From the off, as Terry Thomas addresses the audience - the men in the audience, as the wives wouldn't want to see this picture and are at home in their kitchens - it's knowingly sending up the old-fashioned attitudes of the bachelors, and ends on a reassuring note - the man needs the woman. "Now's your chance - go in there and finish her off." George Axelrod's the writer.
Lemmon's great as usual - a real one-off - but Terry-Thomas and Verna Lisi are strong in support.
And I would have to say if I was teaching how to score a movie, then this would be a really fun example. For it's not only Neal Hefti's themes that are interesting - there's one for the Brash Brannigan capers, one for Lemmon and Lisi canoodling, an Italian theme just for her, the funeral marches etc. - but it's also the way he arranges the themes as needed to really suit a particular scene or moment.
I was only thinking a couple of days before of Lemmon saying' You no speak-a de English" and I couldn't remember what film it was from!
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