Tonight's Movie: That Funny Feeling (1965) - A Kino Lorber Blu-ray Review

Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee star in the cute romantic comedy THAT FUNNY FEELING (1965), recently released on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber Studio Classics.

I have a soft spot for Darin and Dee, who also costarred in COME SEPTEMBER (1961) and IF A MAN ANSWERS (1962). While THAT FUNNY FEELING is only a "mid-range" film, I found it to be an enjoyable 93 minutes.

Dee plays Joan, who's working as a housekeeper while she attempts to make it as an actress in New York City.

After a series of "meet cutes" with Tom (Darin), they go out for drinks, but she doesn't want him to take her home to the tiny apartment she shares with Audrey (Nita Talbot)...so she has him drop her off at the apartment of a client who's left town. Clearly she wasn't thinking ahead about what would happen if she dated Tom again!

What Joan doesn't know is that the apartment actually belongs to the incredibly confused Tom, whose trip was cancelled at the last minute. And things get even more complicated when Tom claims to live in a penthouse apartment actually owned by his boss (Donald O'Connor). Oh, what a tangled web...

The script, written by David L. Schwartz from a story by Carroll Moore and Norman Barasch, has some reasonably clever plotting, and I chuckled a few times over the course of the film.

Dee is cute as the proverbial button, with Talbot and Larry Storch amusing as her goofy friends. Darin is handsome, and the deep supporting cast is good, including Robert Strauss as a bartender.

I was amused when my husband heard familiar voices from '60s Disney films like James Westerfield, Herb Vigran, and Reta Shaw and asked from the other room if I was watching a Disney movie! The film does have a sort of '60s Disney-esque, cleancut vibe. Tom's intentions are strictly honorable. Well, mostly...

The movie was directed by longtime MGM director Richard Thorpe and filmed in Technicolor by Clifford Stine. Bobby Darin composed the music.

Tom's street looked very familiar to me; I think it may have been a street used in MARNIE (1964), released the previous year by the same studio, Universal Pictures.

Kino Lorber's Blu-ray print looks very nice, with good sound quality. Disc extras include the trailer; a gallery of five additional trailers for other films available from Kino Lorber; and a commentary track by Julie Kirgo and Peter Hankoff.

Those who like the cast and '60s rom coms will find THAT FUNNY FEELING to be a pleasant hour and a half.

Thanks to Kino Lorber for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray.

Tweet