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Swank Film Classics. SUNDAY IN NEW YORKReleased November 13, 1963Stars Rod Taylor, Jane Fonda, Cliff Robertson, Robert Culp, Jim Backus, and Jo Morrow Gothamites seemed to have always lived for their Sunday afternoons. After a Saturday night on the town, there’s a brunch to be had, The Times to be read, and a stroll to be taken. Eventually, they end up at museums or department stores - anyplace that can be passed off as idly constructive - or sometimes they duck out of thunderstorms and into cozy apartments; this is where trouble usually begins. And so it does for Eileen Tyler and Mike Mitchell (Fonda and Taylor), strangers who find themselves drying off in uptown digs. Fed up with her boyfriend’s demands for sex, the inexperienced Eileen had that morning stolen away from him and Albany by showing up on brother Adam’s Manhattan doorstep. Unfortunately for airline pilot Adam, his own girlfriend was already on her way over with bagels, lox, and a Sunday morning libido. Yet, to save face and salvage the day, he and the galpal step out to find another suitable love nest. Out on Fifth Avenue, Tyler and Mitchell meet by literally getting themselves tangled up on a bus, and by mid-afternoon, Robert Culp appears as the suddenly lovestruck boyfriend who barges into the apartment to find them in robes. There’s a mistaken identity, scattered clothes are quickly collected, and the Peter Nero score swings throughout. The number of pairings that have actually worked in the history of the Hollywood romantic comedy is certainly a lot fewer than the public wishes to believe. Even in the Rock Hudson/Doris Day vehicles, remembered more for their chemistry rather than comedy, it’s never made clear as to why these two characters fall in love. Do they share the same aspirations? have the same philosophy? Rarely does the romantic comedy script delve into the psyche of the characters – pacing and time constraint simply preclude it - and it’s for this reason there’s a preponderance of genre-specific criticisms that cry ‘no spark.’ This, however, is usually an unfair criticism of the actors’ talents, and the blame needs to be shifted to the entire premise of the genre itself. Volition is the power plant of every actor, so how can actors generate sparks when their characters have no volition? Thus, Fonda and Taylor work together about as well in Sunday in New York as any other duo has worked in 99% of the romantic comedies that have ever been made. They hit their marks and say their lines; for some unknown reason, their characters fall in love. The audience needs to accept that and move on, and once it does, it will find that Sunday in New York is a very enjoyable picture. Amongst the cast, Cliff Robertson stands out as the alternatively frustrated, seething, and confused brother, and though they share perhaps all of fifteen minutes screen time, the real chemistry is between Robertson and Taylor, for Taylor suddenly comes to life when he has to cover his tracks before Robertson. Volition will do that for an actor. Adobe Flash Player not installed or older than 9.0.115!  Shot on location, Sunday in New York might prove to be a difficult viewing for nostalgic New Yorkers as the hour-forty-five film is a mournful reminder of a city once sharp inhabited by denizens once sharper. Rockefeller Center and the skating rink seem pristine in the crisp early spring of 1963, and Central Park is remarkably devoid of bare-chested men in cargo shorts. As for Adam Tyler’s apartment, veteran set decorators Henry Grace and George R. Nelson created a living space that is both unbearably swank and cozy. Usual to the romantic comedies of the era is the high-rise, terraced, dimly lit, absolutely-perfect-down-to-the-molding bachelor pads occupied by the likes of Dean Martin in the Matt Helm series, but Tyler’s apartment, with its exposed radiators and 19th century (rather than mid-century Kiva) fireplace, is a creative mix of Danish modern and New York realism. Sure, front and center is the iconic Eames 670/671 chair and ottoman, and there’s a circular staircase that leads up to a bedroom loft, but instead of the photogenic colored walls and cabinets, we get the realistic off-white that’s very common to New York real estate. The decorators also thought to add a fair amount of clutter to Adam’s apartment, so along the brick wall there is a desk fraught with papers, maps, and pilot paraphernalia, and there are far too many mugs and cups hanging behind the bar. This all makes Tyler’s apartment look lived-in and real, which in turn makes Eileen’s slinking about the sofa real. We therefore identify with Mike Mitchell far more than we do with Matt Helm or any other character to occupy a push-button bachelor pad, for the latter space connotes mechanical sex (after it’s over the girl leaves or gets shot), while Tyler’s apartment connotes a very real and 'possible-for-everyman' lazy afternoon of eating bagels, having sex, pouring a drink, having sex, jonesing for some Chinese food but settling for the other half of that bagel, having sex, and then wrapping it all up toward seven o’clock by getting stuffed into a pair of trousers and heading out to buy smokes. Certainly, as the 1963 audiences left showings of Sunday in New York, men had to be craning their heads in search of their own Eileen Tylers, their single thought being, that could happen to me right now. Not officially released on DVD, Sunday in New York can be found on several websites in DVD-R format. It occasionally airs on Turner Classics. Swank Factor:
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I enjoyed the reviews for "Sunday in New York" and "Boeing, Boeing". As a non-New Yorker I appreciated the added details about the apartment in Sunday..;the color of the walls, the heater type,etc. You may already know this,but TCM's website allows you to register a vote for these films to be released on DVD. If enough Cads and their friends vote maybe we can push up a release date. I'm Looking forward to more reviews of the essentials of Swank cinema. Cheers! Jon Sefton |
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