Médica, Bonita e Solteira

Like it's literary namesake, this film is a campy relic from the dawn of the sexual revolution. However unlike the aforementioned book, this film is a whole lot of fun! Natalie Wood manages to hit her stride, squeezing the maximum humor from a deadpan delivery. Tony Curtis is smarmy, smug and loving it. Henry Fonda is having a ball, and Lauren Becall is the undisputed queen of droll comedy.

These performances are the highlights of a sophisticated romp, early 60's LA style. Mel Fererr's martini dance should be an inspiration to lounge swingers everywhere. From the cartoon credits, to the Sexy Sox showroom, to the hilarious freeway chase scene, it's all winking nodding blur of couches, crewcuts and cocktails. Great fun viewing for single girls and guys.

I've seen this one a few times over the years and wish it would come out in DVD. Natalie Wood was never more beautiful, and the battle of the sexes was never more fun. It's great to see a love story that doesn't resort to foul language or adult humor, but simply witty dialog and the vagaries of human nature.

Tony Curtis plays a tabloid reporter trying to get the goods on Helen Gurley Brown (played by Natalie Wood) and her personal life to find out if she actually knows anything about sex and relationships. To this end, he impersonates an acquaintance (played by Henry Fonda) whose having problems with his jealous wife (played by Lauren Bacall) so that he can pose as a patient and seek her advice.

The confusion caused by this impersonation just leads to more problems. However, this is just a sideshow to the reporter's seduction of Dr. Brown and the glorious mayhem that ensues.

Her constant comparisons of Tony Curtis to Jack Lemmon (Curtis' co-star in Some Like It Hot) will appeal anyone who's seen that classic.

"Mention sex, and the single girl is cool and shy She objects to discussing sex with any guy You can bet she's as interested as he If sex weren't 50-50, where would everybody be?"

I love me a sex comedy from 1964 that openly acknowledges female desire, sex outside of marriage, erogenous zones, and male impotence. "I'm gaining confidence," says Tony Curtis in one scene, clearly alluding to an erection. Meanwhile Natalie Wood is, well, Natalie Wood, just as gorgeous and magnetic as ever, even if it's in a silly film like this. This cast, my god ... Wood, Curtis, Henry Fonda, Lauren Bacall, Mel Ferrer (loved his little dancing), Edward Everett Horton (age 78!), Otto Kruger (his last film) ... with music from Count Basie and the sultry Fran Jeffries - it's fun to see them all here, and they all get at least a moment or two to shine.

The film tries to do a little too much, adding on the zaniness of an extended chase scene at the end which got a little exhausting. I liked the quieter things early on, like the running gag of coin-operated machines (the water cooler, the bathroom sink, the mirror, etc) which are all cleverly slipped in, and maybe suggest a changing world, one which goes along with women acknowledging their physical desires. There are also several humorous references to Jack Lemmon in "Some Like it Hot" when Tony Curtis finds himself in a women's robe, even though of course Curtis himself was in the same film. And then we have the scenes with Wood staring into Curtis's eyes and becoming aroused by his ear kissing, or her prancing out to answer the phone in a low-cut dress saying "And I shall insist on the right to have as many love affairs as I please. I'm certainly not going to sacrifice one iota of my freedom or dignity for any man." My goodness, she's a joy to watch.

Where the film falters, however, is in its treatment of women in the workplace - there's a secretary who is clearly a sexual plaything of her boss, and the main character melts as soon as she meets her new patient, abandoning any kind of professionalism. The story is kicked off when tabloid magazine writers all wonder if this young psychologist is a virgin, and her colleagues wonder the same thing. That's kind of ironic, because Helen Gurley Brown's book is about acknowledging and even using sexuality for one's benefit in a savvy way - a controversial concept for a feminist to be sure - but Wood's character doesn't show signs of this, and if anything, she's pretty naïve. It kind of erodes the equality aspect of the film. Women are as sexual as men, it says, but they either want to be dominated (as Jeffries' character prefers at the end) or they don't mind sacrificing their careers to get married (as Wood and Bacall's characters do).

Hey, the film is just a playful little comedy and in 1964 I guess you could look at it as a stepping stone of feminism, just as Brown's book was, despite its mix of progressive and regressive content - but these overtones and the lengthy car chase prevented me from rating it higher. Worth watching though.

I was reading in the Citadel Film Book Series The Films Of Lauren Bacall that the real Helen Gurley Brown was less than thrilled with the film made of her work which was a landmark in feminist literature. Turning it into a poor man's version of a Rock Hudson-Doris Day sex comedy she probably never envisioned.

The Rock and Doris roles are taken by Tony Curtis and Natalie Wood. Tony plays a writer for a Confidential style magazine, today it would be the National Enquirer. He's already done articles debunking her credibility as far as being an expert on sex. Now Curtis proposes to publisher Edward Everett Horton to really get to know this person and embarks on a campaign to seduce the sex expert with all the cunning of Ashton Kutcher on the punk. But as what happens in all these films he actually falls for her.

Of course it doesn't help that he gets in to see her pretending he's hosiery manufacturer and neighbor Henry Fonda and using his marital problems with Lauren Bacall as his entry to the pop psychologist's office. In this film Helen Gurley Brown is not the editor of Cosmopolitan Magazine, but a Joyce Brothers type psychologist.

I wish I could remember who said it, but I read a review of this film once where the reviewer said that the parts Fonda and Bacall played in cheaper productions years ago would have been played by Edgar Kennedy and Dot Farley. I should only have said something that brilliant. Watching Fonda I did see traces of the slow burn and Bacall is certainly more chic than Dot Farley. Nevertheless the way they bicker at each other could be the best thing about Sex And The Single Girl. Neither Fonda or Bacall is terribly proud of Sex And The Single Girl. I wonder what could have induced them to appear in this film?

It's not the worst film that any of the leads or an exceptionally talented name cast of character players ever appeared in. Still these kind of films were being turned out regularly in the late Eisenhower- Kennedy years and this one dates real badly.

Helen Gurley Brown's name and real contributions to feminism have stood the test of time better than this film has.

Really, what's not to like? I'd watch Natalie Wood read the phone book, and this flick left me wondering why Tony Curtis wasn't a bigger star, and why Henry Fonda and Lauren Bacall were relegated to second-tier parts (though their roles were prominent).

Wood plays Helen Gurley Brown, author of the hit book of the film's name, and Curtis plays a magazine editor of a successful, seedy magazine that thrives on digging up dirt on people. Curtis sets his sights on scandalizing the virgin Brown. The laughs are many and frequent, with numerous subtle and not-so-subtle puns sprinkled liberally throughout. On the not-so-subtle side,the opening scene with magazine employees meeting with the CEO in the Board Room continually plays off the concept of the magazine seeking to feed off the lowest common denominator of human indecency. Another example occurred as cars raced along the highway, a sign noted that the highway's extension would be opening in December 1960. That was struck through and replaced with dates in 1961, 1962, 1963, and 1964, all struck through and ultimately replaced with something like "to be determined". I can connect with that jab even today.

Watching the movie caused me to research the 1962 book. Interestingly, the movie was loosely inspired by the book. And I mean loosely. The book is somewhat of a how-to guide, whereas the movie is a fictional imagining of the life of a much-younger Helen Gurley Brown, who was 40 at the publication of the book but 23 in the movie. Likely the movie's title was largely intended to parlay off the book's popularity. Good marketing.

It was also interesting and melancholy to note that the longtime delightful bit-part actress who played Emma Brand/Watson on the Andy Griffith Show, Cheerio Meredith, and had a minor role here, died on release day, 12/25/64. Burt Mustin also had a bit part. I always find it interesting to see actors such as Meredith and Mustin, who I mostly know from varying TV roles.

As usual, I loved seeing the sets and 60s style. I'm fascinated with the decade and enjoy seeing society's attitudes, fashions, and ideals in that era. This film brings that to life in spades.