"SUNDAY IN NEW YORK" (1963) Review
"SUNDAY IN NEW YORK" (1963) Review
During my late teens and early twenties, I had developed a habit of watching many romantic comedies on late night television. Nearly all of those comedies had been released in movie theaters between the early 1950s and the mid 1960s. Recently, I came across another early 60s romantic comedy - 1963's "SUNDAY IN NEW YORK".
Released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and adapted from Norman Krasna's 1961 Broadway play, "SUNDAY IN NEW YORK" told the story about Eileen Tyler, a young Albany woman in her early 20s, whose trip to New York City changes her life. After denying her wealthy fiancé Russ Wilson with premarital sex, Eileen visited her older brother Adam, an airline pilot, in New York's Upper East Side for some sibling advice and a sympathetic shoulder to lean on. Adam not only supported her decision to deny Russ sex before marriage, claiming men only wanted virgins as their brides, he also added he had never slept around. As it turned out, Adam had lied to his sister. He had an occasional girlfriend named Mona Harris, with whom he had sex. He also lied about meeting Mona at the Rockefeller Center skating rink, in order to find a more intimate location for his tryst with Mona. So when Adam's boss calls in an effort to locate an "on-call" pilot, Eileen heads for the skating rink to deliver the message to Adam. Only she ends up meeting a visiting music critic/sports writer from Philadelphia named Mike Mitchell. Their meeting on a Manhattan bus spirals into a series of misadventures that lead to attempted romance and a big deception.
Either in one or more interviews, leading lady Jane Fonda had two things to say about "SUNDAY IN NEW YORK". One, she had realized for the first time that she just might be a competent actress. Also, she found the movie cringe-worthy. Why she found "SUNDAY IN NEW YORK" cringe worthy, I do not recall. Perhaps she viewed the film as another one of Hollywood's endless romantic comedies of that period that film critics and historians tend to view as "sex comedies". Fonda has also commented that she found her character, Eileen Tyler, a bore for constantly talking about her virginity. Considering the movie's topic and her character's emotional state, this should not have been surprising. Do I agree with Fonda's assessment of the movie and her character? Did I find "SUNDAY IN NEW YORK" cringe worthy? Um . . . not really.
I had one or two issues with "SUNDAY IN NEW YORK". Adam and Mona's efforts to meet and enjoy some time together, while both fly from one end of the country to the other started as rather amusing to me. But sometime during the film's second half, it became a joke in danger of never ending. Although I admire the film's discussion on society expectation of women's sexuality, the dialogue seemed in danger of becoming very pretentious to me - something I have never encountered in other sex comedies from this period. It is the only aspect of "SUNDAY IN NEW YORK" I personally believe came close to being "cringe worthy".
Otherwise, I enjoyed "SUNDAY IN NEW YORK". I thought it was a funny and very witty film that explored sexual mores in the U.S., without resorting to silly antics. Actually, the film explored the sexual mores of American women - especially unmarried women. By the late 1950s or early 1960s, many Western nations - including the U.S. - were on the cusp of a sexual revolution. A revolution that questioned the moral sexual confines of the previous decades. And this happened due to the normalization of contraception, including birth control pills. But I did not view "SUNDAY IN NEW YORK" as a sound board for whether it was okay or not for Eileen to have pre-marital sex. I believe the topic was all about "choice".
I noticed that with the exception of Mike Mitchell, the other leading male characters seemed determined to enforce their views or agenda regarding Eileen's sex life. Russ wanted to be Eileen's first (and probably only) sexual partner. Only his libido could not wait for the honeymoon and he selfishly tried to end her virginity before the wedding. Eileen had not been ready to lose her virginity so soon (or perhaps she did not want to lose it with him) and her decision led to their breakup. Russ tried to make Eileen's sexuality all about him. Although Adam offered sympathy to his sister over the temporary breakup of her engagement, he resorted to a lie, hiding his own active sex life, to ensure she remain a virgin until her marriage. I realize he was being a protective older brother, but Adam also came off as a slightly hypocritical one. Only Mike Mitchell, the columnist she had met on a Fifth Avenue bus, seemed to understand Eileen's desire for choice. Mind you, he nearly became a tool of her attempt to enact revenge against Adam for the latter's lie by seducing him. But in the end, Mike gave Eileen the right advice that she needed. I found the topic of choice in regard to sexuality rather refreshing.
There are other aspects of "SUNDAY IN NEW YORK" that I had enjoyed. The filmmakers had decided to shoot many of the film's exterior scenes in Manhattan. And I must admit . . . cinematographer Leo Tover's sharp photography beautifully reflected the city's color and excitement. I noticed how director Peter Tewksbury and producer Everett Freeman had went out of their way to promote musician Peter Nero, who had been developing a name at the time. Two years before the movie's release, he had managed to win a Grammy for Best New Artist. Not only did Nero make an appearance in the film during the nightclub sequence, he also served as the movie's composer. Although I am not a big fan of "soft jazz", I could not help but feel impressed by Nero's soft, but catchy score and the title song performed by Mel Torme.
A famous movie producer once said that the backbone of a good movie was the story - the screenplay. And I would wholeheartedly agree. But I must admit that a first-rate cast certainly adds to the equation. In the case of "SUNDAY IN NEW YORK", I thought it was blessed with an excellent cast. Cliff Robertson gave a very interesting performance as airline pilot Adam Tyler, whose smooth and well-oiled life seemed in danger of being upended by his younger sister's existential crisis and his increasingly futile attempts to hook up with his girlfriend. Robertson's performance struck me as probably the most subtle in the entire movie. He was subtle . . . but without suppressing Adam's more frantic moments. If Robertson gave the most subtle performance, I would say that Rod Taylor gave the most entertaining one. While Taylor proved his humor could be just as smooth and subtle as Robertson's, he also managed to inject a great deal of broad humor in some of his scenes, especially when his performance required it. While his Mike Mitchell struggled to deal with the Tyler siblings' chaos and an uber masculine Russ Wilson, Taylor managed to flip-flop between subtle and broad humor with ease. Jane Fonda was right to surmise that her performance in "SUNDAY IN NEW YORK" was a sign of her competency as an actress. She managed to more than keep up with her older cast members. At the same time, I believe she gave an emotionally satisfying performance as the young Eileen, caught up in a crisis over her sexuality and her relationship with her fiancé. However, I was surprised to realize that my favorite Fonda moment featured Eileen's subtle contempt at Mike's slightly gauche attempts to seduce her. I do not know how well-known Robert Culp was when he portrayed Russ Wilson in this movie. But one could view his performance as a sign of things to come. He gave a very competent performance as Eileen's charming fiancé, who also oozed with boorishness and a sense of entitlement. The film also featured supporting performances from Jo Morrow and Jim Backus. Morrow gave an entertaining, yet first-rate performance as Adam's long-suffering girlfriend, who spent most of the film trying to desperately hook up with him. And Backus's portrayal of Adam's supervisor at TWA struck me as competent and very amusing.
"SUNDAY IN NEW YORK" might struck many of today's moviegoers as dated. Considering the film had been made in the early 1960s, such an assessment would not be surprising. If I am frank, the movie had a few flaws that may have tainted it a bit. But even after 61 years, a movie could still be entertaining. And for me, "SUNDAY IN NEW YORK" proved to be just that. But what I really liked about the film was that it did not preach virginity for young, unmarried women. Instead, it focused on a young woman demanding her right to choose how she might want to conduct her love life. And that topic alone, made this film timeless for me. Norman Krasna's adaptation of his own play, a first-rate direction from Peter Tewksbury and an excellent cast proved to be welcomed additions to the cake.