In his book The Season, William Goldman wrote a chapter on sex comedies on Broadway during the 1967 season, which included this - he says it was one of the best, not particularly high praise, in part because it had a decent number of laughs and its contemporary quality: the fact the hippie girl had a rock star lover, and ended up choosing him in the end, and everyone actually had sex instead of teasing it out.
This film adaptation is quite racy - Goldie Hawn shows off her boobs and bare backside, Peter Sellers goes down on a girl, everyone has lots of sex. The women are very good looking, Hawn is perfectly cast and does her best in what was already a tired conceit: the manic pixie dream girl who captures everyone's heart (she played it in this, Cactus Flower and Butterflies Are Free - all based on Broadway hits).
The piece is hurt greatly by Peter Sellers who hams it up and gives a sketch comedy performance - he never seems for a moment to be a real person with actual feelings (even by the standards of sex comedy). It's distancing. Also much of the material is repetitive. And the age gap between the guy and the girl is a bit yuck.
No comments:
Post a Comment