That Funny Feeling ** (1965, Sandra Dee, Bobby Darin, Donald O’Connor) – Classic Movie Review 11,759

Director Richard Thorpe’s 1965 romantic comedy That Funny Feeling stars Sandra Dee, Bobby Darin and Donald O’Connor.

Unfortunately, unfunny feelings arise from this re-pairing of Sandra Dee and Bobby Darin simply because the wit and fun are not there in the script by David R Schwarz. That is a shame because the plot, based on a story by Carroll Moore and Norman Barasch, is promising enough.

Sandra plays Joan Howell, an actress-maid cleaning the apartment of a man she has not met. She bumps into rich young executive Darin in New York and invites him back to his own home.

In the third and last of their three films together, Dee and Darin do their best with the material they are offered, but it is a disappointingly shaky romantic comedy experience. Donald O’Connor gives it a little lift as Harvey Granson.

And there is a typically strong support cast in Nita Talbot, Larry Storch, Leo G Carroll, James Westerfield, Robert Strauss, Ben Lessy, Kathleen Freeman, Larry J Blake, Don Haggerty, Aki Hara, Arte Johnson, Frank Killmond, Nora Marlowe, Benny Rubin, Gregg Shannon, Reta Shaw, Minerva Urecal, Herb Vigran, and Smoki Whitfield.

Dee and Darin were really married: they wed in 1960 and also made Come September (1961) and If a Man Answers (1962) together before their divorce in 1967.

Sandra Dee was born Alexandria Zuck on April 23, 1942 in Bayonne, New Jersey.

Dee earned a Golden Globe Award as one of the year’s most promising newcomers in Robert Wise’s Until They Sail (1958). She became a teen star in Imitation of Life and Gidget (both 1959),

She was married to Bobby Darin (1 December 1960 – 7 March 1967)  (divorced)  (1 child). But by 1967, her marriage to Darin ended, along with her film career more or less, though she did make The Dunwich Horror later, with Dean Stockwell, in 1970.

Bobby Darin in 1959.

Bobby Darin (born Walden Robert Cassotto; May 14, 1936 – December 20, 1973) died at the age of 37 after a heart operation in Los Angeles.

That Funny Feeling is directed by Richard Thorpe, runs 93 minutes, is released by Universal, is written by David R Schwarz, is shot by Clifford Stine, is produced by Harry Keller, is scored by Joseph Gershenson, and is designed by Alexander Golitzen, with music by Bobby Darin.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,759

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