That Funny Feeling

Rating:
Summary: A Movie That Continues To Entertain Generations...
Review: "That Funny Feeling," starring Sandra Dee & Bobby Darin, is a wonderfully entertaining movie. The plot of the movie is about a struggling actress (Dee) who is embarrassed of where her and her room-mate live, so instead of allowing the man (Darin),who claims to be an interior decorator, she keeps running into to take her home, she takes him to the apartment that she cleans daily, because she is under the impression that the owner will be out of town for a week, not knowing that the man she met was the owner!
The movie is filled with comedy(!), especially Donald O'Connor as Bobby Darin's neurotic boss/best friend. Nita Talbot also stars as Sandra Dee's room-mate. After 39 years since it's theatrical release and of never being released on VHS, "That Funny Feeling" is finally coming to DVD. It was worth the wait.

Rating:
Summary: A Movie That Continues To Entertain Generations...
Review: "That Funny Feeling," starring Sandra Dee & Bobby Darin, is a wonderfully entertaining movie. The plot of the movie is about a struggling actress (Dee) who is embarrassed of where her and her room-mate live, so instead of allowing the man (Darin),who claims to be an interior decorator, she keeps running into to take her home, she takes him to the apartment that she cleans daily, because she is under the impression that the owner will be out of town for a week, not knowing that the man she met was the owner!
The movie is filled with comedy(!), especially Donald O'Connor as Bobby Darin's neurotic boss/best friend. Nita Talbot also stars as Sandra Dee's room-mate. After 39 years since it's theatrical release and of never being released on VHS, "That Funny Feeling" is finally coming to DVD. It was worth the wait.

Rating:
Summary: Dee, Darin, martinis, 60's New York. What more can you ask?
Review: After enjoying "Beyond The Sea", Kevin Spacey's fantasy biopic about Bobby Darin, I decided to check out an actual Bobby Darin / Sandra Dee movie. Breezy, polished, and smartly humorous (at least for a Doris Day/Rock Hudson-style 60's comedy), "That Funny Feeling" is a lot of fun and well worth seeing. Interestingly, I found Sandra Dee to have much more natural movie presence and acting chops than Mr. Darin, at least in this movie. I say "interestingly" because, in Mr. Spacey's movie, Bobby Darin is portrayed as sometimes being embarrassed about dating (and later marrying) Sandra Dee instead of a "real" actress "up" to his talent level: "Warren Beatty shows up at the Oscars with Leslie Caron and I'm stuck with Gidget!". Being a big Darin fan, I know that we was nominated for a best supporting actor Oscar and he was no slouch in the acting department himself, but I think he probably should have had a bit more appreciation for the talent needed to bring off a successful light and breezy comic acting style, too. In any event, this is an enjoyable romp with lots of great lines and wonderful supporting performances. And take a second to notice Albert Whitlock's beautiful backdrops of the New York City skyline. Lushly romantic, the backdrops make you glad they actually filmed the movie on a California studio backlot, because it created the need for Mr. Whitlock's excellent background matte work to place us in 60's New York. Those artful backdrops help set the romantic tone of the film better than the actual skyline ever could!

Rating:
Summary: More Fun with Darrin and Dee
Review: Another fun-filled Darrin and Dee comedy (see When a Man Answers)makes for en anjoyable couple of hours. Nita Talbot provides great suport as Dee's roomie. If you like the DOris and Rock films, add these to your list.

Rating:
Summary: "A man in love is a man insane!"
Review: Having never seen a Sandra Dee-Bobby Darin flick before, I recently rented "That Funny Feeling" (along with "When A Man Answers...") and watched it with no particular expectations. And came away with new appreciation for Doris Day and Rock Hudson.

Darin plays a city playboy (with undefined ties to the art world) who dates one woman after another and throws degenerate parties at his swanky flat. Dee is his maid, and although she's never seen him, she quite rightly assumes he's a drunken skirtchaser from the state of his apartment. After running into Darin by accident several times, Dee goes out with him, but instead of bringing him back to her tiny home she instead has him drop her off at his own apartment, not realizing that it's his. Get it?

From there it's pretty much your typical 60's romantic comedy, with misunderstandings and mistaken identities and everybody lying to everybody and the bewildered cops trying to figure out what the heck is going on at this apartment. The film was clearing trying to capture the success of the Hudson-Day films, but although the script itself is genuinely funny (I especially love Dee's elaborate revenge on Darin toward the end of the film), the direction and pacing is flat and Dee and Darin have no real chemistry on-screen (although apparently a lot off screen).

All things considered, "That Funny Feeling" is okay, not great but not bad, with a few good jokes and some fun elements (like the always welcome Donald O'Conner, filling in the Tony Randall role), and you might want to rent it if you like Dee or the 60's or Dee in 60's dresses. Enjoy!

GRADE: C+/B-

Rating:
Summary: Peppy and Bright
Review: One of these days director Richard Thorpe will get the kind of sustained critical attention given routinely to his contemporaries, Howard Hawks and John Ford. Thorpe directed and wrote literally scores of silent westerns, moved on to a dozen saucy pre-Code sex comedies, and then moved into a comfortable berth as one of the top MGM directors. He made everything from NIGHT MUST FALL to THE GREAT CARUSO to IVANHOE. Even Burt Lancaster's first Western was directed by this old pro-VENGEANCE VALLEY, in 1951. At the same time, he was adept at romance and musical comedy. Elvis made a couple of his best pictures in tandem with Thorpe-JAILHOUSE ROCK and FUN IN ACAPULCO,

The "Thorpedo," as the fans called him, was nearly 70 when Universal assigned him to work on THAT FUNNY FEELING, with their endearing screen team, talented Bobby Darin and ditsy Sandra Dee (here exceedingly neurotic and cute, like a mod version of Margaret Sullavan). Now on DVD, THAT FUNNY FEELING shows Thorpe at his best, the assured pacing, the canny use of talented backup players-in this case, Donald O'Connor and Nita Talbot most prominently, and the robust sense of color that never failed him. Dee and Darin have never been better, and the whole movie has the freshness of a Lubitsch cocktail. Hail to Richard Thorpe! When the cinema lost him, it lost one of the greats.


Rating:
Summary: A sparkling romp!
Review: Universal clearly was looking for the next Doris Day-Rock Hudson pairing when they cast Sandra Dee and Bobby Darin in this delightful, featherweight bedroom comedy. Of course, neither has the talent or charisma of Day and Hudson, but a witty script, terrific supporting cast, and nice production values make THIS FUNNY FEELING a winner! Sandra Dee is more at ease before the camera than is Darin, but that's okay because Darin pulls it off and also provides the film's jaunty score. For delightful fun, THIS FUNNY FEELING delivers!