Lively, entertaining reviews of, and essays on, old and newer films and everything relating to them, written by professional author William Schoell.

Thursday, October 16, 2014

DIARY OF A BACHELOR

DIARY OF A BACHELOR (1964). Director: Sandy Howard. Screenplay by Freddie Francis writing as Ken Barnett.

Skip (William Traylor) is about to end his long, happy bachelorhood with Joanna (Dagne Crane). Joanne is already jealous enough when she decides to poke into Skip's diary, which collects his romantic misadventures, some of which are illustrated by scenes in the movie. There's the pretty blond call girl, Barbara (Susan Dean); the let's-just-keep-it- simple Nancy (Joan Holloway); the kooky Lois (Arlene Golonka) with the angry boyfriend; southern Jennifer (Jan Crockett), whom he keeps giving excuses to; and relatively plain Angie (Eleni Kiamos), whom he meets in a bar. Then Skip hits a week-long dry spell and is afraid he's losing his touch ... The big surprise about this very American independent production is that it was scripted by the veddy British Freddie Francis, director of numerous English horror flicks [The Creeping Flesh; Craze]. Traylor isn't bad in the lead but he lacks that exquisite comedic ability of, say, Lemmon or Grant. The ladies are all pretty good, including the uncredited actress who plays Thelma, the cleaning lady in the office. Dom DeLuise plays one of Skip's card buddies, and Joe Silver scores as his homely if more sensitive friend, Charlie. There's some good writing in the movie and way too much narration by Skip/Traylor. Pretty cheap production and some frank talk.

Verdict: Nothing that shocking in this diary. **1/2.

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