justrock I thought this movie was a dud. I'm not a big fan of early 60's movies like this, they portray an era that was so brief I'm not sure anyone actually lived through it. The clothes, the language, the sets (orange plastic as one other commenter noted)looked stale even when they were new. You can almost smell the stale cigarettes. Add to that the awkwardness of 48 year old Sinatra still trying to pass himself off as a playboy and my eyes start rolling back in my head. The last name of this family is Baker, yet both parents labor under some sort of Yiddish/Eastern European accent that is supposed to be hilarious, while the Sinatra character is a slick, tight panted Italian type playboy. More like a zoo than a family. I won't watch this again.

Ripshin Looks like a stage play......feels like a stage play.....acted as if the audience is sitting fifty yards away.....they just couldn't shake the roots of this production. Certainly, an insignificant Simon property, raised beyond oblivion by its casting. I'm not sure why they just didn't change the age of Sinatra's character to his actual 48 - he doesn't look remotely 39 - actually, he looks about 55. Tony Bill's role would play better on stage, where his over-emoting wouldn't be quite so grating.Yes, the parents are perfectly cast, if you can tolerate the stereotypical Jewish mother and father, screeching incessantly. What children WOULDN'T run away from that?The bachelor pad is certainly hip Early 60s - and unbelievable (regardless of the explanation of its affordability).The song interlude is a bit jarring, although if they had to do it, it certainly works best where it is.Overall, not a film I'll watch again.

theowinthrop If you look carefully at "Come Blow Your Horn" you will see it is a two set play that was expanded for this funny movie version. The two sets are the home of Mr. and Mrs. Baker and Buddy in Yonkers, and the apartment used by the older Baker boy Alan as his swinging singles pad. Most of the film is concentrated in those sets, except for scenes involving Alan taking Buddy under his wing to properly groom him, scenes with Barbara Rush outside the apartment (one briefly showing her apartment), and scenes involving Alan and the Eckmans (Dan Blocker and stiletto heeled Phyllis Maguire). Of the scenes outside the apartment, the two best are Alan's meeting with Mr. Eckman, and it's sequel at a restaurant, involving a raw steak and a bum (who turns out to look very familiar). Simon is one of the leading American dramatists of the 20th-21st Century, certainly the most successful comic dramatist. Seeing "Come Blow Your Horn" you see certain themes appearing for the first time. The twisted relationship of the two brothers, who do love each other but find they get on each other's nerves (as Buddy slowly overtakes the older Alan as a hipster). It is similar to the relationship of the brothers in "Brighton Beach Memoirs" and "Broadway Bound" (especially in he second play, where a real argument between the brothers breaks out). The question of relatives with sleazy or questionable activities like Alan's sexual escapades, comparable to the mobster brother in "Lost In Yonkers" or the embezzler, long-lost father in "Max Dugan Returns". The father losing the respect of his sons (found in the ranting Mr. Baker) is similar to the position of the father in "Broadway Bound", who has discovered his sons have reduced him to a comic stereotype in a sketch they sold a radio comedy show. The very fact that the Baker brothers become roommates who get on each other's nerves in an apartment is a constant thread in Simon's plays: "Barefoot In The Park (newliweds); "The Odd Couple" (and it's variation and sequel), "The Sunshine Boys" (in the rehearsal scene and in the conclusion where both Al and Willie seem headed for the old actor's home), even "Plaza Suite" (how three couples act together over the course of one year in a hotel suite). Simon is a master of building humorous tension out of trivialities. In "The Sunshine Boys" just setting up furniture to do a scene both vaudevillians can do in their sleep is frustrating as both see the furniture differently. In "Come Blow Your Horn", when Alan tells off buddy that his swinging lifestyle is going too far, he also mentions that he should keep his hands off Alan's fig newtons!Despite the claustrophobia of the sets limitations "Come Blow Your Horn" is a funny movie, benefiting from the performances of Sinatra, Jill St. John, Lee J. Cobb (usually a master of straight drama, here quite funny), and the glorious Molly Picon. One wishes more of Dan Blocker could have been used, but what was used was quite effective. There is an odd moment in the latter part of the film, connected to a party that Buddy throws, and a hypnotized guest blaming Alan for failing to support an education bill. Alan does an imitation of President Kennedy to reassure the woman. No doubt Sinatra felt it was a good imitation.It was meant to be funny, but now seems macabre.

vchimpanzee This was my first Frank Sinatra movie. I have seen clips of his work, and I have enjoyed his singing for years, but this was the first time I really took a good look at his acting.Sinatra plays Alan Baker, a crafty ladies' man who is a disappointment to his overbearing father, who is also his boss (and given Alan's work ethic, that's a good thing). His 21-year-old brother Buddy, who also works for his father and has a 'gee-whiz' quality about him, does everything he can to please his parents, but never manages to satisfy them. One day Buddy decides to move in with his brother. This does not please the father one little bit, and the mother is not happy either. Alan wants his brother to be just like him, so he has the brother 'made over' and, when he has too many girlfriends, lets Buddy pose as a Hollywood producer and take out one of the girls, who wants to be an actress. Alan still has two women to juggle, and unfortunately, one of them is married and a big client of his father's company. And her husband is Dan Blocker (who comes across, unfortunately for Alan but not for us, more as Little Joe than Hoss).Sinatra is good, giving the impression of a much younger man than he would have been when the film was made. He doesn't seem like the Sinatra I knew at first, but later becomes more serious and more like the familiar image. He also gets to sing one song, doing a great job. The actors playing the stereotypically Jewish parents are wonderful (Religion isn't mentioned, but the image of Jewish parents is a familiar one). I haven't seen much of Molly Picon's work, but from seeing this performance and one episode of 'Gomer Pyle, USMC', I can't see anyone portraying the guilt-inducing Jewish mother any better. The actor playing the father made quite an impression as well.This was a good movie, and though slightly off-color, nowhere near as naughty as movies being made today.