Boys' Night Out (1962)

Excellent, smart action film.

Am I Missing Something?

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

This delightful comedy has some great bits, especially from the four commuter buddies (particularly Tony Randall, later one-half of TV's "Odd Couple"). James Garner is excellent as usual as the one buddy who's not married and thus the default romantic lead. The gang consists of Garner, Randall, Howard Duff, and Howard Morris. The great supporting cast includes old favorites William Bendix, Oskar Homolka, Jim Backus, and Fred Clark.The movie is silly, but there are some great lines and lots of fun along the way. The story deals with married men who feel stifled by their wives. They dream up a scheme to share a "love nest" apartment in the city, complete with a blonde. Kim Novak shows up and the plan is put into place, but the boys don't know that Kim is interested only in her secret sociological research. Nothing "happens", but the boys are too embarrassed to admit it to each other and the wives eventually draw their own conclusions. Jessie Royce Landis (NORTH BY NORTHWEST) gets special mention for her performance as Garner's mother, who rallies the three wives against their "cheating" husbands. The movie is a little racy, but only to the point of innuendo, and it's all in good fun.There's a great running gag where the boys will be riding the train to/from work and Tony Randall will start telling this presumably raunchy story when a passing train roars by, leaving the audience to imagine what could have been said under all that noise. James Garner (THE GREAT ESCAPE, THE NOTEBOOK) has some great drunk bits, jumbling the syllables of his speech ("ti many martoonis").Jim Backus ("Gilligan's Island", "Mr. Magoo") has a wonderful scene as an apartment owner willing to haggle his own asking price down as low as it takes to rent out a swanky flat (complete with wine rack and mirrored bedroom ceiling). Fred Clark (AUNTIE MAME) plays a private detective, a master of disguise. His character really shines in the chaotic climax, amid a cyclone of arguing spouses and flying pottery.I've personally never been a big Kim Novak fan. Her performance here is standard, I'd say. Patti Page sings the title song and gets a rare opportunity to act, playing one of the wives.Some among the cast are a real treat to watch. Others, not so much. There are some great witty lines, but the story is pretty flimsy and among the gags that are hits there is the occasional miss. As a film overall BOYS' NIGHT OUT falls a little short, but it is very entertaining light fare. A hidden treasure, well worth checking out if you get the chance.(The movie airs occasionally on TCM and is available for purchase on a burn-on-demand DVD-R from the Warner Archive Collection.)

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.

Group of wolfish businessmen--only one of whom is not married--rent a bachelor-pad for fun nights away from their wives and hire Kim Novak to be their resident play-thing; she agrees, but only because she has plans of her own. Smarmy set-up, surprisingly cynical for 1962, and ultimately a laughless sex farce. The whole scenario is rather offensive, and while the film doesn't exactly push the envelope for bedroom comedies, it's full of limp pseudo-smut, poshly-furnished and yet depressingly lascivious. Kim Novak tries to overcome the situation with her heavy-lidded, low-keyed classiness, but there's not much of a character here and she ends up just being a fashion plate; she's here to be ogled. James Garner is, once again, a handsome hole in the screen. NO STARS from ****

If your movie tastes are regulated by the PC Police, then forget this movie. On the other hand, if your sensibilities have reached the adult level, you will really like this movie.This is a story about three guys (yes, two were married) who were in a rut and thought that an affair would be just the ticket to put some juice back into their lives. They find that an affair is far more difficult than they had imagined. Really funny.I will not spoil the plot for you, but no one is harmed, and the plot is hilarious.A well done comedy and a great example of what movies were before the computer geeks started overwhelming the story lines with so called special effects.