Smartorhypo
Highly Overrated But Still Good
Inadvands
Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess
Ezmae Chang
This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
Sarita Rafferty
There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.
Lee Eisenberg
OK, so Henry Levin's "If a Man Answers" has a dated depiction of relations between men and women. But there was a scene early in the movie that informs us of a continuing problem: parents' excessive insistence that their children get married or do whatever. Does the older generation not realize that sometimes the younger one needs to take the time to figure out where it wants to go? There's a reason why large numbers of millennials are still single. Sandra Dee's earlier movie "A Summer Place" also looked at tension between the generations: she and Troy Donahue are in love, but their cold, spiteful, bigoted parents won't hear of it.Like most of Sandra Dee's movies, this one is real eye candy. Enjoyable eye candy, I should say. The movie even goes so far as to mention sex education (much like how "A Summer Place" used the word sex). It's a safe bet that anyone who scorns it would praise it if it starred the overrated Doris Day. Dee - anorexic for much of her young adulthood due to her treatment by the studio execs - finally got the respect that she deserved when the Castro Theater in San Francisco hosted a retrospective of her movies, and she attended as guest of honor.
LarryBrownHouston
This movie didn't work for me on any level. The script is blatantly silly, corny, and contrived, with no pretensions of any kind of realism. Because of that you can't take it as a drama, and it's not funny enough for a comedy, so it's just amusing silliness. The overtly contrived, corny ending was just way too silly. Overall, this style of movie is over the top and therefore distasteful. It features explicit sexual references, a refreshing change from the Doris Day style goodie-goodie veneer that's really all sexual innuendo, but still falls flat having long since lost any shock value. Darin doesn't come across well, he just has no sizzle. Dee doesn't appeal to me, neither as cute, beautiful, funny, charming, nor talented. I like the wardrobe and the tiny waist. The chemistry between them didn't work for me. I didn't feel that they really liked or loved each other. Partly that's because of the ludicrous script and situations. The mom might have been OK but I couldn't get over the lame, almost not even there French accent. The script is crude, using obviously contrived devices to move so effortless among the plot points. They fall in love, marry, argue, and connive with the silliest motivations. The foghorn was ineffective and incomprehensible. Even on repeated play of the cartoon opening and pausing it to study and discuss it, I still feel that the meaning of the foghorn was not obvious enough. It might have been OK for then, but it's only good for nostalgia now.
Neal99
Films from earlier times reflect values that are contemporary to the makers this is a given of artistic evaluation. But it is hard to believe that people of the early 1960s were as sexist, stupid and shallow as this film portrays them. No wonder some people don't like old movies! Sandra Dee plays a young woman who takes her mother's bizarre, manipulative 'advice' and quickly lands a husband, played by Dee's real-life spouse Bobby Darin. The plot revolves around such infantile ploys as inventing a lover to make your spouse jealous, using a dog-training manual as a guide to 'train' your spouse and interfering in the marriage of your adult child. The only thing to be said in favor of this film is that it is definitely glossy in typical Ross Hunter style beautiful, glamorous people in gorgeous clothes and picture-perfect settings. Otherwise, it is useful only as an example of how not to live one's life!
bizatchgirl
It has been long in coming but the movie is now out on DVD. I had found it before on VHS on ebay but it was going for $15 +. It looks like it's about $12 on DVD! I was lucky enough to have this recommended by a friend and watched her copy. I have looked through movie stores and even had one of the video rental stores order something with a similar title that turned out to be a B horror flick. Luckily they just put it on the shelf and didn't make me buy it. I can't wait to get the DVD and watch it again. I'm sure I've forgotten just how funny it is since I haven't seen it in about 8 years. They just don't make movies like this anymore. Sweet, wholesome fun.