Bachelor in Paradise (1961)

To me, this movie is perfection.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Although this Bob Hope-Lana Turner sex farce comedy will remind many viewers of 1960's era (now syndicated) sitcoms - it features scenes that became staples of such like grocery store accidents ("cleanup on aisle 13!"), laundry machines so filled with soap that they overflow with bubbles, and food burning in the oven - one has to remember that this may have been the first movie to feature such domestic household shenanigans (save Lucille Ball's television programs, of course).Bob Hope fans will be adequately entertained even though there aren't really any laugh out loud moments contained within it. It's not a great comedy by any means, but it is pleasant and, surprisingly, not entirely dated either. Directed by Jack Arnold, it features a screenplay by Valentine Davies and Hal Kanter that was based on a story by Vera Caspary. The title song, by Henry Mancini and Mack David, was nominated for an Academy Award.Hope plays a confirmed bachelor, who's the notorious author (A.J. Niles) of a series of books about the sexual mores in various countries, that has to return to the United States after 14 years abroad because his accountant absconded with much of his earnings and never filed a return for him; hence, he has a back taxes problem with the IRS. So, his publisher (John McGiver) sets him up in a San Fernando Valley suburb called Paradise where, incognito, he can do the research necessary to write a book about "Sex in America" in order to pay his tax bill.Turner, whose character is decidedly single because of a failed relationship in her past, plays the subdivision's property manager whose home he rents while working on the book. Janis Paige, Paula Prentiss (whose husband is played by Jim Hutton, naturally), and Virginia Grey play three of the housewives Hope's undercover character Tommy Randolph gets to know while doing his research (an uncredited Mary Treen plays another). In fact, Randolph ends up hosting cocktail parties for the women as he imparts "how to please your husband" tips while their kids are in school during the day.Ironically, this actually displeases their staid husbands which eventually leads to a petition calling for his eviction, that Turner's character (because she's become interested in the author) refuses to deliver, and then divorce court. Don Porter plays Paradise's developer, who's married to Paige's character but openly pursues Turner's; as one of the husbands, he issues the ultimatum to Randolph. Agnes Moorehead plays the divorce court judge. Florence Sundstrom plays the busybody neighbor who testifies against Randolph, now known to be Niles - there were lots of after hours (and bedroom) situations which could easily be misinterpreted, especially by one going out of their way to be nosy.A predictable ending involving the film's stars, and the only two single characters, is a given.

I watch this every time it's on cable, mainly because it is a graphic memento of "Camelot" - a time in America of sheer optimism and middle class power. This movie revels in the 60s suburban life style and the fact even the middle class was shrugging off stuffy Victorian sexuality. But within a setting of Bob Hope's dry humor, lots of hot 60s women, the BIG cars, the ranch style canyon subdivision houses - and the consumptive 60s lifestyle. Gotta love it on nostalgia value alone but as one of the better Hope 60s comedies, peppered with his slick double entendre one-liners bounced off a bevy of Hollywood hotties, it's a winner as well.

Other than Bob Hope's wisecracks (which aren't all that funny), this movie is a lost cause. It involves a writer of "Bachelor" books, forced to live in a suburban, fifties community because his accountant ran off with his fortune. He has come to study the natives and then write about them. In the process he falls in love with Lana Turner. The screenplay is insipid, the acting stiff and bloodless, there is utterly no charm. The best characters in the book are two little kids who only appear for about three minutes. This is the stuff that was put in the theaters in the sixties. It titillates but the censors had their bony fingers on the button at every turn. The result a tiresome, endless non-comedy that bores everyone. Watch the ridiculous courtroom scene at the end if you want an example of the worst of cinema.

Bob Hope, a novelist whose main subject is the bachelor's life and how it varies from country to country and the named country's lifestyles, is forced to stay in America to pay his debt to the IRS because his accountant ran off with his money and never filed a tax return for him. His agent places in a residential subdivision to show how the Americans live. Enter Paradise Village and Lana Turner.She leases him her place to live month by month, surrounded by families, whose housewives are home alone with crying babies and who are yearning for change and culture, and here he shows up to help them out of their doldrums. But then with all these fancy ideas he's giving their wives, the husbands think the worst of him and things go from bad to crazy.Being a Lana Turner fan, I might be more gracious in rating this Hope comedy. It certainly is not his best material, but as other reviewers have said, it has its rewards. Namely Janis Paige, who nicely fills out a dress and the believable charm and chemistry between Lana and Bob.Lana loved comedy and enjoyed breaking out and making this film. It shows in the later part of the film, as she loosens up.Its main weakness are one-liners that are more rude than funny and therefore fall flat. But, that's mainly near the beginning of the film. And, get this: this is based on a story by Vera Caspary, who wrote the classic Laura (the novel, of course.) Costarring Jim Hutton, Paula Prentiss, Don Porter, Reta Shaw, Agnes Moorehead, and Virginia Grey (in one of her five appearances in a film with Lana), this is fun, easygoing film that should be enjoyed for what it is, a good time with one of America's favorite funny men, Bob Hope.