Come Blow Your Horn (1963)
Grade: 59
"Come Blow Your Horn" was an early, semi-autographical Broadway success for playwright Neil Simon. Norman Lear, later of 1970s sitcom fame, wrote the screenplay. Commercial success and critical acceptance were assured when Frank Sinatra took the lead role. Sinatra sings the title song, but it is the only musical number. "Come Blow Your Horn" is a comedy, with comfortable, familiar characters and predictable plot turns. Sinatra's presence is the film's chief asset: he gives an excellent performance.
The story has 21-year-old Buddy (Tony Bill) leaving home to live with his swinging, womanizing older brother Alan (Sinatra). Alan's conquests include dumb-dumb blonde Peg (Jill St. John) and the smarter, more troublesome Connie (Barbara Rush). Alan teaches Buddy the ropes, perhaps too well, as Buddy becomes a more aggressive and successful hedonist than Alan ever was. Meanwhile, Alan is pressured into settling down by Connie, his father, and even his brother, who tells him that his swinging days are over.
None of the characters in "Come Blow Your Horn" will surprise you. They are all chosen from a familiar set of light comedy stereotypes: the bellowing father (Lee J. Cobb), the housekeeping-obsessed mother (Molly Picon), the stupid blonde, the classy woman demanding marriage, the swinging bachelor, the beefy jealous husband (Dan Blocker), etc. A recurring gag is somebody unexpected at the door. Buddy makes jarring character transitions from innocent freeloader to smarmy con artist, then back again. Sinatra is old enough to be Buddy's father.
Still, the patient viewer will find a few good jokes. Dean Martin has a cameo as a wino, and Sinatra does a brief impersonation of John F. Kennedy. Cobb, a highly successful veteran character actor ("On the Waterfront") is well-cast as the blustering, foreign born father.
kollers@mpsi.net http://members.tripod.com/~Brian_Koller/movies.html
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