Verdict
Summary
A late ’60s “meet cute” romantic comedy with a lopsided and out-of-date view on sex, marriage, and parenting, Promise Her Anything is a sex farce with some wild and uncomfortably weird moments in it that wouldn’t fly these days, but it does have two very attractive leads in it who were having an affair at the time of filming, and it shows.
Plot:
A single French mom becomes the neighbor of a handsome loser whom she hires as her babysitter, leading to love.
Review:
French cutie and single mom Michelle (dancer Leslie Caron) arrives in New York City with her adorable blonde cherub toddler John Thomas (which, apparently is a joke because in England those two names put together take on a rather randy meaning), and she rents a room in an apartment complex on one of the upper floors with a window and ledge looking out onto the busy street. She meets cute with her handsome and charming neighbor Harley (Warren Beatty the year before Bonnie and Clyde changed everything), who immediately has an attraction to her, but he’s a complete loser in life: His occupation is filming nudie films for mail order catalogues, and he uses his apartment as a makeshift movie set for his smutty movies. His boss (played by Keenan Wynn) never pays him enough, and his landlord is constantly sniffing around for his back due rent. When Michelle gets hired at a pediatric clinic where the famous doctor (Bob Cummings, basically playing a variation of Dr. Spock the infamous real-life pediatrician) sees a lot of “potential” in her as a wife, she requires a babysitter to take care of John Thomas during the day. Harley takes the gig with gusto, thinking he can woo Michelle by doing so, and while he’s changing diapers and keeping the kid busy, he accidentally stumbles upon an ingenious (and very creepy) concept: Putting the cute kid in his nudie movies as a spectator! When the tops come off, the kid’s eyebrows go up! Suddenly, Harley’s mail order sex videos start selling like hot cakes, and he becomes an in-demand filmmaker, but he does this without Michelle’s consent, leading to a weird glitch when his “secret” is discovered, and she has a fit about it (understandably). But things get worse for Harley when a very big misunderstanding occurs between Michelle’s employer, who has been led to believe that not only is the toddler Harley’s, but also a baby genius! Michelle’s heartstrings have been pulled every which way as a result of Harley’s blundering attempts to win her heart, but the fact of the matter is that the handsome loser has grown to love the little kid he’s been spending tons of time with … even if he has been using the kid for his own gain.
A late ’60s “meet cute” romantic comedy with a lopsided and out-of-date view on sex, marriage, and parenting, Promise Her Anything is a sex farce with some wild and uncomfortably weird moments in it that wouldn’t fly these days, but it does have two very attractive leads in it who were having an affair at the time of filming, and it shows. Beatty is too handsome for this loser character he’s playing, and he never fits well in it the way the character is written. I see the character as being much more of a shlub – sloppy, unshaven, and completely desperate – but he’s presented as a very handsome and appealing loser, which feels wrong. Caron is super cute in the film, and she’s more or less correct, but the script by William Peter Blatty (!) never quite gives her the dimension her character requires to fully come alive. Those were the ’60s for you. A catchy theme song by Tom Jones plays a few times. From director Arthur Hiller.
Kino Lorber’s recent Blu-ray release of Promise Her Anything is out in time for this year’s Valentine’s Day. It comes in a brand new 4K scan of the 35mm original camera negative. There’s a new audio commentary by a film historian. The sleeve is two-sided.
