Sunday in New York: A Playful Production of Premarital Passions

Girl gets dumped. Girl goes to New York. Girl finds love on 5th Avenue.

Sounds like your typical 60's fun and fluffy rom com, right? Wrong.

Written on the cusp of the sexual revolution, Sunday is New York is a sharp and snappy flick about the sexual mores and the double standards of the time. With a smart script, sensational score and charming performances, this slightly risqué comedy sets itself apart from the plenty. How so? By addressing the changing views on morality, and avoiding predictable plot ploys for the most part.

In one of her earliest roles, Jane Fonda stars as innocent 22-year-old Eileen Tyler. Eileen heads to the Big Apple to stay with her philandering pilot brother Adam, Cliff Robertson in a winning role. Tired of losing her suitors due to her sexual inexperience, Eileen flirts with the idea of having a premarital fling despite Adam’s hypocritical advice that men only marry the "decent girls." Meanwhile, he spends a majority of the movie on the hunt for a bed where he can get together with his girlfriend.

Eileen isn’t in the city for long before she meets a member of “the enemy sex” (a sexually active man) Mike Mitchell, played by Rod Taylor. Fonda and Taylor’s chemistry locks you in immediately with a series of cute and comedic situations.

When Eileen and Mike end up back at her brother’s love nest after a rainstorm soaks them, Eileen decides to seduce Mike. Mike is all for it until he discovers she is a virgin, or as they put it in the film “a beginner.” Here, double standards rise to the surface. Mike doesn’t want to be responsible for turning Eileen into “one of those women.” But he was beyond ready to jump into bed with her when he thought she wasn’t a virgin.

Back then, why was it socially acceptable for a man to be sexually active, but not for a woman? Because of false ethics and integrity projected by society. Which is ironic because in reality most women weren’t sincere to these standards anyway.

Complications and chaos ensue when Eileen’s boyfriend Russ (Robert Culp) shows up unannounced and a case of mistaken identities and morality questions arise, thickening the plot and enhancing the entertainment.

There are several things that set this film apart from other successful 60's flicks.

First and foremost is Norman Krasna’s script. Ahead of his time, Krasna’s views are prescient in several of his lines. He acknowledges that “in the future” people will take the idea of premarital sex in stride, but while the age of experience may have shifted, the frustrations and anxieties of initiation probably never will.

Then there’s pianist Peter Nero’s delightful score. Nero moves the film along hitting all the right keys, constantly changing in tune with the mood of every scene. Here, the music is an additional character, along with city itself, enhancing the story Krasna is telling.

Lastly, it's not a recycled story. I can’t think of another comedy from this decade with the same plot—which is a miracle in itself.

Sunday in New York is a wonderful window into the early 60’s view of sex and the single woman’s struggle with the issue before the concept of free love came into vogue. Cute as they come with a little more substance, it’s the perfect rainy day movie that looks at premarital sex or more accurately, the absence of it with enormous fun.

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