Bachelor in Paradise was released by MGM Studios on October 23, 1961
Director: Jack Arnold
Bachelor in Paradise cast: Bob Hope, Lana Turner, Paula Prentiss, Jim Hutton, and Janis Paige
Batchelor in Paradise is to the memory of the Southern California scene of the early 1960s, what Picnic is to that of middle-Americana (and much of the outback areas of Los Angeles and San Diego counties) in the mid 1950s—a near accurate depiction of the time and place. And this film is a just one big, 109-minute long, Califormulant—a beguiling view of the fashions, the furnishings, the appliances, the cars, and the suburban homes that were becoming so prevalent in the Southland of the 1960s.
But before I dissect the delectable setting, I suppose I should mention the story that goes along with it. A professional bachelor, playboy, and expat author of a series of racy exposés (how those other folks live) is summoned back to the US to face a tax beef. To make good with the feds, his publisher sends him, incognito, to a Southern California suburb to write a racy exposé on the lifestyles of the loathsome tract home tenants. But the undercover bachelor falls for the fetching real-estate agent who has leased him her house, and he spends the rest of the film trying to win her affections—first as a lover, and then as a wife. To pass the time while not chasing after the comely sales agent of Paradise Village, he coaches the neighborhood’s frustrated housewives on how to rekindle the romance that has gone out of their marriages to their overworked husbands. But when his true identity, as the celebrated writer of those racy exposés is discovered, the neglectful husbands, certain he has taken liberties with their wives, want him driven out of Paradise. The agent, knowing his true character, wants him to stay, and the court wants him to testify as a material witness/home-wrecker in a trio of divorce cases. In the end, the bachelor is found innocent after proclaiming his love for the agent, and all is amicably resolved as just another of those big, absurd, Hollywood mix-ups. The bachelor marries the agent, and all is well in Paradise Village.
This might have been called a sex farce, had there been any sex; but it exists only by implication. Bachelor in Paradise is just another very lightweight vehicle for comedy legend Bob Hope. During a career that spanned 74 years, and 68 films, Bob Hope never played a character other than Bob Hope, the quick-witted wisecracker that, by the time this film was made, had become as iconic and familiar a figure as Micky Mouse. His costar was also an A-list screen legend. At 15 years old, high school student Lana Turner ducked out of class to get a drink at a corner soda shop and was discovered by an MGM talent scout. The following year, she was signed to a contract, and quickly became one of the studio’s biggest stars. The rest of the cast was filled out with two up and comers, Paula Prentiss and Jim Hutton, and the usual assortment of familiar character actors. All of them would have been very familiar to movie goers in 1961, and everyone does a pretty good job in a film that derives most of its comedic cashe by poking fun at the suburbs and the suburbanites within them.
Featured Califormulants
Yeah, you know why we’re here. As I’ve said before, most of these Cpop vehicles are not classics in the Theatrical sense; you won’t find A Streetcar Named Desire listed in these pages. Here, we celebrate the fun, the look, and the style of the Cpop era. So, let us celebrate.
The only thing in this film that doesn’t scream of 1960s, Southern California chic is MGM’s Leo the Lion. Starting with the opening credits, by Animation Inc., of distinctive, mid-century, Hanna-Barbera styled, expressionist renderings accompanied by Henry Mancini’s bright and bouncy pop score, we’re already swinging 60s style before the first scene has begun. And then we find ourselves on the French Riviera—What! And then Washington DC! How disconcerting! And then finally, at ten minutes and forty-one seconds in, we arrive safely in Paradise Village, California.
To portray the fictional bedroom community of Paradise Valley, the filmmakers chose the real San Fernando Valley community of Woodland Hills, and a sub-division that was still in the developmental stage, which would have been a very familiar sight anywhere in Southern California at that time. I can remember going with my parents to visit several of these, solid middle to upper middle class, communities that were springing up all over the Southland. For all of you location fanatics, and I know you’re out there, the principal domicile used for the exteriors is located at 22931 Brenford Street, Woodland Hills Ca., and it has since been repainted a very sensible shade of beige, and no longer clashes violently with the attractive, period-correct, flagstone fascia. California Coral my backside! That was a solid Pepto-Bismol Pink! But thankfully, that was the only misstep (which was done for the movie) in this mid-century mélange.
The interiors of this classic, Southern California Ranch house were filmed on a soundstage, but the production designers put together a very credible representation of a mid-century layout done up in the usual assortment of secondary colors—aqua, orange, gold, and olive green. Playing an even more prominent role than the furnishings are the appliances Mr. Hope is called upon to spar with. What is standard equipment now, the garbage disposal, the washing machine, the built-in oven, were only just beginning to become regular, and sometimes bewildering, features in the model homes of 1960. Another most important feature was a car, which our playboy bachelor was slow to acquire, forcing him to take a cab to a drive-in for dinner. The googie style sign for Benny’s Drive-in was apparently a creation of the production crew, but the unidentified restaurant was real, and reflects a little bit of that googie flair as well.
For the principals at least, getting around in the planned community of the future was done with the utmost of style and comfort curtesy of the Chrysler Corporation, which had a long-running relationship with Mr. Hope and the many charities he supported. Leading this abbreviated Creampuff Cavalcade (page 231) we have Ms. Turner’s 1961 Plymouth Fury convertible in Sahara Sand, followed by Mr. Hopes 1961 Dodge Polara in Azure Blue, and finally, for the big wheels, Ms. Paige’s 1961 Chrysler 300 G in a bold, Mardi Gras Red. Continuing with the automobilia, we get a glimpse of some of Detroit’s more pedestrian models, as well as a few foreign jobs traversing both the suburban thoroughfares and the notorious Hollywood freeway system. The film also features a pair of classic old milk trucks (yeah, they still delivered milk to the door in glass bottles) and a paperboy delivering the goods in a custom deuce coupe! (You’ll find reference to this amazing phenomenon on page 202).
Utilizing his newly acquired 1961 Dodge Polara in Azure Blue, our overage playboy (Mr. Hope was 58 at the time), conducts himself to the neighborhood Hughes’s market, also located in Woodland Hills. The Hughes chain was one of the primary grocery outlets in Southern California at mid-century, and this one, save for the precariously unstable displays, (included for comedic effect) looks to be unaltered. I can remember, in our own grocery emporiums, that the indoor beach umbrellas would come out in the spring to put shoppers in a festive, let’s load up the station wagon with goodies and go to the beach, mood.
The next stop on this parade of venerated, mid-century shrines is the local Tiki bar. However, this one is not a Woodland Hills fixture, but a soundstage on the MGM lot. But once again, the crew came through with a very convincing facsimile with all the right trimmings, including the real hula girls who get upstaged by Ms. Turner’s own drunken attempt at a hula hoedown. For authenticity’s sake, they even included a reference to the two-drink maximum rule that the bartenders of the day sometimes imposed on the drinkers of Zombies (page 163).
Finally, we arrive at the bowling alley, and a real bowling alley this time—the Woodlake Lanes Bowling Alley in Woodland Hills. This place really looks a lot like our own neighborhood bowl, University Lanes in San Diego. Often, the furnishings for these bowls came from the same suppliers, so there would naturally be similarities in design, and in 1960, those similarities were nearly always hard, mid-century modern. This one still exits, but it has long ago been “cleansed” of its, once glorious, mid-century charm. Now, we’re left with only this little bit of film stock to remember it by. But if you’re in a mood for this sort of remembering, Bachelor in Paradise gives you a lot to work with. The plot is dated, and the presentation is silly, but it’s still fun, and worth the effort it may take to find it.
As with all these Cpop subjects, try YouTube first. Sometimes you can find them for free, and sometimes you’ll have to pay a little. But before you pay, try your library. I’m surprised at some of the very obscure films I’ve found right there on the shelf.
Warning! It’s been about two weeks since I saw this film and I’ve only just now been able to get that damn Mancini theme song out from between my ears – viewer discretion is advised.