• Rating:
• Genre: Comedy
• Movie Type: Satire
• Director: Michael Gordon
• Main Cast: Kim Novak, James Garner, Tony Randall, Howard Duff, Janet Blair
• Release Year: 1962
• Country: US
• Run Time: 115 minutes

Plot

In this squeaky clean sex comedy (the sort that could only have been made in the early 1960s), Kathy (Kim Novak) is a sociology student preparing her doctoral thesis, "Adolescent Sexual Fantasies in the Adult Suburban Male." She poses as a call girl to gain perspective on the sexual attitudes and behaviors of contemporary men, and she is soon installed as a kept woman for four men, Fred (James Garner), George (Tony Randall), Doug (Howard Duff), and Howard (Howard Morris). Except for Fred, all the men are married and looking for some of that loose, swinging action they've been hearing about, which makes the situation a research gold mine for Kathy. But she quickly discovers that while the men can talk about sex, they're too inhibited to actually do anything about it; what they really want isn't a wild fling, but an understanding ear. Fred is the only one who makes any romantic overtures, and in time he asks for her hand in marriage. Janet Blair, Anne Jeffreys, and Patti Page plays the wives of the would-be white-collar lotharios, and Zsa Zsa Gabor plays their boss's girlfriend. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Review

So many of the sex comedies of the '60s seem incredibly tame to modern audiences; Boys' Night Out would be practically quaint if it weren't for its veneer of smarminess. Boys is one of those films that wants to be "modern" (for its time) about sex but also wants to reaffirm the value of traditional marriages. The combination doesn't work here, and that -- combined with the inevitably dated feeling -- can be a problem. To overcome this obstacle, Boys needs to have real, genuine wit behind it, or at the very least it needs to be overpoweringly funny. Unfortunately, while Boys has a decent share of laughs, it still falls short of what is needed to make it anything other than average. The leading lady is also a problem -- not from the "looks" point of view, of course; Kim Novak is quite luscious here, and there's no problem believing that these men would be quite tempted by her. The problem is that Novak, for all the times she was cast as a sex symbol, rarely seemed to feel comfortable in the role. There's a coolness, a guarded quality to her that too often works against her. Here, she's playing a character where that quality could work; after all, she's supposed to be a good girl merely using these men to get material for a paper. But she still doesn't seem to really inhabit the role, playing it all from the outside looking in. Fortunately, the rest of the cast is splendid. James Garner brings far more to the role of "the decent one" than the part deserves, and Tony Randall, Howard Duff, and Howard Morris plunge into their parts like the old pros they are, getting very able assistance from Janet Blair and Anne Jeffreys, if not Patti Page. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide

Cast

• Kim Novak - Cathy
• James Garner - Fred Williams
• Tony Randall - George Drayton
• Howard Duff - Doug Jackson
• Janet Blair - Marge Drayton

Anne Jeffreys - Toni Jackson; Patti Page - Joanne McIlleny; Jesse Royce Landis - Ethel Williams; Oscar Homolka - Dr. Prokosch; Howard Morris - Howard McIlleny; Zsa Zsa Gabor - Moss' Girl Friend; Fred Clark - Mr. Bohannon; William Bendix - Slattery; Jim Backus - Peter Bowers; Larry Keating - Mr. Bingham; Ruth McDevitt - Beulah Partridge

Credit

George W. Davis - Art Director; Arthur E. Arling - Cinematographer; Frank De Vol - Composer (Music Score); Michael Gordon - Director; Henry W. Grace - Set Designer; Tom McAdoo - Editor; Hans Peters - Art Director; Martin Ransohoff - Producer; Arne Sultan - Short Story Author; Bill Thomas - Costume Designer; William J. Tuttle - Makeup; Ira Wallach - Screenwriter; Marvin Worth - Short Story Author; Jerry Wunderlich - Set Designer