You should start with these:
Where the Boys Are – which I just finished watching five minutes ago. It is the greatest film I have ever seen. Connie Francis is in it, she plays a hockey player. We don’t get to see her playing hockey, though, because the movie is set in Fort Lauderdale. There’s a scene in a nightclub with a synchronized swimmer. There are stupid hats. There is a pretentious jazz band that plays a genre that they inexplicably call “dialectic jazz,” except for when Connie Francis sings with them, and then they play a genre called Neil Sedaka. And everybody falls in love and tragic things happen and nice things happen and there’s lots of making out. AN EXCELLENT FILM.
Lover Come Back – really, Doris Day’s hats are the centerpiece of this film. Also, you should watch this one alongside Down With Love, and you will notice that Down With Love is not exaggerating the ridiculousness of Doris Day/Rock Hudson vehicles, not one little bit. Also, this film features Fake Science, one of a few of my favourite things.
Get Yourself A College Girl – This is basically Where the Boys Are, except for they go skiing instead of to the beach. And it has even more ridiculous and elaborate musical numbers (The Animals are in it! And The Standells! And that lady who sang The Girl from Ipanema! So basically, it is a perfect movie if you ever find yourself stuck with a musicologist who you need to keep distracted), and there are really stupid costumes, and Nancy Sinatra. Recently my criteria for choosing films has been “does it feature co-eds on vacation wearing stupid hats, and also musical numbers that involve the lead characters standing around watching a band, and therefore have absolutely nothing to do with the plot?” and this one fits the bill rather well.
Sex and the Single Girl – Actually, this might be the greatest movie I have ever seen. Edith Head did the costumes! And Lauren Bacall is in it! And Tony Curtis and Natalie Wood! And there is a half-hour long car chase to LAX where they play musical taxicabs and eat pretzels! Basically, everyone spends the entire movie running around being irrational and looking fabulous. Natalie Wood plays Helen Gurley Brown, who, in this film, is not, in fact, the editor of Cosmo, but rather is a psychologist. A very fabulously dressed psychologist. Also, there is a subplot involving hosiery.
Incidentally, I am also reading the book Sex and the Single Girl right now, and it is a rather delightful combination of brilliant wisdom and complete and utter lunacy, of the kind that could only emerge from 1962. I’m thinking of maybe doing a week-long blog project where I try to actually follow Helen Gurley Brown’s advice and see what happens. It will probably end terribly, as so far, two chapters in, the crux of her advice seems to be “sleep with married men and make them buy you things,” which seems like, you know, a terrible idea.
PROJECT FOR NEXT WEEK: See all of the movies that feature Paula Prentiss and Jim Hutton as co-stars.
