The movie starts off great but then runs out of gas about halfway through and never comes back. That, coupled with a weak ending makes a disappointing final product. The first half is funny with a lot of funny dialog. The plot is a little one-dimensional and that's OK as long as the script is working, but in the second half the straightforward plot starts to get tiresome.
Watch for many cameos and bit parts from actors you know...that helps to carry the movie. Arte Johnson succeeds in making an impression with just one minute of screen time and only a few lines, they should have given him more. Donald O'Conner has a large part but it's unsatisfying. He's too much bluster all the way through, his role is too much a single note. He does play a role in the plot it's not important enough and his character is too thin. He has one great joke ("teach her to walk") but other than that his presence fails to gel. He's so talented but you don't see that here. I think it would have been better if his part had been sillier, but of course I realize that it's a fine line between too straight and too silly.
The style is the same type of sex comedy we know so well, everything seems innocent on the surface but the script is constantly spinning out suggestive jokes that can be interpreted in a sexual way. Since it's hard for any 1960s era movie to shock me, this style of script doesn't work very well and I usually find them juvenile, boring, and trite. But this one works better for at least two reasons: 1: it's funny stuff and B: it's pretty x-rated, helping it to retain its shock value.
The first part of the script is full of great jokes and ambitious scenes with crowds of people, but at the half way mark that just stops. The funny dialog stops, the silly and ambitious scenes stop and the straight-forward plot is allowed to just run its course. Then there is one more huge joke (the phone booth) and that's it, the rest of the movie is flat. Then they do a big ambitious production piece for the climax but they don't do much with it and then the final climax is weak. Of course in any romantic film you need that final climactic kiss. It's usually boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy and girl get back together, climactic kiss...we all cry and go home fulfilled. In this movie they choose not to do that. They don't build the movie up to that final climactic kiss and in fact there is no kiss there. That's an odd choice and what they have there instead is weak.
Watch for many cameos and bit parts from actors you know...that helps to carry the movie. Arte Johnson succeeds in making an impression with just one minute of screen time and only a few lines, they should have given him more. Donald O'Conner has a large part but it's unsatisfying. He's too much bluster all the way through, his role is too much a single note. He does play a role in the plot it's not important enough and his character is too thin. He has one great joke ("teach her to walk") but other than that his presence fails to gel. He's so talented but you don't see that here. I think it would have been better if his part had been sillier, but of course I realize that it's a fine line between too straight and too silly.
The style is the same type of sex comedy we know so well, everything seems innocent on the surface but the script is constantly spinning out suggestive jokes that can be interpreted in a sexual way. Since it's hard for any 1960s era movie to shock me, this style of script doesn't work very well and I usually find them juvenile, boring, and trite. But this one works better for at least two reasons: 1: it's funny stuff and B: it's pretty x-rated, helping it to retain its shock value.
The first part of the script is full of great jokes and ambitious scenes with crowds of people, but at the half way mark that just stops. The funny dialog stops, the silly and ambitious scenes stop and the straight-forward plot is allowed to just run its course. Then there is one more huge joke (the phone booth) and that's it, the rest of the movie is flat. Then they do a big ambitious production piece for the climax but they don't do much with it and then the final climax is weak. Of course in any romantic film you need that final climactic kiss. It's usually boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy and girl get back together, climactic kiss...we all cry and go home fulfilled. In this movie they choose not to do that. They don't build the movie up to that final climactic kiss and in fact there is no kiss there. That's an odd choice and what they have there instead is weak.