The film that killed Ann Margret's career as a film star, it would seem (she kept starring in films but I think Hollywood went off her as an A lister after this). It's fairly dreadful.
I like Ann Margret, I like director George Sidney. I get what they were going for here - a wacky jazzy musical comedy in the vein of their earlier hit Viva Las Vegas. And the world of men's magazines has... okay inherent ickiness but possibilities of satire.
Only it's not a musical. There's some dance numbers (Ann Margret is a member of a dance troupe) and one or two songs but it's not a musical. Which is a big thing since the plot is so light. It's got the thinness of an Elvis plot only without songs.
And without Elvis. Anthony Franciosa is the lead. He's a decent enough actor but why not get a guy who can sing? And dance? So they can do musical numbers together? Surely there were people around. He doesn't have any chemistry with Ann Margret.
The plot is thin and confusing. She's a girl who wants to get her stories published in a girlie magazine (why? it's a girly magazine). So she pretends to be a swinger to impress them (why? go to another magazine). And succeeds so much that editor Franciosa decides to teach her to be a good girl (why?) That's confusing and dumb and pointless.
Ann Margret wears a lot of different clothes. She's a great looking girl and is sexy and can sing and dance but the material defeats her. There's a striking scene where she is in a bikini thing gets covered in paint and rolls around on the floor, years before Tommy.
Robert Coote plays the owner of the girlie magazine. There's several scenes where he's chasing women around desks. This was considered comic at the time but it is kind of rapey. Yvonne Romain plays Coote's daughter who is Franciosa's fiance - meant to be a bitch for some reason.
I guess the final gag where the two leads crashed into each other and died, and then they replayed it was funnier.
But it's a terrible, terrible, incompetently made movie.
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