Playing his first comedy in "Rally, 'Round the Flag, Boys!" Newman was in the expert hands of Leo McCarey, who had directed Laurel and Hardy, W.C. Fields and the Marx Brothers
The Newmans are hard1y in that class, and the film is one of McCarey's lesser efforts, but it's often a refreshing reminder of thirties screwball farce as well as a frequently incisive satire on suburban life
Newman is a typical Connecticut commuter with a good job in Manhattan, whose wife (Woodward) spends all her time in community affairs, leaving him frustrated, and whose two sons are so hypnotized by television they hard1y notice himso he escapes with alcohol and daydreams
When the Army schedules a top secret base for their town, the couple are on opposing sides: she heads the protest committee; he, a reserve officer, is "drafted" as public relations man to win over the town Their marriage really goes downhill when she catches him in a compromising (but innocent) situation with a sexy neighbor (Joan Collins).
Newman is often charming, but generally, in a role Jack Lemmon would have walked through, he overacts outrageously, trying so hard to be funny
Truly, some of the gags situations are forced, as when the drunken Newman and Collins dance the Cha Cha, swing on chandeliers, and fall down stairs; or when Newman is caught, literally with his pants down, turning away the predatory Collins and trying to explain to the outraged Woodward But even Rock Hudson and Doris Day would have made something of these scenes The Newmans are reduced to grimacing, exaggerated gestures and extreme over-reactions
The Newmans were still young, but they played such older-generation types that a teenaged couple (Dwayne Hickman and Tuesday Weld) were added for the younger audience
Incredibly, Hickman, who does an inventive caricature of an American teenager, plays it as Marlon Brando! Imitating Brando's "Wild One" performance, he mumbles, stutters, and ambles about with the familiar anguished look
The Newmans are hard1y in that class, and the film is one of McCarey's lesser efforts, but it's often a refreshing reminder of thirties screwball farce as well as a frequently incisive satire on suburban life
Newman is a typical Connecticut commuter with a good job in Manhattan, whose wife (Woodward) spends all her time in community affairs, leaving him frustrated, and whose two sons are so hypnotized by television they hard1y notice himso he escapes with alcohol and daydreams
When the Army schedules a top secret base for their town, the couple are on opposing sides: she heads the protest committee; he, a reserve officer, is "drafted" as public relations man to win over the town Their marriage really goes downhill when she catches him in a compromising (but innocent) situation with a sexy neighbor (Joan Collins).
Newman is often charming, but generally, in a role Jack Lemmon would have walked through, he overacts outrageously, trying so hard to be funny
Truly, some of the gags situations are forced, as when the drunken Newman and Collins dance the Cha Cha, swing on chandeliers, and fall down stairs; or when Newman is caught, literally with his pants down, turning away the predatory Collins and trying to explain to the outraged Woodward But even Rock Hudson and Doris Day would have made something of these scenes The Newmans are reduced to grimacing, exaggerated gestures and extreme over-reactions
The Newmans were still young, but they played such older-generation types that a teenaged couple (Dwayne Hickman and Tuesday Weld) were added for the younger audience
Incredibly, Hickman, who does an inventive caricature of an American teenager, plays it as Marlon Brando! Imitating Brando's "Wild One" performance, he mumbles, stutters, and ambles about with the familiar anguished look