much, much less than the sum of its parts It's so hard to give this film a bad review, and that's not just because I'm countering so many good reviews here. After all, there are many good things about this movie. The technicolor is beautiful, as is Natalie Wood; the costumes (by Edith Head) are fabulously exquisite; the score (by Henry Mancini) is magnificent; the bar fight, fencing, and pie fight choreography is not to be missed; it's perfectly clean, harmless fun, as many have pointed out; and, it features a great director and great actors. I am a fan of Tony Curtis's work, Peter Falk's work, Vivian Vance's work, and especially Blake Edwards's and Jack Lemmon's work. They have all done better than this movie.
As I said, the style is great - but the substance leaves a lot to be desired. All the characters are one-dimensional stereotypes: Curtis, the perfect prettyboy; Lemmon, the wacky villain who always gets it; Wood, the annoying feminist. There is absolutely nothing to them.
Also, the film makes a pathetic attempt at social commentary on feminism. Natalie Wood keeps preaching women's independence - yet she is hardly capable of doing ANYTHING without the help of The Great Leslie or sometimes even Professor Fate. She crosses the line from extreme feminism to manipulative insanity. And look at the other feminists in this movie - the writers seem to think that all feminists do is march around with signs saying, "We want jobs!" over and over. And over. And over. I'm all for equal rights for women, but all the feminists in this movie happen to be insufferably annoying.
I suppose I'm being too hard on the movie. After all, its tone is lighter; it doesn't TRY to get into character development or social commentary, it's just trying to be a harmless slapstick comedy. However, the movie even fails at that! You know all those Warner Bros. cartoon shorts? You know how amusing they are for the six or seven minutes they last? This movie is like a WB cartoon short, stretched out to TWO AND A HALF HOURS. Actually, I'm giving the movie TOO much credit - Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner do this same schtick much better. I have nothing against slapstick (I like silent comedies, Harpo Marx, the Pink Panther movies...) or overacting (I like Jim Carrey, Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello, and "The Producers"), but this film just isn't funny.
Wow. Now I actually feel ashamed for insulting this film. I think it's because the film is so innocently harmless. Well, if you know what to expect, you could still try this movie, and maybe you'll agree with most of the other commenters. I hope at least you like it more that I did.