Barefoot in the Park **** (1967, Robert Redford, Jane Fonda, Charles Boyer, Mildred Natwick) – Classic Movie Review 2381

‘Paul, I think I’m gonna be a lousy wife. But don’t be angry with me. I love you very much – and I’m very sexy!’ – Corie Bratter. Happily and delightfully, director Gene Saks’s 1967 comedy preserves the images, performances and star pairing of the young Jane Fonda and Robert Redford for ever.

Perfectly paired, they are bright eyed and bushy tailed as a newly married couple who set up home in a top-storey, five-flight Manhattan apartment without an elevator. (fictional address 49 West 10th Street). That one idea alone helps the movie provide lots of laughs among the very many in director Saks’s transfer of Neil Simon’s witty and funny Broadway hit, directed on stage by Mike Nichols, who won the Tony as Best Director.

The original Broadway production opened at the Biltmore Theatre on 23 October 1963 and ran for 1530 performances until 25 June 1967 .

Redford, re-creating his stage role, is a bit shaky with the comedy technique and it has remained not his forte, but the young Fonda sparkles. Redford plays conservative young lawyer Paul Bratter, who marries the vivacious, free-spirited Corie Bratter. They are chalk and cheese but they share a passionate relationship, which is tested to its limits by the cramped, five-flight walk-up apartment.

Oscar nominated Mildred Natwick as Corie’s ever-complaining mother, Charles Boyer as Natwick’s twinkling old suitor Victor Velasco, Herb Edelman as the TV repairman Harry Pepper and Fritz Feld as the restaurant owner are lovely and very droll. Also in the cast are Mabel Albertson, Ted Hartley, James Stone and Doris Roberts.

The smooth performers certainly get their laughs – and you want to applaud some of those great Neil Simon one-liners, with Simon providing his own screenplay. Neal Hefti’s score tops off the fun. It is based on the first weeks of Neil Simon’s first marriage to Joan Baim. Natwick and Edelman also appeared in the original Broadway production. The leading lady on Broadway was Elizabeth Ashley.

The park of the title is New York’s Washington Square Park.

Gene Saks, who directed many Neil Simon plays on Broadway and won three Tony awards — for the musical I Love My Wife plus Simon’s Brighton Beach Memoirs and Biloxi Blues — died on March 28 2015, aged 93. He also directed the film of The Odd Couple.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2381

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