nature.Tony Curtis plays a tabloid reporter trying to get the goods on Helen Gurley Brown (played by Natalie Wood) and her personal life to find out if she actually knows anything about sex and relationships. To this end, he impersonates an acquaintance (played by Henry Fonda) whose having problems with his jealous wife (played by Lauren Bacall) so that he can pose as a patient and seek her advice.The confusion caused by this impersonation just leads to more problems. However, this is just a sideshow to the reporter's seduction of Dr. Brown and the glorious mayhem that ensues.Her constant comparisons of Tony Curtis to Jack Lemmon (Curtis' co-star in Some Like It Hot) will appeal anyone who's seen that classic.