Professor Bruce Patterson (Terry-Thomas), a British archaeologist on the staff of a California university, has a natural charm that automatically attracts women.
When his roving fashion designer fiancée, Helen Bushmill (Celeste Holm), is in Europe for an extended stay, he has to fight off the neighbourhood ladies and his female students.
Helen has failed to tell him that she has a seventeen-year-old daughter, Libby (Tuesday Weld), who shows up at her mother’s beachside bungalow, absent without leave from school and unaware that her mother is engaged.
Bruce’s young neighbour, Mike Pulaski (Richard Beymer) and his curvaceous but eccentric girlfriend, Gladys (Francesca Bellini), get mixed up in all the shenanigans, as does Mike’s mischievous dachshund, who tries to carry off the huge dinosaur bone that is the professor’s prize possession.
It’s a dizzy comedy, beautifully photographed in CinemaScope and DeLuxe Colour.
TRIVIA NOTE
A poster advertising the film, which showed Terry-Thomas leaping over a car in his underpants (pictured below), was banned from trains and buses in the UK by the British Transport Commission over concerns that it might be defaced. Regulations stipulated that advertisements would be refused if, “through wording, design or possible defacement,” they could offend the public.
Libby Bushmill/Libby Smith
Tuesday Weld Prof. Bruce Patterson
Terry-Thomas Mike Pulaski
Richard Beymer Helen Bushmill
Celeste Holm Gladys Schmidlapp
Francesca Bellini Dr Dylan Bowman
Howard McNear Liz Turner
Ann Del Guercio Mrs Roberts
Roxanne Arlen Mrs Bowman
Alice Reinheart Jessica
Jessica Dachshund
Helen has failed to tell him that she has a seventeen-year-old daughter, Libby (Tuesday Weld), who shows up at her mother’s beachside bungalow, absent without leave from school and unaware that her mother is engaged.
