If a Man Answers (1962)

Film: If a Man Answers (1962)

Stars: Sandra Dee, Bobby Darin, Micheline Presle, John Lund, Cesar Romero

Director: Henry Levin

Oscar History: The film was nominated for Best Picture-Comedy and Best Supporting Actor (Romero) at the Globes...this was in a time when the HFPA was much less predictive than it is now, so take its "almost got nominated for an Oscar" status with a huge pillar of salt, but worth noting

Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2024 Saturdays with the Stars series, we are looking at the women who were once crowned as "America's Sweethearts" and the careers that inspired that title (and what happened when they eventually lost it to a new generation).  This month, our focus is on Sandra Dee: click here to learn more about Ms. Dee (and why I picked her), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

We've seen so far this season that much of the "America's Sweetheart" angle of fame comes not just from the movies or this "girl next door" angle but also from romance.  Mary Pickford had Douglas Fairbanks, Debbie Reynolds had Eddie Fisher, June Allyson had Dick Powell...you'll see the further we get in during our last four months how this is an omnipresent aspect of the trope, because we want to see the "Sweetheart" end up with her dream guy on-and-off-screen.  For Sandra Dee, that prince charming was Bobby Darin.  Married from 1960 to 1967, which coincided pretty much perfectly with the peak of Dee's fame, they were one of the major It Couples of the 1960's, though their marriage was tough on Dee.  Darin has been in love with actress Connie Francis right before the wedding (Francis literally found out about it on the radio-Darin hadn't bothered to call her-and confessed later that it made her suicidal), and Dee would later say about her marriage that Darin was a "conniving SOB."  But at the time, the partnership was a tabloid sensation & brought both success-Darin would record four Top 10 hits during their marriage and become an Oscar nominee, and the two of them would make three films, including Come September which we covered in a past Saturdays with the Stars season when we talked about Gina Lollobrigida.  Today, we're looking at their second film, If a Man Answers.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie falls into a trope we've seen from Sandra Dee a lot this season-a beautiful young girl who doesn't really know what to do with her sexuality and the insane impact she has on men.  She at one point early on, after her father insists she get married, gets engaged to three men at once because she felt pressured from her father to find a groom, but couldn't pick between them so she said yes to all three.  She eventually settles for a photographer named Gene (Darin), but Dee's Chantal doesn't know how to navigate the complicated politics of being married, frequently worrying about him ruining her career as a model (he doesn't want his wife to be seen in skimpy outfits, even though he was happy about it before the marriage), and then about him cheating with some of the models he sees her with.  She starts taking advice from her mother (Presle), first treating him the way you'd treat a dog (which honestly works and results in some of the film's biggest laughs), and then convinces him she has a lover, who is fake, but shows up in the form of Robert Swan (Romero)...though we learn later that this is Gene's playboy father who has been mentioned but not seen the whole picture.  In the end, they find that these games are good for their marriage, and continue doing them.

The movie itself doesn't quite work, but it should.  Dee is delightful as Chantal, playing her the way you'd kind of expect Kate Hudson to, but with a bit more sweetness.  You instantly get why she was America's Sweetheart, and a powerful box office draw.  She's not a great actress, but she has beauty-and-presence, and honestly those are just as important in a movie as great acting can be.  The way she flirts, at first an accidental coquette and then eventually you realize it might all be intentional, is solid, well-timed work, and I liked her for it.

I think the problem is I didn't buy Darin as much.  It's hard not to think about what another actor of the era who was a bit more traditionally handsome (Darin's cute, he's not beautiful in the way that Dee is), and more importantly, with better comedic chops might have done here.  I've seen Darin act in other films-he's quite good in Captain Newman MD, so he's capable of more, but someone like Robert Redford would've been a better fit for the part as written.  I also want to point out that Stefanie Powers is quite good in this movie as a lusty, bratty high school friend of Chantal's who wants to bed Gene.  Powers is still alive today (and best-known for her work on the 1980's mystery TV series Hart to Hart), but in the early 1960's was one of those actresses who felt like she was almost going to break out into lead roles, playing opposite not just Sandra Dee, but also John Wayne, Glenn Ford, & Lana Turner, but never graduated to that kind of success until she moved to television.