Greer Garson and Red Skelton Christmas sketch from 1965

Here are a couple of video clips with Greer Garson on a Red Skelton special.




And another special with Vincent Price and Imogene Coca.

Under the Yum Yum Tree (1963) starring Jack Lemmon

This movie - from 1963, same year as "Tom Jones" is a dated but interesting movie about American sexual morality in the early 60s. The basic message of the movie is, "yes, young people are starting to experiment with sex outside marriage, but it's better to get married before living together". Based on a moderately successful Broadway play of the same name, the film is about a young college couple (Carol Lynley and pre-Disney Dean Jones) who live together -unmarried of course- in landlord Jack Lemmon's apartment. Swinging bachelor Lemmon has a secret crush on Carol and - comically - eavesdrops in on the couple's conversations for kicks. Lemmon kind of reminds me of his character in "The Apartment"; but in this film he is more sex-crazed. He only rents to single young girls, and loves to hit on them all. His role is really a supporting one; the main character here is Carol Lynley, who is supposed to personify the liberal, sophisticated young 60s woman willing to experiment with co-habitation before marriage. Paul Lynde and Imogene Coca have supporting roles as the apartment building groundskeeper and his wife. Coca's character is cranky and judgmental about the ideas of young people living together. So here we have Carol Lynley, who is supposed to be so liberal and sophisticated, yet in the end, traditional morality wins out, after some stiff lectures by her female college professor (Edie Adams) about shacking up before marriage: living together properly means being married. So basically, Adams plays a socially conservative college professor, portrayed in this film a positive light. Kind of thing you don't see ever anymore in movies, is it? American culture has changed in 45 years, and this film is proof of that. The final scene with the talking cat is pretty funny.

Read Dawn's recent post on this movie at Noir Chick Flicks.

Michael's Movie Palace