Boeing, Boeing (1965)

Playboy American journalist Bernard Lawrence (Tony Curtis) works in Paris and thinks his plan to have three blonde stewardess fiancees simultaneously and meet up with them at his apartment is foolproof, as their flight schedules mean they never meet.

The delicate balance of his triple love life with Air France stewardess Jacqueline (Dany Saval), Vicky (Suzanna Leigh) – who works for British United Airways  – and German girl Lise (Christiane Schmidtmer) – who flies with Lufthansa – is maintained with the help of a complicated wall chart, a collection of world airline schedules, slide rules and a chronometer with a warning buzzer.

All goes well until the day their schedules change, and they all arrive in Paris on the same day.

Things are complicated even further when his friend Robert Reed (Jerry Lewis) arrives on the scene and blackmails his way into a temporary room in the apartment.

It is one of Jerry’s straightest parts, which means he has stopped whinnying and pulling gorilla faces – and is all the funnier for it.

Thelma Ritter is the long-suffering, put-upon and overworked housekeeper Bertha who arranges for each girl to find her own portrait on view, her own underwear in the bedroom, and her favourite dishes in the oven.

Marc Camoletti’s hit play achieved astoundingly long theatrical runs on Broadway and in London, so a screen version of this latter-day Feydeau-esque farce was inevitable. The pin-sharp photography is by the great Lucien Ballard, and the period Paramount gloss helps.

Bernard Lawrence
Tony Curtis
Robert Reed
Jerry Lewis
Jacqueline Grieux
Dany Saval
Lise Bruner
Christiane Schmidtmer
Vicky Hawkins
Suzanna Leigh
Bertha
Thelma Ritter
Pierre
Lomax Study

Director
John Rich