This lush Ross Hunter film of 1962 which attempts to patch together some BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S New York romantic sex comedy imagery and fashions (and scenes) along with a PILLOW TALK / LOVER COME BACK farce script almost succeeds in being enjoyable in 2011 by the fact it is well made. BUT and it is a massive BUT, it is miscast and relies on twee marriage drivel to put across some risqué (at the time) script and situations. Sandra Dee and Bobby Darin might have been a screen team du jour but are not of the calibre of actual adults. Had this been an Elvis Movie instead of Bobby Darin then we might have been in a soon to be classic 60s movie, as he would have the screen charisma Darrin lacks. Dee is fine fun and well dressed, her father the silly sort of role Eddie Albert plays better, and the art direction and set design terrific. But overall it is trite and sexist and really contrived. It is likable but you really have to be kind to it and accept the mentality of the time. The music has the foghorn sounds of forced farce and the silly xylophone tinkling of sitcoms like Bewitched, a TV show this precedes but points to. It gets some good sex talk across by the dubious method of having a French mother sexually prep her ripe daughter!
Review of If a Man Answers
