Boys' Night Out (film)

Infobox Film
name = Boys' Night Out


image_size =
caption = Film poster
director = Michael Gordon
producer = Martin Ransohoff
writer = Arne Sultan (story)
Marvin Worth (story)
Ira Wallach
narrator =
starring = Kim Novak
James Garner
Tony Randall
music = Frank De Vol
cinematography = Arthur E. Arling
editing = Tom McAdoo
distributor = Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
released = 21 June 1962
runtime = 115 min.
country = U.S.A.
language = English
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id = 1:82310
imdb_id = 0055809

"Boys' Night Out" is an American comedy film released in 1962, starring Kim Novak, James Garner, and Tony Randall, and directed by Michael Gordon. The movie is about three middle-aged, married men who are looking to meet needs that are not being satisfied in their marriages.

Plot

The three married men, George (Tony Randall), Doug (Howard Duff), and Howie (Howard Morris), and divorcé Fred (James Garner), are friends who commute to work in New York City on the same train. Seeing Fred's philandering boss, Mr. Bingham (Larry Keating), with his mistress sets the men to fantasizing about sharing the expense of an apartment in the city as a love nest. As a gag, they give Fred the task of finding an unrealistically inexpensive apartment and a blonde "companion" to go with it.

Fred rents a luxurious suite from Peter Bowers (Jim Backus), who is desperate to find a tenant (the previous occupant was a highly-publicized murder victim). By chance, Cathy (Kim Novak), a knockout of a blonde, also answers the advertisement for the apartment. Fred explains that the place has already been taken, but she learns that he is also looking for a beautiful young "housekeeper" for his friends. To his surprise, she accepts the job. The boys are delighted; each tells his wife that he is taking a course one night a week to improve his mind so he can stay in New York overnight.

Unbeknownst to the men, Cathy is actually a sociology graduate student writing her thesis on the "adolescent fantasies of the adult suburban male." Her skeptical advisor, Dr. Prokosch (Oskar Homolka), worries that she won't be able to fend off the men, but she is confident about her abilities (see Quotes). When they start calling on her individually in the evenings, she encourages them to talk, all the while secretly recording their conversations.

Cathy deftly avoids being seduced by the married men, although each of them brags to the others about having slept with her. She supplies what each one really wants: Howie is starved for more substantial food than his dieting wife will provide; Doug likes to repair things that are conveniently broken each week (his status-conscious wife doesn't want their neighbors to see him tinkering about the house); George enjoys talking about himself, but his spouse keeps finishing his sentences. Fred, however, is a different story: he is very attracted to Cathy and, disgusted by his friends' fabricated stories, he refuses to use his night.

In the end, the wives become suspicious and, on the advice of Fred's mother Ethel (Jessie Royce Landis), hire private investigator Ernest Bohannon (Fred Clark) to find out what is going on. Based on his report, they assume the worst and confront their husbands. All three married men confess that nothing happened, and Cathy reveals that she is just doing research.

After getting over the shock, Fred marries Cathy. Everyone learns a lesson and the boys' night out is no more; instead, the couples go out together.

Cast

*Kim Novak as Cathy
*James Garner as Fred Williams
*Tony Randall as George Drayton
*Howard Duff as Doug Jackson
*Janet Blair as Marge Drayton
*Patti Page as Joanne McIllenny
*Jessie Royce Landis as Ethel Williams
*Oskar Homolka as Dr. Prokosch
*Howard Morris as Howard McIllenny
*Anne Jeffreys as Toni Jackson
*Zsa Zsa Gabor as Boss's Girl Friend
*William Bendix as Slattery
*Larry Keating as Mr. Bingham
*Fred Clark as Ernest Bohannon
*Jim Backus as Peter Bowers

Quotes

Dr. Prokosch: Can you look like 'yes' and act like 'no'? Can you entice them, lure them, then postpone, evade, delay? It needs a special kind of experience and skill. This a nice girl hasn't learned.

Cathy: No? This is what a nice girl has learned "best".

Reception

Although generally considered a mediocre film, "Boys' Night Out" -- with what must have been considered a risqué plot more than 40 years ago -- gives an insight into the predominant social mores of the late 1950s and early 1960s WASP middle classes. It should be noted though that not all comedy films made at around that time excluded pre- and extramarital sex from their plots; see, for example, "Boeing Boeing" (1965, based on a 1960 farce).

The film provides an excellent view of "mid-century modern" interiors and fashions.

External links

*imdb title|id=0055809|title=Boys' Night Out
*amg title|id=1:82310|title=Boys' Night Out
* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8844857220560459276&q=%22James+Garner%22+%22Charlie+Rose%22&total=4&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0 James Garner Interview on the "Charlie Rose Show"]
* [http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=%22archive+of+american+television+interview+with+james+garner%22 James Garner interview] at Archive of American Television