Sex and the Single Girl (film)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Sex and the Single Girl (1964) is an American comedy film directed by Richard Quine and starring Tony Curtis, Natalie Wood, Henry Fonda, Lauren Bacall, and Mel Ferrer.
The film was inspired by the title of the non-fiction book Sex and the Single Girl (1962) by Helen Gurley Brown.
Plot
Bob Weston works for STOP, a scandal magazine. His colleague has written a dirty article about Helen Gurley Brown, the author of a best-selling new book with advice to single women on how to deal with men, calling her a virgin. She is very offended. Due to this article, Helen has lost 6 appointments. Weston wants to interview her, but she refuses to see him.
A friend of Bob, Frank Broderick, has marriage issues. Bob gets an idea that could benefit both of them. He impersonates Frank to be qualified as a patient to find juicy material. He also attempts to seduce her to get more information. Helen is seen to return his affections, but resists, knowing he's married, and dates Rudy DeMeyer instead. Bob claims he's bound for a divorce, so Helen insists on meeting his wife.
By mistake, Bob persuades two women, secretary Susan and girlfriend Gretchen, to masquerade as Frank's wife. When word gets to Frank's actual wife, Sylvia, what's going on, she shows up in Helen's office as well. Frank is arrested for bigamy.
Bob has juicy material for the magazine, but has fallen in love with Helen and refuses to write it, losing his job. A chase and a comedy of errors leads to happy endings all around, Rudy even ending up with Gretchen.
Reaction
The film was a box-office hit and one of the top 20 highest grossing films of 1964. Tom Milne in the Time Out Film Guide 2009 describes the film as a "Coyly leering comedy...graceless stuff, criminally wasting Bacall and Fonda as a couple with marital problems...with Quine's moderate flair for comedy nowhere in evidence."
Cast
- Tony Curtis as Bob Weston
- Natalie Wood as Helen Brown
- Henry Fonda as Frank
- Lauren Bacall as Sylvia
- Mel Ferrer as Rudy
- Fran Jeffries as Gretchen
- Leslie Parrish as Susan
- Larry Storch as The Motorcycle Cop
- Edward Everett Horton as The Chief
