Boys' Night Out (1962) User Reviews

Innocent times in suburbia

[jotix100 · 7/10 · 15 May 2007]

Some films ought to be seen in the context of the era in which they were made. It's unfair, in a way, to dismiss a lot of them because they appear to be dated, or because they don't hold our attention because one can't identify with the subject which is being treated. This seems to be the case of "Boys Night Out", a mildly amusing comedy from the early 60s. Directed by Michael Gordon, it shows its age, but still, there are a lot of ingredients that show the viewer how we lived during those less complex times in this country.

"Boys Night Out" would be impossible to make in the present climate. Where could stars of the stature of Kim Novak, James Garner, Tony Randall, be found to play in it? Salaries alone would make such an enterprise impossible by today's standards, and yet, a little more than forty years ago, this sleek package was put together without much problem, or so it appears.

The film offers some rewards to the viewer that stays with it. The idea of four men getting together to rent an apartment and get a dream woman to cater to their fantasies would not be easy to do without including a lot of sex. Little do these men realize they are, in turn, being a case study for the same woman they all desire.

Kim Novak, at the height of her beauty, does a wonderful job with her Cathy. James Garner also has wonderful moments, especially playing opposite Jessie Royce Landis, who appears as his mother. Tony Randall, Howard Duff, Oskar Homolka, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Jim Backus, Fred Ward, and the rest of the cast are good in the film.

"Boys Night Out" is a comedy about male fantasy about the best of two different worlds.

A 1960's Farce that builds up to a wild three minutes of pandemonium

[theowinthrop · 8/10 · 29 May 2005]

Four buddies (James Garner, Tony Randall, Howard Duff, Howard Morris) have a night out together in town away from the spouses of Randall, Duff, and Morris (Janet Blair, Anne Jeffreys, and Patti Page) and Garner's mother (Jessie Royce Landis) once a week. They notice Garner's boss (Larry Keating) going out with his girl-friend (Garner knows Keating's married). The next day Garner has a talk with Keating and they discuss the difficulties of carrying out his affair. Keating admits it is expensive, but he can afford it by renting an apartment for the girl-friend. Later Garner talks to his friends about the possibility of doing this. Individually none are as well to do as Keating, but together they might share the expense of an apartment. They find an apartment (a furnished one) in a building managed by Jim Bacchus (a brief part, unfortunately), who can give them a good price due to a recent scandal connected to the apartment. They hire Kim Novak as the lady to keep in the apartment, and then set up a schedule for each to see her once a week every week. What they don't know is that Novak is working on a psychological/sociological study on male sex fantasies under her adviser, Oscar Homolka. Although Homolka warns Novak that this set up can lead to trouble, she reassures him, that she will keep things under control.

This is the detailed background of this farce, and it probably sounds dated and pretentious by now. Would you believe it is very funny. The script is crisp, not smarmy as it would appear from the opening paragraph above. The three young husbands from suburbia are more concerned with private matters than sex, and Garner is growing angry at the arrangement as he falls harder and harder for Novak. Novak, besides taping and writing her findings is constantly finding her own attraction to Garner hard to fight.

In the course of the film 1960s suburbia living is spoofed, from travel in commuter trains to little league games (the scene here is extremely funny). Howard Morris rarely appeared in major rolls in films. His particular crutch is that his wife, Patti Page, insists on both dieting so she can keep the figure he loves. Problem is that Morris is a small, thin man. It is hard to imagine him putting on weight crazily. Instead, he is being fed salads and health food, and he craves steak and potatoes (actually so does Page, which doesn't come out until the end of the film). The whole dieting culture (which is still with us) gets spoofed here because Novak controls Morris by giving him big, mouth watering dinners. Feed him and he is satiated.

Randall is his normal know-it-all type. Notice in one of the commuter train sequences how he tries to prevent an argument between Garner and Randall, Morris, and Duff by telling a long winded story to them that is true about two brothers. The way this is handled is wonderful, because you know what was said, and you don't, and you feel better for not knowing.

The wives get suspicious and hire a private detective recommended by Landis - Fred Clark. Clark's friendly but efficient gumshoe is another plus in the film. He does get the goods on the guys.

Finally, the moral turning point for Garner comes in a scene that I frankly recommend to anyone seeking two first rate pros interacting. James Garner is one of those actors who make everything seem really easy when he performs. One is sure this is very difficult acting, but it looks nice when done. William Powell was that smooth an actor. So was William Bendix. In this film only did Garner and Bendix appear together. Garner is having a drink (actually several) and talking to Bendix the bar tender (Mr. Slattery), and opening up on his feelings about Novak, the apartment, and the arrangement (but he talks of this as regarding an acquaintance of his). Garner is perfectly at ease, but business-like in describing it. Bendix is doing what any bartender does - he is wiping the bar, putting out pretzels, pouring drinks. It is very natural. But Bendix has been listening, and he proceeds to give his opinion. He thinks the "acquaintance" should tell the girl what he thinks and feels about her. Then, with a pause while he watches Garner finish his second drink, Bendix says, "And he should lay off the sauce!" Garner looks at Bendix, and says, "You know something Mr. Slattery?" Bendix looks pleasantly at Garner,who then says, "You know something Mr. Slattery!" The camera pans on the mutually fond gaze between those two smooth pros.

The conclusion of the film was wonderful as wives, Landis, husbands, Garner, Homolka, Clark, and Novak confront each other and two neighbors (one trying to convert everyone). It is about three minutes long, but it is really funny. Let us just say that everything works out, but the cross purposes and wires of those three minutes are fantastic.

Boys' Night Out

[abcj-2 · 8/10 · 15 April 2011]

Boys' Night Out (1962) is one of those easy breezy comedies that comes on TCM a few times a year. I record it, watch it a few times, then delete it thinking I'll buy it, but then it comes on again to my delight:)

It's about a group of 4 men, 3 married with children and one divorced and living with his mother, who cook up a zany scheme to secure and share a NYC love pad with a young beautiful blonde to break the boredom in their lives. Little do they know, they are the subject of their ideal beautiful 25 year old blonde's own scheme, and she willingly agrees to be available for each "boys'" night out.

If you are thinking it's a love-fest, remember this was distributed in 1962, so there are lies and innuendo, but Kim Novak, in a role easily played by Doris Day just a few years before, maintains her virtue and the wives get their chance to get even. Novak shines in one of her best comedic roles. She and leading man James Garner have great chemistry. He's so handsome and hilarious at the same time. If you've never seen his comedies before his star of television days, then keep your eyes peeled for his movies. He's a charmer who always delivers a great performance. Tony Randall and Jessie Royce Landis lead the supporting cast. They always add tremendously to a picture.

This film is on the tail end of the really tastefully cute comedies, and it's a great film to enjoy when you want pure rom-com escapism. One more thing, it gets better with repeated viewings. Some new lines pop out each time that make it even more enjoyable. I didn't love it the first time as much as I have each time since.

Suburban Boredom and Urban Dreams

[shrine-2 · 7/10 · 22 August 2000]

Blacklisted writer Michael Gordon returned to Hollywood to direct such harmless diversions as this one about four bored middle-class commuters who dream of leaving their humdrum existences and revisiting their idea of a dream bachelor pad, replete with wet bar, long sofa, fantastic view, and what may be the most voluptuous idea of a mistress the Hollywood of the sixties had to offer--a sociology student doing her thesis on the sex life of the suburban male played by Kim Novak. This movie would be a drag without her. She takes her place among the best American movie sex symbol acts of that time: Gina Lollobrigida in "Come September"; Tuesday Weld in "Soldier in the Rain"; Sue Lyon in "Lolita"; Virna Lisi in "How to Murder Your Wife." It was a good year for Novak--1962. Richard Quine ("Operation Mad Ball") directed her opposite Jack Lemmon in what I think is her funniest and most mysterious performance as "The Notorious Landlady." Her best moments on screen have always been the ones where she played smart women, and Cathy and Carlyle Hardwicke are two of the smartest she's ever played.

"Adolescent sex fantasies among the adult, urban male."

[TxMike · 14 January 2002]

1962. It was a simplier time. Kennedy was not yet assassinated. Elevators still had operators in them. I was in high school. And, you could make a hit movie like "Boys' Night Out" with not much of a story, but with sevral big stars. As a teenager I had a big crush on Kim Novak. I thought she was the embodiment of the perfect, beautiful, sexy girl. Almost 40 years later I can still say I think she was just about the most attractive female star ever. And, she is very good here as the graduate student doing a study for her advanced degree in Sociology. James Garner was just perfect as her eventual love interest.

Suburban Lab Rats

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 8 August 2008]

Through an incredible combination of circumstances way too bizarre for me to relate, psychology graduate student Kim Novak has found four human lab rats for her thesis on the mating habits of the American suburban male for professor Oscar Homolka. The four specimens are James Garner, Howard Duff, Howie Morris, and Tony Randall and they have some fantasies too. Yearning for the days of carefree bachelorhood, they get Garner, the only single one in the group, to rent a really nice apartment on the Upper East Side on East End Avenue that will come complete with Kim Novak. They all have different assigned days with her. Each one has his Boy's Night Out.

By the way for those of you not from New York or familiar with it, East End Avenue is about as high rent as you can get. What our would be Lotharios get for $200.00 a month, a steal because real estate agent Jim Backus can't get it off his hands because a notorious murder was committed there would go for between $5000.00 and $10,000.00 now.

Although there are some very funny moments including an anarchic climax when wives, Janet Blair, Patti Page, and Anne Jeffreys, meet up with the men in the ideal pad with private detective Fred Clark and a crazy eavesdropping neighbor Ruth McDevitt, Boy's Night Out falls short of a classic by about five lengths. It really needed a director like Leo McCarey or Gregory LaCava or even a more cynical guy like Billy Wilder to bring it off.

The material itself was getting kind of out of date by then. At times it was like a long episode of Three's Company. Still with as bright and talented a cast as this, you can't go too far wrong watching Boy's Night Out.

A good film that shows the budding sexual revolution

[AlsExGal · 7/10 · 17 December 2016]

This was a fun Kim Novak film I had never seen. Novak stars as a graduate student who is writing a thesis on "the adolescent sexual fantasies of the adult suburban male." She ends up being hired by four men (three married, one divorced) as a "housekeeper" in an inexpensive but very opulent and large apartment in New York City. The three married men are portrayed by Howard Duff, Howard Morris and Tony Randall. James Garner plays the divorced man. These men commute to work together from Connecticut to New York on the same train. It seems that they frequent the same bar before deciding to go back home to their respective wives. At the bar, Garner witnesses his boss (Roger Addison from Mister Ed) canoodling with his mistress. According to Garner, his boss keeps an apartment in New York where he can entertain his lady before he returns home to his wife.

The married commuter men, bored with their wives and each feeling that something is lacking in his respective relationship, begin to fantasize about having an apartment in the city where they can entertain their mistresses as well. As a joke, the three married men enlist Garner in locating a luxurious but cheap apartment. Garner goes to Peter Bowers (Jim Backus), a landlord who is anxious to rent an apartment in his building in which a murder took place. Garner is able to secure a decent price. Novak ends up answering the same ad. After informing her that the apartment has been rented, Garner offers Novak a position as a housekeeper. Much to his surprise, she accepts the position. Elated, the three husbands think that their infidelity dream is going to come to fruition. Garner isn't too keen on the prospect, and he's the only guy who is actually free!. Each of the three husbands tell a white lie to their respective wives that they are taking a course in New York City and as a result, will be spending the night away from home one night a week.

Novak takes the opportunity to conduct her research during each evening with each husband. She gets them to reveal why they're unhappy in their relationships and their feelings in general. Each of these sessions are recorded on a tape recorder. In a form of competition, the men begin to tell each other white lies about their evenings with Novak--as a result, each man thinks that the other has slept with her. Eager to keep getting good fodder for her thesis, Novak doesn't correct them. Garner, repulsed by his friends' tall tales about Novak, refuses to visit her for "his night." He finds himself genuinely falling for her.

Eventually the wives get suspicious and they seek out to find the truth behind their husbands' evenings in New York City. How does this all work out? Watch and find out.

This is very much your typical 60's pseudo-sex comedy that has one foot planted in the production code era and one foot in the budding sexual revolution. Many of them don't work well and seem antiquated today, but the talent of the players involved helps this one along. I'd recommend it.

Pleasant Comedy with Lovely Kim

[Scoval71 · 7/10 · 24 July 2006]

Just looking at the lovely Kim Novak is enough for any man (or woman). She most convincingly plays her part in this comedy romp from 1962, a very dated 1962 film at that, although the premise and, really, the events, are timeless. Who can ever tire of her beauty. James Garner was so handsome in his youth as well. We also see the delightful Anne Jeffreys. I enjoyed this comedy and recommend it. It is a rather pleasant not so over the top comedy and an enjoyable film. I repeat again, whatever Kim Novak is in a movie, she brings not only her spectacular beauty but a marvelous acting ability. The dresses she wears in this movie are terribly outdated, but I recommend the movie for one and all.

See it for the set direction alone

[michaelocampbell · 8/10 · 8 October 2004]

A feline and spacey Kim Novak seems to arrive from another planet in this romantic comedy from the blacklisted director of Pillow Talk. It's James Garner and Kim instead of Rock Hudson and Doris Day -- so underneath the squeaky clean froth, their clinches have just a hint of real sexual chemistry. Clever script has theatrical touches if no depth. Second bananas play their farcical roles well, especially Tony Randall.

However feast your eyes on the apartment, the height of Kennedy-era Mod; don't miss the turquoise kitchen, his-and-her bedrooms, and more.

Would make a nice double feature with the new remake of Stepford Wives. There's a happy ending (of course): The men discover 'boy's night out' is actually more fun if the women come, too. That's progress, in a tiny way.

Garner great

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 5 January 2021]

Fred Williams (James Garner), George Drayton (Tony Randall), Doug Jackson and Howie McIllenny are friends out on the town. Three are married and Fred is divorced. Only it's another night of non-excitement. They catch the train back home and come up with the idea of sharing a love nest in the city and a single blonde. The guys make Fred rent a place. Cathy (Kim Novak) shows up looking to rent. Fred talks her into a 'companion' or 'housekeeper' job.

James Garner is great and I like that Kim Novak is playing the boys. She doesn't have the greatest of range but she's fine in this role. She tries and does well enough. The movie is much too long and it needs some more fun. The four guys are fun with their childish idiocy. It would have been great to keep that tone for the whole movie. The middle drags a little. The problem may be the gang gets inevitably split up.

Even Novak, Garner can't salvage stifling morality tale masquerading as coy sex farce

[bmacv · 4/10 · 3 September 2002]

Coy little foreshocks of the coming sexual revolution rumbled through Hollywood when Camelot was in sway. One of them, Boys' Night Out, is a fitfully amusing sex comedy in which (it's of course understood) there is no sex.

Four flannel-suited soldiers of commerce commute from Connecticut to work in Manhattan; three of them – Tony Randall, Howard Duff and Howard Morris – have wives and families while the fourth, James Garner, is divorced. They stay in town every Thursday, their big night out which generally consists of their sitting around nursing beers because they can't think of anything better to do.

Fast forward: They pool their allowances to share the costs of a swank bachelor pad equipped with Kim Novak (who, out of her mauve phase, looks washed out in the bold ‘60s colors she sports). They divvy up the nights of the week to play playboys. But far from the full-service playmate they expect, Novak's doing post-graduate field work in sociology. (Her thesis: `Adolescent Fantasies Among Adult Suburban Males.') She manages to keep the evenings chaste – and her research a secret – by giving the guys what they really want: a chance to bitch about the job (Randall), to potter around fixing things (Duff), to eat the foods he's deprived of at home (Morris). Only Garner wants something more, because he's fallen for her.

No flies on the three wives, however, who hire a detective to find out what their husbands are really up to in town. At this point the movie devolves into full-tilt farce, pitifully lacking in laughs. But the whole thing is dispiriting. That love-nest, for instance, in all its garish bad taste, exposes a sheltered, Hugh-Hefnerish idea of luxurious decadence. And the lives that the men try to escape from, only to return to, seem bleached of any satisfaction: they get to cut loose only on the train shuttling them from their humdrum jobs to their humdrum wives (who, meanwhile, stay home dieting and drinking). Isn't it disingenuous, then, when the movie presents its neatly wrapped resolution – everybody back home in the proper bed – as if it were the happiest of endings in the happiest of all possible worlds?

A Great Treat To Watch

[mantooth · 10/10 · 3 June 1999]

I just saw the film the other night while watching a mini-marathon of other early 60's comedies. This film is the one that stuck out in my mind as being great. This movie serves the purpose that any good movie should serve, that being it is entertaining.

Dated sex farce has its good moments but needed a brighter script...

[Doylenf · 6/10 · 2 January 2011]

JAMES GARNER's handsome presence adds dignity and charm to a sex farce about wannabe playboys TONY RANDALL, HOWARD DUFF and HOWARD MORRIS who want some playtime away from their wives. His natural skill as a light comic actor is sharply in focus for all the scenes where he plays opposite JESSIE ROYCE LANDIS who plays his addle-brained mother.

KIM NOVAK is the blonde dish who is doing a sex survey on American men and decides to use these men as her lab subjects. But when the men's wives find out about their hubbies' boys night out, the fur flies leading to an overly energetic scene where all hell breaks loose.

Garner and Novak are so appealing in their prime that it's easy to overlook the deficiencies of some situations, none of which are remotely credible. It doesn't help that Novak plays her role in a dreamy, trance-like manner out of sync with comedy roles. She's utterly charming but a bit out of her depth when it comes to the light touch.

Howard Duff and Howard Morris do nicely in amusing roles and Jessie Royce Landis seems to be enjoying herself immensely as Garner's overly concerned mother. But the laugh lines seem a bit forced and you can't help wishing the whole project had a brighter script. The wives are well played by Patti Page, Ann Jeffreys and Janet Blair.

There's a datedness about the sets and wardrobe that can be a bit distracting at times, but Novak is always a pleasure to look at and her chemistry with Garner is an asset.

WHY??

[scottdou · 5/10 · 10 June 2018]

WHY??...would any man want to "share" Kim Novak or any woman in a "love nest" with his 3 buddies?? Am I missing something. BTW, Kim looks a bit old for the role of a college student.

reminiscent of an era

[patricianolan999 · 3 October 2004]

This movie is fun to watch. The morals, the clothing, the furniture, the suits, the hairstyles, the hats, the booze, the husbands and wives--are pure 1962. It captures, in a very exaggerated and silly way, an era in American society that will never exist again. It's a time capsule. That's what makes this film so vintage and enjoyable. It's a "sex comedy" without the sex--very popular in those days. It's amazing to think that only five years later, hippies and war protesters were making their mark on society, and films like "Easy Rider" were being created, changing the landscape of Hollywood and pop culture forever. So think of this film as a showpiece of how America was (in a highly exaggerated way) before we learned to question authority and discard many of the foolish rules and regulations we grew up with. Just enjoy it for what it is! It's fun to see Kim's apartment and her wardrobe is cool!

Boys' Night Out is a pretty funny comedy of the social mores of the time

[tavm · 7/10 · 16 February 2021]

Just watched this with Mom. We both liked this early '60s comedy about four men (three married, one divorced who lives with his mom) who sublet an apartment for themselves and a woman who secretly is studying the sexual habits of middle-aged men like them. It stars Kim Novak, James Garner, Tony Randall, Howard Morris, and Howard Duff. There are also many familiar character actors from various classic movies and TV shows. Silly and funny in spots but mostly pretty enjoyable for what it is. So we say Boys' Night Out is worth a look.

Better than it should have been.

[eye3 · 7/10 · 31 August 2001]

This movie seems to have been inspired by a French sex-farce that couldn't get distribution in the still-puritan America of the 1960s.

The emerging Playboy philosophy shows its pipe-smoking spirit in its first act, followed by a second act that wished it could have pushed the boundaries but clearly didn't have the muscle or the nerve, and topped off by a third act where everyone comes together for a last gasp at laughs-by-vaudeville before a happy ending for all.

Still, it gets by, if only on the charm of its cast with Tony Randall deceiving us all with his nerd image (whoddathunk he'd be a Pop at 75?), Jim Garner Jim Garnering his way through and Kim Novak stealing every scene with her feline eyes and her strangely-prescient-Princess-Di do.

Lightweight fun with James Garner, Tony Randall, Kim Novak and more

[jacobs-greenwood · 7/10 · 15 December 2016]

Directed by Michael Gordon, with a story by Arne Sultan and Marvin Worth, an adaptation by Marion Hargrove and a screenplay by Ira Wallach, this 1960's style romantic comedy is lightweight fun. It stars James Garner, Tony Randall, Howard Duff, and Howard Morris as four New York businessmen, and co-commuters from Greenwich, who pitch in to rent an inexpensive bachelor pad for their first and future liaisons and end up getting a high class apartment complete with a beautiful blonde, played by Kim Novak; she's a sociology graduate working on her doctorate thesis "the adolescent sexual fantasies of the adult urban male". Garner's character is divorced and lives with his mother (Jessie Royce Landis)

Every Thursday night, bachelor Fred Williams (Gardner) spends his evening after work with three fellow commuters from Connecticut: advertising executive George Drayton (Randall), investment specialist Doug Jackson (Duff), and accountant Howard McIllenny (Morris). Each of these others have wives, the latter two also have children. None of them gets any respect at home: Fred's mother Ethel (Landis), with whom he lives, pesters him about marrying again; George's wife Marge (Janet Blair) can complete his sentences without listening to what he's saying; Doug's wife Toni (Anne Jeffreys) is the perfect housewife who's raising perfect children and is always concerned with keeping up appearances, so she won't let him fix things around the house on weekends; and Howard's wife Joanne (Patti Page) feeds their three growing boys like "kings" while she forces her husband to diet with her. The men have grown bored of bowling and other activities such that they've been hanging out at Slattery's (William Bendix) bar on Thursdays instead. One night Fred's boss (Larry Keating) enters to pick up a redhead he's going to take back to his in-town apartment. This gets the bridge playing commuters to talking about setting up just such an arrangement for themselves.

Naturally, Fred is elected to find the ideal place for these planned affairs. Not really wanting to be party to such an arrangement, Fred takes his boss's advice to "shop" for a place way out of their $200/month price range in order to tell his friends that he'd tried, but he couldn't find a place. Unfortunately, Fred visits a pricey apartment that the manager (Jim Backus) hasn't been able to get rid of, because a famous model (?) had committed suicide (or been murdered) in it. Backus is funny as he tries to convince Garner's character to "take my (apartment), please". He calls George to tell him the "good" news and instructs him to tell the others to meet him there after work. George says that the next thing they'll need Fred to do is to arrange for a 25 year old blonde to "outfit" it. Fred refuses saying that advertising is George's business and if he can't figure out how himself, perhaps he should put an ad in the paper. Fred starts drinking while waiting for his friends to arrive; they're late because George didn't believe that Fred could have found the perfect apartment for only $200. Meanwhile, the doorbell rings and when Fred answers it, he's greeted by Cathy (Novak). The film's funniest scene follows - a slightly inebriated Fred believes that Cathy has answered George's ad and Cathy, curious for her own as yet to be disclosed reasons, decides to stay and then play along once she sizes up Fred's friends.

On cloud nine, the three married men enthusiastically discuss who gets which night while Fred looks uncomfortable. They also devise stories to tell each of their wives as to why they're giving up their Thursday night with the boys but still need one night a week for creative education in their respective fields. Cathy phones her sociology professor Dr. Prokosch (Oscar Homolka) to tell him she's figured out a way to write her thesis about men. He warns her against the danger of these men really wanting to "get physical" with her, but she tells him that "good girls" like her are experts at avoiding such entrapments. Fred actually visits Cathy on Sunday to discuss his discomfort with what she's getting herself into, and the seeds of a romantic relationship between the two of them are planted. On Monday night, Cathy is able to tap into George's true desire to have someone listen to him. On Tuesday night, Cathy has appliances and other household items for Howard to fix, and on Wednesday night she's cooked a dozen things for Howard to eat. Hence, she maintains platonic relationships with each of them, and they're too scared to admit to the others that "nothing happened". Ruth McDevitt plays a nosy neighbor who thinks she lives next door to a brothel. Obviously, she sees and hears (innuendo) more than what's going on, which she reports to her husband (not credited).

Meanwhile, the wives are happy with their husbands "out of the blue" shows of affection until Ethel tells them that their men are probably being "skunks". She recommends that they hire a private detective, Mr. Bohannon (Fred Clark), to learn the truth, which they do. Fred is struggling with his feelings for Cathy, given the kind of girl he thinks she is, and commiserates with Slattery. Dr. Prokosch suspects that Cathy is enamored with Fred and also suggests that she interview the men's wives to get "both sides of the pillow" for her thesis. Bohannon investigates. Fred eventually figures out what he wants and finds out that Cathy wants him as well. He invites her to Greenwich where he's the little league baseball coach of his friend's kids. This sticky situation leads to an eventual showdown with everything coming to a head in the zaniest of ways at the apartment, with all the major characters and a couple of the minor ones. The resolution is predictable. The final scene includes Zsa Zsa Gabor as Fred's boss's latest squeeze.

"What the boys are out after, the girls are out after too"

[brchthethird · 6/10 · 10 January 2024]

With the Sexual Revolution already seeping into the culture, it was only a matter of time before it made its presence felt in Hollywood's most conservative studio, MGM. What might have come across as risque or boundary-pushing then comes off as a bit tame/passe now, but you kind of have to admire the effort, even if the status quo is reaffirmed at the end. That's just how storytelling has worked since time immemorial. For this film in particular, it teases quite well. As is the issue with many comedies, sex-related or not, the third act becomes a little too convoluted only to have an overly simple resolution. All that to say, this started out really good, but the ending was underwhelming at best. The cast and the rest of everything else was fine. Not too big on James Garner; Tony Randall, more so. It was a bit shocking for me to see Howard Morris --best known to me as Ernest T. Bass on The Andy Griffith Show-- to be playing such a buttoned-down character, but he was just as good. Kim Novak, the primary reason for me checking out this in the first place, was very attractive (as expected), and gave a decent performance. Nothing earth-shaking --the American mainstream would have to wait at least five or six years-- but suitably entertaining, just the same.

Very good light comedy

[Skragg · 8/10 · 5 May 2007]

No offense to some of you, but I very seldom agree with that whole "It was a simpler time" thinking, because EVERY decade is full of people saying that about every PREVIOUS decade! (And they're probably always partly right and partly wrong.) And in a way, this movie is evidence of that - it's full of characters analyzing (and over-analyzing) subjects (like why the men want to fool around - which of course COULD BE because they just WANT TO). And of course, it's full of the whole "Men from Mars, Women from Venus" subject, and of course, "Kinsey"-type sex surveys. So as one person on the message boards (partially) says, it's a case of "The more things change...." Luckily, this movie makes light of all these things. There's a line toward the end where Jessie Royce Landis makes a reference to "the Kennedys getting elected." This always reminds me of the difference between a movie MADE in the early ' 60s and any given one SET in the early ' 60s - the latter OFTEN has Kennedy references (and many OTHER topical ones) squeezed in EDGEWISE, instead of A FEW, worked in CASUALLY, the way it's done here. Of the supporting actors, I think William Bendix had the best part, as the bartender with the friendly advice for James Garner.

"This Is Big League Stuff, Baby!"

[atlasmb · 7/10 · 18 January 2023]

Tony Randall is the ubiquitous cinematic sidekick of the 60s. Sandwiched between the Hudson & Day comedies "Lover Come Back" and "Send Me No Flowers" (and a few other films), he appears in this comedy as a bored husband, looking to kick up his heels. Joining him are Howard Duff, Howard Morris, and James Garner. They are four friends who are restless for some adventure, so they cook up a plan to share a "bachelor pad". If this sounds something like "The Apartment", which was released two years earlier, that is not surprising, but this film is more antic.

Morris, who is designed for comedy, would later play the hilarious Ernest T. Bass on The Andy Griffith Show. Garner, who had just finished with his TV series "Maverick", is the only one of the men who is unmarried. He lives with his mother, who would love to see him hitched.

The four find an apartment and a comely blonde, Cathy (Kim Novak), to play hostess. Cathy has an ulterior motive for agreeing to indulge their fantasies. It's all PG-rated fun, the kind that 60s comedies specialize in. In the end, things get out of control, in a harmlessly silly kind of way.

Watch for Patti Page, who sings the title song, as one of the wronged housewives.

Very dated

[Daniel Karlsson · 3/10 · 3 May 2007]

This film is quite similar to "Let's make love" by Billy Wilder starring Marilyn Monroe. Just like in that movie, the married men are so boyish one could wonder how they got married in the first place. Of course, that is part of the comedy in this "sex" farce. The contextual environment and the mentioning of the word "sex" are the only aspects that by any means are "dirty" and could have been questionable in the American cinema of the 50s. However, graphically there is nothing arousing except for a short kissing scene. Although the film starts off entertainingly and promising, it drags out way too long and the ending is nothing but corny. To that comes weak dialog without a single memorable line. I would suggest checking out the Monroe film instead, unless one is a fan of Kim Novak.

This movie is a treat to to watch, Kim Novak is great to look at.

[Rastamon41 · 8/10 · 14 September 2006]

I saw this movie on TCM, got a copy and I can't stop viewing it. This movie is set in the earlier 1960's when sexual material/theme could be discuss in movies, not like the 1930's through the 1950's where the morality codes kept husband and wife in separate beds, and kissing was limited to six seconds. I enjoy this movie about four men approaching middle age trying to spice up their "Boys' Night Out" with a 24 year old blonde, but they are mostly talk, and the blonde (Kim Novak) realized that they are all talk and played along, except she falls in love with the only bachelor (James Garner) of the group, and he also falls madly in love with her, now the fun start. He wants out, so he can be with her and to marry her, she also want him, but the three other guy have other ideas, they don't want to lose their "24 year blonde" on "Boys' Night Out". She don't want them, she want James Garner, and he want Kim Novak, you get it? I won't spoil it for you, get this movie, you won't regret it.

Silly '60s romp

[HotToastyRag · 6/10 · 16 June 2022]

In full 1960s sex comedy splendor, this silly movie makes fun of how men turn from harmless boys to lecherous wolves just by using a three-word excuse: Boys' Night Out. Four longtime friends, three of which are married, go out for boys' night and lust after every good-looking girl who crosses their path. They long for their bachelor days and all chip in to rent an apartment for whatever affairs they might have in the future.

However, when they get the chance to put their talk into action with bombshell Kim Novak, the married men turn out to be surprisingly faithful. The lone bachelor in the group, James Garner, is free to romance the beauty, and the pair falls in love. Parts of the movie are really funny, but parts of it are dated, too. After all, any movie that celebrates the lift of the Hays censorship is bound to over-do it on the close-ups of ladies' derrieres and sex jokes. But if you don't mind those kinds of comedies, like Pillow Talk and Sex and the Single Girl, get ready for a fun-filled movie with Kim Novak, James Garner, Tony Randall, Howard Duff, Janet Blair, Zsa Zsa Gabor, William Bendix, Fred Clark, and Jim Backus.

Leering farce makes shacking up seem like a bad idea...

[moonspinner55 · 1/10 · 9 April 2006]

Group of wolfish businessmen--only one of whom is not married--rent a bachelor-pad for fun nights away from their wives and hire Kim Novak to be their resident play-thing; she agrees, but only because she has plans of her own. Smarmy set-up, surprisingly cynical for 1962, and ultimately a laughless sex farce. The whole scenario is rather offensive, and while the film doesn't exactly push the envelope for bedroom comedies, it's full of limp pseudo-smut, poshly-furnished and yet depressingly lascivious. Kim Novak tries to overcome the situation with her heavy-lidded, low-keyed classiness, but there's not much of a character here and she ends up just being a fashion plate; she's here to be ogled. James Garner is, once again, a handsome hole in the screen. NO STARS from ****