Sunday In New York (film)
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''Sunday in New York'' is a 1963 American
romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...
film directed by
Peter Tewksbury Henry Peter Tewksbury (March 21, 1923 – February 20, 2003) was an American film and television director. Biography Born in Cleveland, he attended Dartmouth College but left to serve as a US Army captain in the Pacific during WWII. Follow ...
and starring Jane Fonda, Rod Taylor and
Cliff Robertson Clifford Parker Robertson III (September 9, 1923 – September 10, 2011) was an American actor whose career in film and television spanned over six decades. Robertson portrayed a young John F. Kennedy in the 1963 film '' PT 109'', and won the 19 ...
. Filmed in
Metrocolor Metrocolor is the trade name used by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) for films processed at their laboratory. Virtually all of these films were shot on Kodak's Eastmancolor film. Although MGM used Kodak film products, MGM did not use all of Kodak's proc ...
, its screenplay was written by
Norman Krasna Norman Krasna (November 7, 1909 – November 1, 1984) was an American screenwriter, playwright, producer, and film director who penned screwball comedies centered on a case of mistaken identity. Krasna directed three films during a forty-year ca ...
on the basis of his own 1961 play, ''Sunday in New York''. The score was composed and recorded by
Peter Nero Peter Nero (born Bernard Nierow, May 22, 1934) is an American pianist and pops conductor. He directed the Philly Pops from 1979 to 2013, and has earned two Grammy Awards. Early life Born in Brooklyn, New York, as Bernard Nierow, he started ...
, who also appears as himself performing in a nightclub; Mel Tormé sang the title song.


Plot

Eileen Tyler ( Jane Fonda), a 22-year-old music critic for the upstate New York ''
Albany Times Union The ''Times Union'' is an American daily newspaper, serving the Capital Region of New York. Although the newspaper focuses on Albany and its suburbs, it covers all parts of the four-county area, including the cities of Troy, Schenectady and Sa ...
'', is suffering from her breakup with Russ Wilson (
Robert Culp Robert Martin Culp (August 16, 1930 – March 24, 2010) was an American actor widely known for his work in television. Culp earned an international reputation for his role as Kelly Robinson on ''I Spy'' (1965–1968), the espionage television se ...
) - a handsome, athletic, and thoroughly self-absorbed scion of that city's richest family. Seeking advice on the premarital sex she has refused him, she appears unannounced at the chic
Upper East Side The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 96th Street to the north, the East River to the east, 59th Street to the south, and Central Park/Fifth Avenue to the wes ...
loft apartment of her elder brother Adam (Robertson), an airline pilot. Eileen confides to him that she thinks she may be the only 22-year-old virgin left in the world. Adam assures her that men want women who preserve their virtue, and, at her insistence, swears he hasn't slept around. An anxiously anticipated ''rendezvous'' with his occasional girlfriend Mona Harris (
Jo Morrow Beverly Jo Morrow (born November 1, 1939) is an American actress who played the female lead in six B films between 1958 and 1964, and supporting roles in four major studio features, as well as appearing in 12 television episodes. Following a six- ...
), scuttled by Eileen's arrival, lets the audience know otherwise. Shut out of his own apartment, Adam gamely tries to find a place for a tryst with Mona, ginning a cover story for Eileen that the pair are going skating at
Rockefeller Center Rockefeller Center is a large complex consisting of 19 commercial buildings covering between 48th Street and 51st Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The 14 original Art Deco buildings, commissioned by the Rockefeller family, span th ...
. Some time after their departure Adam's boss rings up, desperate to locate an "on-call" pilot. Anxious to deliver the message to her brother, Eileen heads for the skating rink, only to begin a series of misadventures with a visiting
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
music critic, Mike Mitchell ( Rod Taylor). These eventually lead the pair back to Adam's apartment to dry out rain-soaked clothes together. Scotch and some double-messaging from Eileen result in an outlandish attempt on her part to seduce a bewildered but ultimately game Mike...until he discovers she's a virgin. Invoking an unspoken code of honor among sexually active males, he refuses to take hers, much to Eileen's disorientation and annoyance. After cooling off, the bumptious and still semi-clad pair begin to calmly talk things through, only to be ambushed by the unannounced arrival of an obnoxiously giddy and hellfire marriage-bent Russ. Desperate to avoid being incriminated for something worse than had actually occurred, the pair pretends Mike is Adam, a ruse that comes off smoothly until Adam himself appears in his own doorway. A modest farce devolves into a broad one, with an irritated Adam only scarcely willing to play his unwelcome part. Socked by him for even having tried to make love to his sister, Mike attempts an orderly retreat to Philadelphia while the ruse still holds, only to end up socked later outside the apartment by Russ after Eileen tried and failed to make a clean breast of things with her by then fiance. Soaked again, and Adam called away to fly, Mike ends up seeking dry refuge in Adam's apartment - once more initially all on the up-and-up. He and Eileen retire separately. After believing he has locked her in the bedroom and literally thrown the key out the window, Mike confesses his love through the door. Met with dead silence, he retreats downstairs, only to have Eileen, who had meanwhile innocently slipped there, run into his arms. A voiceover then informs the audience that Eileen ended up married and living happily in
Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...
with Mike, bearing the adoring couple three lovely daughters.


Cast

* Jane Fonda as Eileen Tyler * Rod Taylor as Mike Mitchell *
Cliff Robertson Clifford Parker Robertson III (September 9, 1923 – September 10, 2011) was an American actor whose career in film and television spanned over six decades. Robertson portrayed a young John F. Kennedy in the 1963 film '' PT 109'', and won the 19 ...
as Adam Tyler *
Robert Culp Robert Martin Culp (August 16, 1930 – March 24, 2010) was an American actor widely known for his work in television. Culp earned an international reputation for his role as Kelly Robinson on ''I Spy'' (1965–1968), the espionage television se ...
as Russ Wilson *
Jo Morrow Beverly Jo Morrow (born November 1, 1939) is an American actress who played the female lead in six B films between 1958 and 1964, and supporting roles in four major studio features, as well as appearing in 12 television episodes. Following a six- ...
as Mona Harris *
Jim Backus James Gilmore Backus (February 25, 1913 – July 3, 1989) was an American actor. Among his most famous roles were Thurston Howell III on the 1960s sitcom ''Gilligan's Island,'' the father of James Dean's character in '' Rebel Without a Cause, ...
as Chief Pilot Drysdale *
Peter Nero Peter Nero (born Bernard Nierow, May 22, 1934) is an American pianist and pops conductor. He directed the Philly Pops from 1979 to 2013, and has earned two Grammy Awards. Early life Born in Brooklyn, New York, as Bernard Nierow, he started ...
as himself


Production

The play was seen on Broadway by
Eliot Hyman Eliot Hyman (1904–1980) was an American film executive who helped co-found Seven Arts Productions. Biography Hyman entered the film production business in 1948, when he co-founded Associated Artists. He became the sole owner of Associated Ar ...
and
Ray Stark Raymond Otto Stark (October 3, 1915 – January 17, 2004) was one of the most successful and prolific independent film producers in postwar Hollywood. Stark's background as a literary and theatrical agent prepared him to produce some of the most ...
of
Seven Arts Productions Seven Arts Productions was a production company which made films for release by other studios. It was founded in 1957 by Eliot Hyman, Ray Stark, and Norman Katz. History Seven Arts' first film was '' The Gun Runners'', released by United ...
who "thought it would make a good movie," according to Stark. Other companies were interested in film rights but Stark called Krasna direct in Switzerland and did the deal. The rights cost $150,000 plus a percentage of the gross. The film was a part of a multi-picture deal between Seven Arts and
MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...
. Lead roles originally were offered to
Natalie Wood Natalie Wood ( Zacharenko; July 20, 1938 – November 29, 1981) was an American actress who began her career in film as a child and successfully transitioned to young adult roles. Wood started acting at age four and was given a co-starring r ...
and
Warren Beatty Henry Warren Beatty (né Beaty; born March 30, 1937) is an American actor and filmmaker, whose career spans over six decades. He was nominated for 15 Academy Awards, including four for Best Actor, four for Best Picture, two for Best Director, ...
, who turned them down. Peter Tewksbury, better known for his work in TV, signed to direct. Robert Redford auditioned to repeat his stage role but says his reading "did not go well for me" and he was not cast. Jane Fonda agreed to be in the film for a fee of $100,000 (). She later said "the girl I play is an absolute bore. She talks so much about her virginity; and you know the more she talks about it the more it's on her mind. I mean, for God's sake let her make her mind up one way or the other and stop all that talking." Filming took place in the spring of 1963 on location in New York and on the MGM backlot in Los Angeles, with Adam's address given as 120 E. 65th Street. Rod Taylor later said he and Fonda "got on like a couple of lovely kids" adding the film "seemed like a labor of love to her... twas a wonderful, frothy time."


Reception


Critical

In a review of the playwright's "frank screen version" of the play,
Bosley Crowther Francis Bosley Crowther Jr. (July 13, 1905 – March 7, 1981) was an American journalist, writer, and film critic for ''The New York Times'' for 27 years. His work helped shape the careers of many actors, directors and screenwriters, though his ...
characterized the film as another in a series of films that dwelled on a subject first brought to the screen ten years earlier in ''
The Moon Is Blue ''The Moon Is Blue'' is a play by F. Hugh Herbert. A comedy in three acts, the play consists of one female and three male characters. Performance history ''The Moon Is Blue'' premiered at The Playhouse in Wilmington, Delaware on February 16, 1 ...
'': "There once was a time when the candor of Mr. Krasna's mildly popular Broadway play about an Albany girl who struggles bravely with the problem of her virtue during a rainy afternoon in New York might have caused the
Production Code The Motion Picture Production Code was a set of industry guidelines for the self-censorship of content that was applied to most motion pictures released by major studios in the United States from 1934 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the ...
people a moment or two of anxious pause. They might then have thought it a bit too racy for youthful and innocent ears". On the film itself, Crowther said "the extent of the film's disconcertion and delight for a viewer will depend upon how prone one may be to a juvenile quandary and to the nimble performing of a pleasant cast. The twists of the plot are downright hackneyed—the confusions of opening the wrong doors, mistaking people and getting caught in '' dishabille''. But the actors are all attractive, and so long as one can go along with them in their valiant attempts at pretending this is hot stuff, one may have a good time." According to ''
Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
'' magazine, "''Sunday in New York'' is another brightly salacious Hollywood comedy about the way of a man with a maid who just may. 'This motion picture,' leers an announcement flashed on the screen as a teaser, 'is dedicated to the proposition that every girl gets...sooner or later.' As usual, winking wickedness turns out to be mostly eyewash, but the plot—more to be pitied than censored—gets a buoyant lift from stars Jane Fonda, Cliff Robertson and Rod Taylor. All three abandon themselves to the film version of Norman Krasna's trite Broadway farce with disarming faith, as though one more glossy, glittering package of pseudo sex might save the world." Underestimating the power of nostalgia, both for the City and simpler times, Jane Fonda reflected in 2018 that she was "surprised how many people say they love ''Sunday in New York.''. Why?"


Box Office

The film broke even for the studio in North America by earning $2 million in rentals.


See also

* List of American films of 1963


References


Notes

* * *


External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sunday in New York 1963 films 1963 directorial debut films 1963 romantic comedy films 1960s sex comedy films American films based on plays American romantic comedy films American sex comedy films 1960s English-language films Films about virginity Films directed by Peter Tewksbury Films set in New York City Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films 1960s American films