Alan Alda was right! Or at least his Hawkeye character in the "M. A. S. H." TV show was when he dismissed this movie. Most people will be aware of the episode in the popular series where a smuggled-in screening of this, at the time, controversial much-anticipated film got the medical staff all excited, no doubt hoping for a racy sex-comedy, after all wasn't the word "blue" in the title, only to then be collectively let down when they finally got to view it. I know how they feel.
The fuss, such as it was centred partly on William Holden and David Niven's characters circling around in predatory fashion little miss prim and proper, Maggie McNamara's Patty O'Neil with the object of deflowering this "professional virgin".
Not for the last time in pictures, the action gets underway on top of the Empire State Building where Holden and McNamara first meet, he the worldly wealthy New York architect, recently uncoupled from his glamorous but still possessive upstairs girlfriend, she the young aspiring actress guided by her true-north moral compass.
Complications ensue when Holden tricks her into going back to his apartment for a late night romantic meal, with no doubt breakfast to follow, but his little soirée is crashed both by Holden's ex Dawn Addams who hasn't given up on getting him back and then by the ex's live-in father played by David Niven, who also eyes up McNamara as a possible conquest.
I kind of wished that the moon in the title was black to save me watching this rather grubby attempted sitcom. It felt so much like watching a filmed play that I occasionally listened out for some coughing in the audience, it was so stuffy and static. None of the characters are likeable and their would-be urbane and intelligent conversations are completely divorced from reality and besides devoid of any wit or humour.
Otto Preminger's direction is one-paced and flat. So many times he holds the camera on the last person speaking in the vain hope that they will deliver some sort of humorous punchline that just never arrived.
I'll cut to the chase, I found it unfunny, unsexy and generally unsavoury and unappealing. The only barrier that this so-called groundbreaking film broke for me was my resistance to sleep.
The fuss, such as it was centred partly on William Holden and David Niven's characters circling around in predatory fashion little miss prim and proper, Maggie McNamara's Patty O'Neil with the object of deflowering this "professional virgin".
Not for the last time in pictures, the action gets underway on top of the Empire State Building where Holden and McNamara first meet, he the worldly wealthy New York architect, recently uncoupled from his glamorous but still possessive upstairs girlfriend, she the young aspiring actress guided by her true-north moral compass.
Complications ensue when Holden tricks her into going back to his apartment for a late night romantic meal, with no doubt breakfast to follow, but his little soirée is crashed both by Holden's ex Dawn Addams who hasn't given up on getting him back and then by the ex's live-in father played by David Niven, who also eyes up McNamara as a possible conquest.
I kind of wished that the moon in the title was black to save me watching this rather grubby attempted sitcom. It felt so much like watching a filmed play that I occasionally listened out for some coughing in the audience, it was so stuffy and static. None of the characters are likeable and their would-be urbane and intelligent conversations are completely divorced from reality and besides devoid of any wit or humour.
Otto Preminger's direction is one-paced and flat. So many times he holds the camera on the last person speaking in the vain hope that they will deliver some sort of humorous punchline that just never arrived.
I'll cut to the chase, I found it unfunny, unsexy and generally unsavoury and unappealing. The only barrier that this so-called groundbreaking film broke for me was my resistance to sleep.