Bob Hope plays A. J. Niles, a best-selling author of books about sex lives in foreign lands (How The Finns Live), and a bachelor, who has been living abroad since the late '40s. The IRS discovers he's failed to pay any taxes for years - the fault of his business manager, who happens to be missing - along with Niles' money. ("How can Herman Wappinger be dishonest?" Niles asks. "The man wears piping on his vest!")
The authorities require Niles to return to the US. This is where his publisher (John McGiver) comes to the rescue. He's an investor in a community of tract homes, called Paradise Village, in California's San Fernando Valley. He'll arrange for Niles to live there, on the condition that Niles switch his focus from foreign lands to the US, and write a book called How The Americans Live.
What happens next is interesting because of Niles' culture shock. He hasn't lived in the US for 15 years or so, and much has changed. "I thought when a man wanted a house, he went out and built one, and that was that," he tells the lovely, 40-ish manager of the tract (Lana Turner). As one of the few single people in the community, she, like Niles, is a "bachelor in Paradise," and, she tells him, he has a lot ot learn.
"Don't they harvest the crops around here?" Bob quips, when he learns Lana's unmarried. She wants none of his wit, and tells him off when he makes wisecracks about the mid-century modern home she's picked out for him (it turns out to be hers - she'll be bunking with a friend for the time being.)
We soon lean that Bob - or Niles - is surrounded by women. Married women, most of them attractive. Janis Paige is the sexy wife of Turner's stuffy boss (Don Porter); she has a yen for Bob and a beef with her husband (who she feels is ignoring her for Lana). Paula Prentiss is the next door neighbor, a wholesomely sexy young wife and mother, who has a degree in languages, and is dissatisfied with diapers and dishwashers.
Niles becomes a sort of sex/romance tutor for the wives, conducting seminars during the day about how to please their husbands, some of whom aren't pleased at all (like Jim Hutton, as Paula's frustrated spouse). It comes to a head when the husbands accuse Niles of being a libertine, and bring him to court. Agnes Moorehead enters the picture at this point, as a gruff judge, providing some additional laughs with her comments and side-eye glances.
Along the way, Bob reacts to the whole American, suburban thing. Trips to the gleaming, ultra-modern supermarket, where he's the only guy there on a weekday. The little kids everywhere (he's befriended by one who calls herself "Mrs. McIntire"). The cocktail lounges and steak houses. The drive ins and bowling alleys.
Overall, Bachelor in Paradise is a pretty smart little comedy, containing not just laughs, but insights into suburban life as it was evolving at the beginning of a new decade. In some ways, it all changed, as the events of the 60s changed the country. And in some ways, it has never really changed.
Some of it is dated, but it can be enjoyed as a sort of time capsule of that period. If you remember those days, it's a treat. And if not, I think you'll find it's still a fun way to spend a couple of hours.
The authorities require Niles to return to the US. This is where his publisher (John McGiver) comes to the rescue. He's an investor in a community of tract homes, called Paradise Village, in California's San Fernando Valley. He'll arrange for Niles to live there, on the condition that Niles switch his focus from foreign lands to the US, and write a book called How The Americans Live.
What happens next is interesting because of Niles' culture shock. He hasn't lived in the US for 15 years or so, and much has changed. "I thought when a man wanted a house, he went out and built one, and that was that," he tells the lovely, 40-ish manager of the tract (Lana Turner). As one of the few single people in the community, she, like Niles, is a "bachelor in Paradise," and, she tells him, he has a lot ot learn.
"Don't they harvest the crops around here?" Bob quips, when he learns Lana's unmarried. She wants none of his wit, and tells him off when he makes wisecracks about the mid-century modern home she's picked out for him (it turns out to be hers - she'll be bunking with a friend for the time being.)
We soon lean that Bob - or Niles - is surrounded by women. Married women, most of them attractive. Janis Paige is the sexy wife of Turner's stuffy boss (Don Porter); she has a yen for Bob and a beef with her husband (who she feels is ignoring her for Lana). Paula Prentiss is the next door neighbor, a wholesomely sexy young wife and mother, who has a degree in languages, and is dissatisfied with diapers and dishwashers.
Niles becomes a sort of sex/romance tutor for the wives, conducting seminars during the day about how to please their husbands, some of whom aren't pleased at all (like Jim Hutton, as Paula's frustrated spouse). It comes to a head when the husbands accuse Niles of being a libertine, and bring him to court. Agnes Moorehead enters the picture at this point, as a gruff judge, providing some additional laughs with her comments and side-eye glances.
Along the way, Bob reacts to the whole American, suburban thing. Trips to the gleaming, ultra-modern supermarket, where he's the only guy there on a weekday. The little kids everywhere (he's befriended by one who calls herself "Mrs. McIntire"). The cocktail lounges and steak houses. The drive ins and bowling alleys.
Overall, Bachelor in Paradise is a pretty smart little comedy, containing not just laughs, but insights into suburban life as it was evolving at the beginning of a new decade. In some ways, it all changed, as the events of the 60s changed the country. And in some ways, it has never really changed.
Some of it is dated, but it can be enjoyed as a sort of time capsule of that period. If you remember those days, it's a treat. And if not, I think you'll find it's still a fun way to spend a couple of hours.