Through an incredible combination of circumstances way too bizarre for me to relate, psychology graduate student Kim Novak has found four human lab rats for her thesis on the mating habits of the American suburban male for professor Oscar Homolka. The four specimens are James Garner, Howard Duff, Howie Morris, and Tony Randall and they have some fantasies too. Yearning for the days of carefree bachelorhood, they get Garner, the only single one in the group, to rent a really nice apartment on the Upper East Side on East End Avenue that will come complete with Kim Novak. They all have different assigned days with her. Each one has his Boy's Night Out.By the way for those of you not from New York or familiar with it, East End Avenue is about as high rent as you can get. What our would be Lotharios get for $200.00 a month, a steal because real estate agent Jim Backus can't get it off his hands because a notorious murder was committed there would go for between $5000.00 and $10,000.00 now. Although there are some very funny moments including an anarchic climax when wives, Janet Blair, Patti Page, and Anne Jeffreys, meet up with the men in the ideal pad with private detective Fred Clark and a crazy eavesdropping neighbor Ruth McDevitt, Boy's Night Out falls short of a classic by about five lengths. It really needed a director like Leo McCarey or Gregory LaCava or even a more cynical guy like Billy Wilder to bring it off. The material itself was getting kind of out of date by then. At times it was like a long episode of Three's Company. Still with as bright and talented a cast as this, you can't go too far wrong watching Boy's Night Out.

No offense to some of you, but I very seldom agree with that whole "It was a simpler time" thinking, because EVERY decade is full of people saying that about every PREVIOUS decade! (And they're probably always partly right and partly wrong.) And in a way, this movie is evidence of that - it's full of characters analyzing (and over-analyzing) subjects (like why the men want to fool around - which of course COULD BE because they just WANT TO). And of course, it's full of the whole "Men from Mars, Women from Venus" subject, and of course, "Kinsey"-type sex surveys. So as one person on the message boards (partially) says, it's a case of "The more things change...." Luckily, this movie makes light of all these things. There's a line toward the end where Jessie Royce Landis makes a reference to "the Kennedys getting elected." This always reminds me of the difference between a movie MADE in the early ' 60s and any given one SET in the early ' 60s - the latter OFTEN has Kennedy references (and many OTHER topical ones) squeezed in EDGEWISE, instead of A FEW, worked in CASUALLY, the way it's done here. Of the supporting actors, I think William Bendix had the best part, as the bartender with the friendly advice for James Garner.

This film is quite similar to "Let's make love" by Billy Wilder starring Marilyn Monroe. Just like in that movie, the married men are so boyish one could wonder how they got married in the first place. Of course, that is part of the comedy in this "sex" farce. The contextual environment and the mentioning of the word "sex" are the only aspects that by any means are "dirty" and could have been questionable in the American cinema of the 50s. However, graphically there is nothing arousing except for a short kissing scene. Although the film starts off entertainingly and promising, it drags out way too long and the ending is nothing but corny. To that comes weak dialog without a single memorable line. I would suggest checking out the Monroe film instead, unless one is a fan of Kim Novak.

Just looking at the lovely Kim Novak is enough for any man (or woman). She most convincingly plays her part in this comedy romp from 1962, a very dated 1962 film at that, although the premise and, really, the events, are timeless. Who can ever tire of her beauty. James Garner was so handsome in his youth as well. We also see the delightful Anne Jeffreys. I enjoyed this comedy and recommend it. It is a rather pleasant not so over the top comedy and an enjoyable film. I repeat again, whatever Kim Novak is in a movie, she brings not only her spectacular beauty but a marvelous acting ability. The dresses she wears in this movie are terribly outdated, but I recommend the movie for one and all.