Warner Bros. Archive | 1963 | 105 mins. | NR
Released in 1963, Sunday in New York is the kind of lukewarm sex comedy only that era could produce. Eileen, played by a young Jane Fonda, is a virgin from Albany annoyed by the fact that all her suitor’s end up trying to take her to bed. Afraid that her relationship with a handsome heir to a big fortune (Robert Culp) will end due to her inexperience, she travels to New York to get some advice from her big brother. Adam (Cliff Robertson) an airline pilot and ladies and ladies man. Wanting to be the model big brother, he keeps his ladies man status a secret from Eileen.
Almost as soon as she arrives, Eileen asks Adam a rather blunt question: is it expected of a woman to go to bed with a man after a certain amount of time, even if she isn’t married to him? Startled, Adam informs her that no decent woman should ever feel the need to go bed with a man before marriage. Though he’s on call at work, his sister’s visit has interfered with his plans to meet Mona (Jo Morrow), a “friend with benefits.” With Eileen in the apartment, the couple is forced to seek another bedroom in which to pitch woo. When that call from the airline comes in, Eileen goes in search of her brother so he won’t lose his job. On the bus to Rockefeller Center (Adam and Mona claim to be going ice skating), Eileen runs into Mike (Rod Taylor), a writer in the city for the day to chase girls. He flirts with Eileen; she blows him off, only to have him find her again. Believing its fate, Eileen surrenders to Mike’s charms, only to have him back away upon discovering she’s a “vi–beginner” (that’s the word they use for virgin, this is 1963). As the two have an argument over morality, Eileen’s heir boyfriend appears and asks her to marry him. Her would-be fiancée simply assumes the man in the bathrobe is her brother and since no other story comes to mind, the surprised pair run with that story. But then of course, the real Adam comes home for real.
Sunday in New York is real a bubblegum farce. Tame now, it had some pretty risqué elements in 1963. The fact that Eileen was brave enough to admit she wanted to explore her womanhood without losing her marriagability was notable. The film was written by Norman Krasna, who also wrote the Cary Grant/Ingrid Bergman romantic comedy Indiscreet and White Christmas. The director, Peter Tewksbury, who helmed several episodes of Father Knows Best and My Three Sons, would go on to guide Elvis Presley through The Trouble With Girls.
While Sunday in New York would be categorized as farce, there aren’t as many laughs as one might expect. Not overly memorable, the film is probably best reserved for those Jane Fonda fans who wish to see her in one of her earliest roles. She truly is an ingénue here.
Sunday in New York is part of the Warner Bros. Archives, and so it comes as a burn-on-demand blue-backed disc. Though it is billed as a “remastered edition,” the picture quality is isn’t great. The colors have a nice pastel look, but there is a lot of digital noise, making for a hazy image surface. There is also a lot of scratches on the source material. It’s not terrible, it’s totally clear and watchable, just don’t expect pristine quality.
The original soundtrack is mixed in mono, and it’s got a lot of tinny qualities. The soundtrack by Peter Nero, in particular, leans toward the metallic. Dialogue is clear and there are no dropouts.
There are no special features other than the original theatrical trailer.
Sunday in New York is available now via Warner Bros. Archive.
