Any Wednesday

Any Wednesday's a truly funny out-stage comedy, with an enjoyable '60s taste. Jane Fonda is sexy and adorable, the other characters are well drawn. I'm a bit surprised imdb users have such a low opinion of this film (a bit more than 5/10 as I'm writing), in my opinion it deserves a full 7/10 just for the balloon scene.

On Wednesdays, Jason Robards tells his wife he's spending the night in a corporate apartment, when really he's spending the night at his girlfriend's place. His client, Dean Jones, is in town and is accidentally sent to the executive suite instead of a hotel. He thinks Jane Fonda, Jason's girlfriend, is actually a hooker hired by the company!

Muriel Resnik's successful Broadway play Any Wednesday fits in with many 1960s sex comedies, and Jane Fonda fits right in, as she did in Sunday in New York and Barefoot in the Park. She's beautiful and has fantastic comic timing, so the misunderstandings are twice as funny when she's in the middle. I never find Jason Robards to be very likable, but when he's paired up against Jane, he softens around the edges. While I liked Sunday in New York the best, this is a cute movie for those who like play adaptations or silly comedies that take issue with premarital sex. Jane Fonda really is totally adorable!

In the days of dinner theater, many actors made a good living traveling the circuit with shows like "Any Wednesday," a Broadway play made into a film in 1966. These frothy sex comedies were all the rage on stage and in film -- Boeing Boeing, Mary, Mary, The Marriage-Go-Round, and of course, Any Wednesday.

Jane Fonda plays Ellen, a young woman who is wooed and ultimately falls for an older married executive, John Cleves (Jason Robards) who makes her apartment an executive one, which is tax-deductible and enables her to live there after her roommates move out. One day, Cleves' unknowing secretary sends over a good-looking young businessman, Cass Henderson (Dean Jones) needing a place to stay for the night. It goes down a predictable path from there.

The good cast makes this watchable, as it's a rather dated story. Rosemary Murphy is a delight as Cleves' wife, whom John is away from every Wednesday night on out of town business. Fonda is beautiful and sexy as the confused mistress, and Dean Jones is attractive as the frustrated Cass, who hated Cleves for business reasons but now finds that his reasons are personal as well.

It's cute, and the story involves a New York blackout, though not the biggie from the early '60s.

Jane Fonda (she's Ellen) is the mistress whom executive Jason Robards (he's John) squeezes regularly; they have an ecstatically happy relationship, meeting every Wednesday in the "executive suite" he keeps for her. Then, into the New York apartment walks Dean Jones (he's Cass), who claims to need the phone (and a place to stay). When Rosemary Murphy (John's WIFE!) arrives, major high-jinks ensue!

"Any Wednesday" is another dated 1960s situation sex comedy. The four are okay - with, perhaps Mr. Jones and Ms. Murphy surpassing their more well-known upper tier co-stars. The "split screen" telephoning is interesting; and, the script is lively with sexual innuendo. These movies seem like three-times-too-long TV half-hours comedies featuring stuff they couldn't tastefully show on TV. The "Gay Joke" comic relief is an "interior decorator" whom Murphy enlists to correct Fonda's apartment decor - it is startlingly over-the-top, like a '60s version of the "Negro Joke" character.

*** Any Wednesday (1966) Robert Ellis Miller ~ Jane Fonda, Jason Robards, Dean Jones

What used to be referred to as a sex comedy which in the more innocent time it was made meant that if included no actual sex only the suggestion of it. The film is dated in its attitudes that's true but because of the lightness with which the material is played by the four leads it remains a breezy comedy.

Jane is at her fluttery bubbly early career best and because of her hairstyle it's striking how much she resembles her present day self. All four principals are very winning, Rosemary Murphy in particular is a chic delight as well as wonderfully droll. The film also offers a reminder that there was a time when Dean Jones was quite an expert comic actor. The story is a bit incredible but being a romantic comedy that sort of goes with the territory.