Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number!

Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number!
June 8, 1966
United Artists
Comedy
VHS
C+

This time around Bob isn't so much worried about his children's potential sex lives (since they're younger than Tuesday was in I'll Take Sweden, and they're more interested in onscreen than real-life sexiness).  Instead, Phyllis Diller, as Hope's wacky maid, is worried about Bob's possible adultery with Elke Sommer as a French [sic] bathing beauty.  Diller of course steals most of the scenes she's in, especially when she's rocking out in the kitchen to a song that has lyrics like "Murder me with kisses," or tearing down the (allegedly rural Oregonian) roadway on her motorcycle.  Hope actually has more scenes with her, due to the plot twists, than he does with his wife, played by Marjorie Lord in a towering bouffant that has dated far worse than Phyllis's sort of proto-new-wave egg-beatered look.  Speaking of being dated, if you ever wanted to hear Bob Hope say, "I've got more fuzz on my tail than a French poodle," this is the film for you.  I'd go with a B-, like I'll Take Sweden, but I don't like the way that Sommer is treated onscreen.  Yes, her character is immature, but she does go through mistreatment, from getting exploited and lied to by her fiance/director (Cesare Danova) to getting locked in a spider-filled cellar, and we're just supposed to laugh and think she deserves it.

Joyce Jameson, who as the telephone operator is sort of responsible for the title situation, was "The Blonde" in The Apartment.  (I think the one who sounded like Marilyn Monroe.)  Arthur Tovey, who had a bit part in Dear Brigitte, is an onlooker at the soap factory and would work his way up to Hotel Guest in The Graduate.  Norman Leavitt, who's Titus Zeale, Gas Station Proprietor, would be Herbert the Ice Cream Vendor in The Swinger.  Keith Taylor, who plays Plympton, would be Henry in The Perils of Pauline (1967).



This completes the first 100 of my movies I've reviewed.  The breakdown on grades is 1 A, 3 A-s, 9 B+s, 12 B's, 26 B-s, 29 C+s, 10 C's, 8 C-s, 1 D+, and 1 D-.  Given my tastes, Comedy is the most popular of the overlapping genres, 82%.  Groucho Marx has more appearances than anyone, 14, and he's not quite finished.  Paramount is the most popular studio, with 18% of the movies, although this is less the case for the '50s and '60s than for earlier.

Gidget Goes to Rome

Gidget Goes to Rome
August 7, 1963
Columbia
Comedy
VHS
C-

Released the same day as Beach Party, this is far inferior to not only the AIP series-starter, but to the previous Gidget movies.  The best thing about the movie is Don Porter in the first reel.  (He would also play Gidget's father, now a widower, in the Sally Field TV series a couple years later.)  Also, I do appreciate that they did extensive location shooting, and Rome does look good.  Unfortunately, there are these teens and post-teens cluttering the screen, too.

In the '90s comic Greg Proops would say of Luke 90210 Perry that he was "older than James Darren in the Gidget movies."  Darren was 27 by this point, and his character still has a year to go in college.  Gidget is now 18 and about to start college.  She remarks late in the movie that after visiting Rome she's "not the same person."  That's for sure!  Cindy Carol is the latest Gidget and, thanks to a script that Flippen unfortunately cowrote (rather than her soloing on Goes Hawaiian), and disappointing direction by Wendkos, C.C. plays the girl-midget as a sulky, sometimes crazy know-it-all who keeps getting into fixes that end up at the American Embassy.  (JFK's picture is on the wall, and the New York airport is still called Idlewild, a few months before the assassination.)  The two "steadies" have some moments together as a couple early on, but Jeff wants her to stop calling him Moondoggie.  (As if it wasn't a nickname from his surfer friends, rather than her!)  Soon though, he's flirting with their "Italian" (half-French) guide and dumping Gidget two years [sic] after pinning her.  He only goes back to her when the guide rejects his marriage proposal.  Meanwhile, Gidget "falls in love" with an older man, Paolo Cellini, not realizing that he's an old friend her dad asked to look after her.

The other characters aren't given much to do, although they seem to be trying really hard, especially the guests at the "international set" party.  If you feel the need to see this movie out of a sense of completeness, well, it's not too painful.

Peter Brooks, who plays Clay (the forgettable guy with the umbrella), would be in Girl Happy, as would Joby "Judge" Baker.  Cesare Danova, who's Paolo, would be Pepe Pepponi in Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number!  Eddra Gale, who is "Fat Party Guest," would be in The Graduate.

"Yeah, and she hears voices and has delusions, too."