Don't Just Stand There (1968) User Reviews

Madcap comedy set in Paris and filmed in Hollywood...the gregarious players help

[moonspinner55 · 5/10 · 23 March 2010]

Screenwriter Charles Williams adapted his own book "The Wrong Venus" about an authoress of tawdry sex novels leaving her latest bestseller unfinished--seems she was a 40-year old virgin who finally got wind of what she was writing about! Another woman, an amazon who practices Judo, was brought in to finish the book but found herself witness to a murder and was kidnapped; now, her successor (an American man who smuggles watches into Europe!), attempts to rescue her with help from a savvy actress. To say this wacky caper is overly-involved is putting it mildly. Ron Winston directs the picture at a breathless pace, but Williams doesn't writes enough jokes... he's too busy creating more characters. Only in the movie's saner, quieter moments do the principals emerge as people, but we are seldom privy to their plans (all the scheming seems to happen off-screen). The cruelest blow delivered to Winston and his actors was Universal's apparent decision to film the comedy on their lot in Hollywood, with stock shots of France interspersed. One quickly grows tired of the need to hustle its cast indoors in order to betray the surroundings. Robert Wagner is surprisingly upbeat and frisky throughout (not his usual dour self) and he's matched well with Mary Tyler Moore (in a short brunette wig) and leggy Barbara Rhoades. Some funny scenes and exchanges, though it's often labored and galumphing. ** from ****

Nobody's standing around. They are all running around like chickens with their heads cut off.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 31 May 2022]

What starts off moderately amusing ends up a convoluted and messy caper comedy involving Robert Wagner and Mary Tyler Moore meeting on an airplane and her involving him in a very bizarre plot concerning bad guys with guns, black suits and sun glasses. Not sure if this was actually filmed on location in Paris, but the film is elegant looking. However a glamorous physical look about a film doesn't make it a good one.

Moore is a magazine article writer (with Harvey Korman as her boss) with Barbara Rhodes and Glynis Johns also somehow involved in the story that loses credibility and direction shortly after Wagner and Moore get off the airplane, having been locked in the bathroom. Eventually I just forgot about the ridiculous plot and just continued watching everyone running around like fools including the bad guys. Unless you're a fan of the leads, this one's easy to skip over.

Much too complicated comedy

[paddywiz · 3/10 · 19 March 2020]

The scriptwriters went overboard with this complicated comedy involving the completion of a novel by a ghost writer because the original author is off with a newfound lover. The story involves a kidnapping which only complicates the storyline and unfortunately brings no laughs. Robert Wagner is his adorable self and Mary Tyler Moore is beautiful but not quite at her best. She was great in the Dick Van Dyck sitcom but her comedic timing is a bit off here. Probably due to a difficult assignment. Harvey Korman is wasted as the literary agent trying to pull this caper together. There is far too little of Glynis Johns as the absent author. Keeping track of all the characters and events in the movie becomes exhausting and detracts from the fun. The movie is worth a look because of the popular cast who all had better success in future endeavors.

It must be seen

[mls4182 · 1/10 · 20 May 2023]

You have to see this film to believe just how unspeakably bad it is. What I don't understand is, it couldn't have looked good on paper either. Who would have green lit such a mess or agree to appear in it.

If you are a Mary Tyler Moore fan I beg you not to watch. Remember her as the beautiful, mutitalented performer she was. If you are a Robert Wagner fan - well, it won't matter, will it?

There is not a single second of wit, laughs or style in this film. It is shockingly dull and pointless.

I have sat through many bad films in my time and this is the absolute worst. I just sat watching, speechless. A copy is on YouTube.