Customer Reviews

If a Man Answers

5 star:		(53)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a wonderful movie!
Starring Sandra Dee, Bobby Darin, Micheline Presle, John Lund, and more!
This movie begins with Chantel (Dee) she is a girl who likes men, probably inherited from her very french mother who was in show business in Paris.
She knows all the secrets to a happy marriage, sly tricks, and everything. So when the whole family is suddenly transfered to New York for the fathers (Lund) job. There Chantel meets Eugene (Darin) the photographer, who has his own "views" on marriage. And he loves being a bachelor, that is until Chantel slyly changes all thise views, with her mothers help, of course.

So, the couple are married. But now Chantel has to keep Gene interested.
Which she has trouble with at first, that is until Chantels mother gives her the 'giude to a happy marriage' which she says worked wonderfully with her father! And when Chantel looks down she is horrified that the book is called How to Train a Man's Best Friend!!
She is disgusted!
Until she starts to use it, and finds out iy works wonderfully!
And everything goes wonderfully until...
This is a GREAT movie! Henry Levin does a completely wonderful job, and I advise you not to waste a minute in seeing it!!

I saw this movie when it first came out and I loved it then. The story centers around a woman who marries the love of her life but is concerned about keeping him interested. Her mother, a French woman, instructs her on the art of "keeping your man happy" by giving her a book on dog training. All this works very well until he finds out that he's being trained!
The main stars of the film are Sandra Dee, Bobby Darin, and Stephanie Powers. I definitely would recommend this film and That Funny Feeling - both with Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee.
These films are great examples of the comedies of the sixties.

CNN and other news networks have announced the sad news that our beloved Sandra Dee has died this morning at 6:00 a.m. of complications of kidney disease and pneumonia. She was with her son, Dodd Darin, who made the announcement to the press some hours later.

For those of us who admired her work in films, this is a sad day indeed. She was "before my time" but I never saw a Sandra Dee picture I didn't love. She was a child model, and a teen star, and she married the pop singer Bobby Darin while still carving out her own screen career, so perhaps she wasn't lucky in her own life, since she seemed to have grown up too fast and to have missed the normal life of the child, but we her fans were extremely lucky. We got to thrill with her as the first girl surfer in GIDGET, and to root for her against her selfish mother in the second version of IMITATION OF LIFE, and to cry a little as she romanced Troy Donahue and "went all the way" in the majestically corny A SUMMER PLACE. And so many other films, good and bad.

A few years back she and Troy Donahue made a personal appearance at the Castro Theater here in San Francisco, where she seemed frail, but happy to greet the hordes of fans who poured in from all over the country to thank her for the decades of pleasure her cinematic legacy has given us. She even sang a little bit of that ironic song from GREASE that mocked her virginal image, "Look at me, I'm Sandra Dee!" She was in fine form that night, and signed autographs and posed for photos until she begged off due to fatigue.

IF A MAN ANSWERS may not be one of her best movies, but it shows her considerable comic abilities, and if she was ever happy at all, it might have been during this period when she was often teamed alongside her then-husband, and both seemed to be sitting on top of the world. Alas, today a little light went out of the world but I know that tonight, I'll look up into the night sky and I'll see a pale new star, directly overhead, with the luminous intensity that was Sandra Dee's alone.

I am so fortunate that this delightful, romantic, funny romp is now available on DVD (as are "Come September" and "That Funny Feeling"), so people can indulge in this fun fest and the chemistry between Sandra Dee and Bobby Darin (then married in real life).

The plot concerns a wealthy young socialite, Chantal Stacy (the lovely and priceless Dee) who as trouble finding Mr. Right, until she meets photographer Eugene Wright (the cute and hilarious Darin). After she marries him, she tries to use her mother's advice by treating him like a pet, thinking that will make him a more affectionate and attentive husband. It works for a while, until Chantal spills her "secret" to her school friend (a young Stefanie Powers), who, just slightly tipsy, lets Eugene in on it, and leaving Chantal to find a different way to get his attention. Again, she turns to her mother for advice for some jealousy tactics. Micheline Presle is a gem as Chantal's mother, while John Lund is perfect as Chantal's protective father. And Cesar Romero is impeccable as Eugene's "dirty old man" artist father taking part in one of the schemes. And the cute dogs and the new little "addition" to the family . . . . .

Dee and Darin were an adorable couple, and this movie confirms it. Don't listen to the critics' opinions about this blast from the past - it's a jewel!!!!! It's great that so many of these older movies are being released on DVD, as they so justly deserve to be. Now a whole new generation can enjoy them!!!!

This movie is so sweet, funny and non-violent, non-profane, it's just unbelievable. I watched this years ago on tv and got a kick out of it. Over the years I'd try to find it online, but here I had the title wrong. I just purchased it on Amazon and my college-age daughter and I watched it together the first night. She loved it! Sandra Dee and Bobby Darin are so magnetic together--it's no wonder they married for real. She is one of the sweetest actresses that ever came out of Hollywood. Her voice and smile and the way her face just glows couldn't even be cloned. He's not your big macho type, but he's every bit as sexy. The making-your-hubby-jealous, and more appreciative of you premise is achieved in a most hilarious and inventive way in this film. Her parents in this movie are strong support characters also. Well worth the money and should be considered a must for any true old movie buffs' collection.

I get the impression that critics were not kind to the few movies that Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee made together. In an old Vanity Fair article about Darin's life, the author of the piece refers to their films as "dim bulb attempts to turn the couple into a junior version of Rock Hudson and Doris Day." And in Kevin Spacey's wonderful movie about Darin's life, "Beyond the Sea", his voiceover as Darin narrates at one point, "Sandy and I made a couple of movies together, but they were dogs."

Well, I think that the critics were wrong! OK, so these movies weren't full of Oscar worthy material, but that doesn't mean they were BAD. On the contrary, I thought If a Man Answers was really cute and clever. I even had my reservations because I know how contrived the "battle of the sexes" films of the early and mid 60s can be, and I could have done without the long animated sequence at the beginning of this movie (and in fact, I had to skip past it by one point), but once Sandra Dee's character meets Bobby Darin's character the movie finally picks up. It gets especially amusing when she begins training him as a dog (I really did find myself laughing out loud at several moments) and I really loved the "revenge" that Bobby's character pulls on Sandra Dee's character and her mother towards the end, with a little help from his father played by Cesar Romero. A very young Stephanie Powers also has a juicy but a bit diabolical role in this one as well.

I'm a huge Bobby Darin fan but the movie gave me a deeper appreciation for his beautiful then-wife, Sandra Dee, as well. The two seemed perfect for each other with great chemistry for this type of film, and were absolutely adorable together. I've seen and enjoyed Come September as well and will now try to see That Funny Feeling at some point. And oh, the costume design was to die for!

When I was little, my mom made me watch this money one day was I was home sick from school and I loved it. It was really funny and kinda true (the dog book!!). I have searched for years to find a copy of it and have been lamenting with my friends over some of the trash they put on DVD but wait to bring out oldie goldies like this one. I just found it today on DVD and I am beyond thrilled. This is a great, light, fluffy film. One of those great ones to watch curled up on the couch with your friends. Enjoy!!!!

This is a very amusing, lazy afternoon kind of film. Dee and Darrin are well matched in the Doris&Rock 60s sex comedy kind of way. Not quite as sharp as the D&R comedies, this film is still an entertaining comic romp. Watching Dee as she gradually likes using the dog-training book on Darrin is a hoot. Well worth the time when you want some nostalgiac 60s fun.

Adorable Sandra Dee plays the cute and devious role of a saucy minx who gets her man then attempts to mold him into the perfect husband. Assistance comes from her sexy Mom who provides the perfect "manual" to achieve this daunting task. Hubby, played by the sexy singer, Bobby Darrin, falls head over heels for the entire scheme but after catching on to his wife's plot, decides to give her a taste of her own medicine.
Cute plot. Definitely worth a look.

I saw this movie when it first came out and loved every minute of it. I've seen it a few times over the years when it aired on TV, but I've been wishing for YEARS that it would become available on tape. It's one of the best romantic comedies ever in my opinion, and one of my absolute all-time favorites. It's charming and frothy, with witty dialogue and gorgeous fashions. I've talked about it to my friends for years and they had never even heard of it. Finally, I'll be able to share the fun with them. It's a delight.