Shirley MacLaine stars as the wife of brassiere magnate Richard Attenborough. Happily married if somewhat lonely, she ends up sleeping with James Booth, a fellow who works for her husband who swings by to help her fix the sewing machine. Now he won't leave. He moves into the attic, and she has to juggle a husband and a lover under one roof. A bit of a relic of it's era with lots of whacky swinging sixties visuals. It's an amusing film that largely loses it's way during it's repetitive final act. Freddie Jones dominates the film in his handful of appearances as a very eccentric cop investigating Booth's disappearance. John Cleese and Barry Humphries appear in very small roles.

You could make millions in an auction of the costumes and props for this oh so silly British farce that is overloaded with everything but plot and substance. It's one of those 1960's acid stained comedies where bored brazier manufacturer's wife Shirley MacLaine takes a lover, hides him in her attic(above the marital bed it seems) and has all sorts of strange surrealistic fantasies to comment on her strange situation. When husband Richard Attenborough has a sudden health crisis, her fantasies change to seeing him get better, thus neglecting her hidden stud (James Booth).Made around the time that various popular actresses such as Bette Davis, Elizabeth Taylor and Rosalind Russell took on roles that made them seem like drag queens, MacLaine took on several of them. From 1964's "What a Way to Go!" through this four years later, she really had only one hit ("Gambit") with the remainder getting more and more outrageous. There's no real sense of direction except just to keep getting sillier with each fantasy and costume change, basically turning Shirley into Liberace without a piano. Top that off with balloon like dummy dolls modeling braziers pulling people up for a mad, mad, mad world type final, and you've got Shirley MacLaine's real boobie prize. If this is what an acid trip looks like, keep me sober!

This light-as-a-bubble comedy annoyed me at first with its giddy farcicality but slowly won me over with the gentle wisdom at its core. Polyamory may not be for everybody, but in this story it transforms life for the three main characters: a lonely housewife, her businessman husband, and her underachieving lover. The story moves right along and takes some clever, unexpected turns before arriving at an enormous final irony. All the performances are good. (Special note to "Zulu" fans: "Blossom" contains a few sly allusions to that great film, including scenes where James Booth shows up in a red tunic. The effect is somewhat incongruous, though, because Tuttle's voice and manner are completely unlike Hookie's.)

This movie is completely charming. I've never seen a more wonderful Shirley MacLaine. I fell in love with her. If you liked the Austin Powers films, then you will especially enjoy the costumes and decor of this movie. The artworks that Mrs. Blossom creates are terrific. With the recent public appearance of the polyamory community, it's apparent that the idea of being in love and devoted to two people, and being "faithful" to them both, is still relevant. As a small, funny movie, it still asks some good questions about the nature of relationships and fidelity. Bravo.