Copyright 1959. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture. New York opening at the Radio City Music Hall: 21 May 1959. U.K. release: 18 October 1959. Australian release: 10 September 1959. 8,404 feet; 98 minutes. SYNOPSIS: Small-town girl arrives in Manhattan in search of a job and a husband.COMMENT: Although some critics hailed this super-predictable yarn as a bright and witty sex comedy, it is mostly a bore, enlivened only by the energetic playing of Shirley MacLaine (and, in lesser roles, Jim Backus and Gig Young). Charles Walters' relentlessly pedestrian direction doesn't help Wells' plodding screenplay either. And Walters does so little with CinemaScope, one wonders why the studio bothered with the process at all. (Well, I suppose it just had to be in 'Scope to attract an audience).

This is one my favourite early Shirley Mc Claine films which didn't really tap her enormous acting talents, but gave the viewer a pleasant look at her comic talent. David Niven is the star of this film and is wonderful as the uptight, sexually oblivious brother of Shirley's love interest, who is of course a complete womanizer and twit. This movie also explores the different personalities of woman and how men react to them and vise versa. Rod Taylor also makes a good and memorable cameoin the role of Shirley's boyfriend. The soundtrack is nothing special but is forgotten in the wake of the zany events of this film. I definitely recommend this movie to all lovers of predictable and sweet romantic comedies.

It contain spoilers! I love David Niven, and I really like Shirley MacLaine, so when I read the plot of this movie, I wanted to watch it. It's a silly little romantic comedy, where there's this girl (Maclaine) who comes to the big apple to get a job and find a husband. The movie has a few scenes filled with sexual insinuations, because Maclaine has to get rid of a couple of guys that just wanted to get laid. So, men are portrayed as sexual wolves or something like that, at least with someone like her: a young girl who doesn't know how a big city works. Then, after quitting her job, she goes to a marketing company that is paying $2 to anyone that tastes a new cigarette brand. That company is run by 2 brothers: The older one, (Niven) who is a stiff fellow and doesn't care about anything but work, and the younger (Young), who is a cute playboy, who doesn't care about anything but women. So, she enters Niven's office to run the test and everything goes wrong, as she doesn't even smoke. She gets out quickly, only to run into the younger brother, who likes her immediately and hires her as a new employee, in spite of his older brother's opinion, who doesn't want her there. After a while, she discovers that she can apply the marketing techniques to nail down the younger brother, so she asks Niven to help her, as if she were a new customer.He agrees, because he wanted his brother to get married and put his head into work instead of women, and the idea appeals to him, as an experiment.He (Niven) gets his brother's little black book with all of his girls' telephones, and starts to date each one of the girls, so he can understand what attracted his brother to each one. And when he gets the idea, he passes the information to her. So MacLaine gets "modified" according to the "potential consumer's" taste.Naturally, both Niven and MacLaine find they are in love with each other, just when Young proposes to her; but now she doesn't want Young anymore, because she discovers that beyond the rough surface, Niven is a sensitive, nice, decent man. But he doesn't make a move (because she's his brother's girl), so, she leaves them, to go after his former boyfriend (the one who wanted to get laid, who is played by Rod Taylor), and tells him that if the offer is still open, she will take it. So they get a train to his cabin in the country.She tells her girlfriends what she's gonna do, and they tell Niven, who go after her, with Young of course.In the train, MacLaine gets a bit drunk, and starts to say that she doesn't want to go to the cabin, that she was in a very low mood then, but she feels better now, and that going there is just craziness. In that moment appears both Niven and Young. Niven is outraged, and tells Young that if he loves her, he must punch the guy (Taylor). As Young don't feel like punching anybody, Niven goes after the guy, fiercely. Seeing how his brother acts, Young realizes that Niven is in love with MacLaine. (While realizing that she loves his brother also, because the drunk girl tells him that she loves Niven).If you liked Sabrina, My Fair Lady, The Sound of music, Love Actually etc. You'll find this movie pretty amusing. Niven is a bit older, but never that much as Humphrey Bogart!! He's still very sexy, and very cute.If you're like me, you'll love this movie, despite its silliness.

This is the film where I first fell under the spell of the quirky heroines SHIRLEY MacLAINE seemed to embody in her early screen roles--and continued to play long after the charm had worn off.But here she's refreshingly innocent, naive, quirky, good-natured and easy to like. In fact, she has to carry the film even though she's playing opposite such pros as David NIVEN (rather stuffy here), GIG YOUNG (casual, relaxed performance), and ROD TAYLOR (always good in light romantic comedies).But it's MacLaine's show all the way as a girl who stumbles into a job at a market research firm run by two brothers, opposite types, one of whom (Niven) decides to shape her into the kind of woman his brother should fall in love with. Naturally, his little scheme backfires and he ends up falling in love with his creation. If you detect a touch of "My Fair Lady" here, you're right.Passes the time quickly in an era where most films did exactly that, lasting no more than an hour and a half.