daneldorado Produced right on the cusp of the sexual revolution in America, "Sunday in New York" (1963) probably stirred the libidos of many viewers. Previously, it was considered improper for young people to indulge in sex before they got married. But by 1963, with many couples challenging that taboo, the subject was due for another assessment. And it got one, in this clever and charming Peter Tewksbury romantic comedy, based on a script by Norman Krasna. Jane Fonda plays a 22-year-old virgin, Eileen. She's just lost the man of her dreams, Russ (Robert Culp) because he wanted sex before marriage and she refused. Now she's traveled from her home town of Albany to New York City, to visit her brother Adam (Cliff Robertson). Little sis wants to get big brother's views on the subject of extra-marital sex.On the 5th Avenue bus, Eileen meets Mike (Rod Taylor), and they go to get coffee together. Caught in a rainstorm, the two are drenched, and with no umbrellas and no taxis in sight, they have no choice but to repair to Adam's apartment to dry off.After some nervous conversation, Eileen decides to try and seduce Mike, if only to get the "virginity" monkey off her back. He's all for the sex, until he discovers -- at apparently the last moment -- that she is, er, a "beginner." Infuriated, Mike retreats to the safety of his bathrobe, then lectures the girl on the perils of seduction when one is a virgin. Eileen asks, logically, "Well, how is a girl supposed to learn?"Good question. But there's no time to discuss it, because just then, who should burst into the apartment but Russ, all the way from Albany to propose marriage to Eileen, whom he has decided he cannot live without. Russ has never met Eileen's brother, so seeing the two together in the apartment -- in their robes -- he assumes that Mike is Adam, and begins joshing with him and treating him like his future brother-in-law.The fun escalates when the real Adam comes home and discovers that Mike has co-opted his identity, and must now call himself "Mike" and pretend to be his own best friend.Rod Taylor is very game about his role in this film. He gets punched and knocked down by both Culp and Robertson, is drenched repeatedly in New York City's rainstorms, and is made to be Eileen's fall guy when the whole charade falls apart. Still -- SPOILERS AHEAD -- at the end Taylor's Mike gets to romance Fonda's Eileen, and the film appears headed for a happy ending.But Mike had to go through hell before he finds his heaven, in the arms of Eileen.Cheers, Dan Navarro [email protected]

bob-790-196018 You have to make allowances for its time. What was "naughty" in 1963 is mild stuff today. Given that, it's a fun movie, thanks to a clever story, a first-rate cast, and a couple of nice songs.Cliff Robertson shows real comic timing, with Rod Taylor something of a straight man. Taylor is, as usual, a likable fellow--quite masculine but perfectly willing in this part to let himself be socked in the face a couple of times, splashed by passing trucks, and subjected to the baleful eye of Robertson as the protective big brother. Jane Fonda is just right as a young woman both virginal and luscious.The film has many ingredients hinting at the sophistication of the Kennedy era--the sophisticated bachelor apartment, Peter Nero's night club music, and especially New York as a really great place to be when you are young enough and accomplished enough to enjoy it. New York as a city infested with crime and on the verge of bankruptcy was a dozen years in the future.One notices the easy confidence of the male characters. Much would change, starting soon after the picture was made with JFK's assassination and followed by years of turmoil and grief, as well as rapid progress for women and, at least politically, for blacks. White males would never again rule the roost unchallenged.

Scaramouche2004 Sunday New York is part romcom, part French Bedroom farce with the entire action taking place in just one day and the entire story being built around just four characters.Virginal Jane Fonda has run off to New York for the weekend, desperate to forget her failed engagement to a man who had piled on the pressures for her to go to bed with him. Half glad she had resisted and half sorry that she remains Virgo intacticus, she has reached a stage in her life where shes not to sure what she should do in regards to her sexual awareness.Rod Taylor is smooth talking journalist who is visiting New York for the day hoping to meet up with a hot date and to not put too finer point on it, get his leg over.Cliff Robertson plays Fondas hypocritical elder brother, who despite being virtuous and saintly on the subject of sex before marriage when providing advice and assurances to his sexually frustrated sister, is quite happy to conduct his own active sex life.Robert Culp is the spurned fiancé arriving in New York to reclaim Fonda as his future wife and to make amends for all his transgressions.When Fonda and Taylor meet on a crowded bus, they soon become pally enough to adjourn to her apartment after being soaked in the rain. When the talk turns to sex, Fonda ready to take the plunge just to get the moment over with and Taylor, purely for his own sexual fulfilment decide to give it a go.However when he discovers that this will be her first time, he decides against it, saying that it would be too much of a responsibility to take her virginity and that she should be having first time sex with a man whom she hadn't just met on a bus only an hour or so before.When clad in bathrobes, her fiancé decides to arrive on his surprise visit he naturally assumes that Taylor is her brother, and to avoid a good hearty smack in the mouth from Mr. Muscle and to avoid scotching Fonda's chance at future happiness, Taylor plays along.What happens then when the real brother arrives on the scene, and just how far can this deception expand and spiral until discovery becomes inevitable? Like many films of the era such as That Touch of Mink, Lover Come Back and the like, Sunday in New York deals with adult sexual subjects in a non offensive and dare I say family movie environment.It is entertaining, funny and enjoyable and although not the most well known of the 60's sex comedies it will certainly be able to hold it's own against its contemporaries.Although the four leads do exceptionally well and there is not a weak performance in the entire film, I'm sure if this project had landed in the laps of Doris Day, Cary Grant, Rock Hudson or James Garner it's popularity would have endured a lot more.

moonspinner55 Because "nobody wants a beginner", Jane Fonda is a 22-year-old girl who just can't get rid of her darned virginity. While visiting her airline pilot brother, Fonda brings back a man to the apartment and attempts to seduce him by letting her hair down and chugging a glass of scotch and water. Up to this point, "Sunday In New York", adapted by Norman Krasna from his own play, is a fairly frothy sex-comedy about the process of putting sex off. But when Fonda's hometown semi-boyfriend drops in unexpectedly (and without even knocking!), and Fonda has to juggle everyone's identities, the picture becomes a labored, winking affair aimed at conservative audiences of the early '60s. ** from ****