Come Blow Your Horn *** (1963, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bill, Lee J Cobb, Molly Picon) – Classic Movie Review 6454

Director Bud Yorkin’s 1962 comedy stars Frank Sinatra as Alan Baker, a bachelor who finds his swinging lover lifestyle is cramped when his little brother Buddy (Tony Bill, in his début) tries to emulate it.

Buddy arrives unannounced at Alan’s luxurious Manhattan apartment, and soon takes over his drinks cabinet and his girlfriends.

Neil Simon’s amusing Broadway hit play comes smoothly to the screen thanks to the performances (plus Lee J Cobb and Molly Picon as their disapproving Jewish parents) and Norman Lear’s seamless script. The set-up is a kind of variant on Simon’s later The Odd Couple.

A bit of pruning and sense of cinema from director Yorkin would have given the film extra sharpness, but it is always entertaining. One famous, it is now a largely forgotten Sinatra movie, largely forgotten play and largely forgotten title song.

Sinatra’s buddy Dean Martin has a cameo as a drunken wino, The Bum.

Also in the cast are Jill St John, Barbara Rush, Dan Blocker, Phyllis McGuire, Carole Wells, Herbie Fay and Romo Vincent.

It is shot by William Daniels, produced by Norman Lear and Bud Yorkin, and scored by Nelson Riddle.

The title number Come Blow Your Horn (lyrics by Sammy Cahn, music by James Van Heusen) is sung by Sinatra (it’s the film’s only musical number) and gave him an evergreen hit thereafter.

Maureen Stapleton turned down role of Sinatra’s mother because he was roughly eight years older than her. Cobb (playing his dad) was only four years older than Sinatra and Tony Bill (playing his brother) was 25 years younger than him.

The play – Neil Simon’s first – opened on Broadway in 1961 at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre and ran for 677 performances.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6454

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com