Looking for Love

Connie Francis was an amazing singer and a very charming, charismatic and pretty lady. She's always entertaining and watchable. It is a shame they didn't get her a decent script. Except for the title song, they didn't even bother getting her some good songs to sing! MGM did give her a stunning wardrobe.

The rest of the cast is very pretty. All of her costars from Where the Boys Are have a one minute cameo with nothing to do but be gorgeous.

There are much worse ways to spend 90 minutes.

Then again, it's not that great either. Connie Francis stars as a girl whose main desire in life is to get married and have kids, thus setting feminism back 10,000 years. She becomes infatuated with Jim Hutton, who likes tall women with big breasts. Hutton shows no interest, until Connie sings a sultry song. Then he decides there may be something to short women with big breasts. Joby Baker and Susan Oliver complete the quartet of who-is-going-to-end-up-with-whom. Numerous "guest stars" appear, including Danny Thomas, George Hamilton, and Johnny Carson, all playing themselves. Carson used to diss this film on his show; in actuality, he should have dissed his performance, since he is terrible in this (I say this as a big Carson fan). Connie sings a boatload of songs. I've always enjoyed her singing, so a few of these were at least tolerable.

Another movie that seems like play like an Elvis movie, sans Elvis, this time featuring the effervescent Connie Francis. Oddly enough, despite the dumb script and sort of weird presentation of the star as a second banana, one gets a vague hint than in an alternate universe Connie Francis could've been a dramatic actress. She manages to project desperation in a few scenes in a sort of scary way.

This movie is also a curiosity for the fake late show TV appearances -- Johnny Carson and Danny Thomas -- in the era when Jay Leno appears in every third movie that comes out, hard to remember the beginnings of crossover promotion.

The plot is a typical romantic cross, and it didn't shock me too much to find the screenwriter, Ruth Brooks Flippen, was a writer on both the Gidget movies and the TV show, (as well as a few other notables, e.g. Bewitched) sequeing later to the Odd Couple. It made me want to learn a bit more about her.

If you already like Connie Francis, this will be a delight, and if you're interested in the mating habits of your parents (at least superficially), there are worse ways of spending an hour and a half.

As I've gotten older, I've begun to realize that the saying, 'not like it used to be' is a fallacy with regard to music and visual media. The truth is there has always been a ton of bad work, it's just that the lens of history whittles out the chaff. What's left? The great, the good, and at times the really really bad. One has to really look for the average to just below average films - generally to fill out some niche of fanaticism regarding an actor or director.

Why watch this movie? The Jonny Carson scene is amazing. First, he plays himself, but actually acts and performs - and that youthful look! This scene should be a clinic on how you direct a talk show host. This scene is generally butchered in more recent films.

The film stock - my goodness these colors! I will never understand why this saturated film look is lost. The astonishing primary colors and shining eyes of the performers - this movie has a absolute visual glow.

Acting is awful. And some of the casting - listening to these shrieking voices will make you scramble for the volume remote just to end the pain. And yet...

The numbers (music performances) are pretty good, certainly entertaining - and back to my original point; this isn't a good movie, but it so much better than contemporary bad films. Films that actually bring nothing to the table.

Wow, maybe they don't make them like they used to?

intentionally over rated 6/10

There were two popular "Connie's" in the 1960's: Warner Bros. had Connie Stevens and would showcase the lovely star in a series of films and across town MGM had Connie Francis and Leo the Lion showcased the songstress in a series of light, fluffy comedies that do no harm but are not so great either: Follow The Boys, When The Boys Meet The Girls and a true classic Where The Boys Are that featured Paula Prentiss, Jim Hutton, Yvette Mimieux and Dolores Hart ( who would leave showbiz to be a cloistered Catholic Nun). Looking For Love reprises the cast of Where The Boys Are- Prentiss , Mimieux, Hamilton who by the time this film was made had become major stars and co starred Connie Francis with Jim Hutton who had been on a lengthy suspension at MGM and did this film as his release valve from a ironclad MGM contract. Funny to see tall Jim Hutton in romantic clinches with the petite Ms. Francis.

Note MGM had two other stars under contract George Peppard and Richard Chamberlain, both immensely famous and likely escaped being cast in this film due to their respective standings at MGM

David Barra