For all of its social advances, the sixties was still a rigid time for women and gender roles/identity. Ironically, that is when the movie Sex and the Single Girl came out. Sex, originally a book by Helen Gurley Brown before it became a film, challenges the then-social norm by openly talking about sex and the sometimes dirty parts of relationships.
The story follows Bob Weston (Tony Curtis), a tabloid writer wanting to write a follow-up to his salacious article about book author and sex pyschologist Helen Gurley Brown (Natalie Wood). As Weston, impersonating his neighbor Frank Broderick (Henry Fonda) and is counseled by Brown, Weston is soon faced with a conundrum–should he just try to get in her pants and publish his story, or give up the story for his relationship with Brown.
From the opening title animation sequence, the movie is a very stylish, feel-good movie that will make you wish more movies looked this cool nowadays. Curtis and Wood play slyly off each other, as does Fonda and Film Noir siren Lauren Bacall, who plays Frank’s wife Sylvia. The secondary characters also bring color to the acting, most notably Mel Ferrer, who plays Brown’s co-worker and cheeky admirer Dr. Rudolph (Rudy) DeMeyer and Fran Jeffries as buxom singer and Weston’s squeeze Gretchen. Other notable appearances are character actor (and Rocky and Bullwinkle ‘s “Fractured Fairy Tales” narrator) Edward Everett Horton and Count Basie and his Orchestra.
The humor can become a bit madcap towards the end-there’s one extremely long car chase that devolves into slapstick and is ironically the slowest part of the movie, but that’s probably the only thing that could be considered “complain-worthy”. Overall, this is a movie that is a lot of fun and a great enjoyment to watch.
I like that yr reviewing retro stuff. My sister was named after Natalie Wood, so I’ve always been curious about her. Never seen this one, but of course, “Rebel Without a Cause” is classic. Fun Fact: Helen Gurley Brown was the editor that made Cosmopolitan what it is 2day- which is 2 say, totally trashy, haha! I’ll keep an eye out 4 this one…like the idea of Wood playing a real person.
so that explains why Cosmo never talks about anything other than sex! Thanks for the compliment-It’s fun reviewing things that people have either forgotten about or haven’t heard about. Hopefully, these reviews will turn people on to TCM.
[...] Sex and the Single Girl [...]