Ask any girl - 1959

I love it and I've always loved it, since the first time I watched it. It's very funny and it's sweet. Not original maybe, the story is very much like "Sabrina", with the innocent girl changing herself for the man (she thinks) she loves and wants and the two brothers: the younger a playboy who likes going out with lots of girls and never works, and the older brother, the serious responsible one. She has a crush on the younger but she'll love the elder.
Same thing, you'll say, just like Sabrina, and I reply: so what? Who cares, the film is lovely, and funny too.
The girl here is Shirley MacLaine, so pretty and so funny. The playboy is Gig Young, whom I confess I know only for this film, and the older brother is David Niven, a favourite of mine since always.
The story is very old-fashioned, a girl looking for a job and a husband, who will "settle for nothing less than marriage". Morals are so that she gets thrown out of the boarding house where she was staying simply because she had been photographed with some prostitutes (although of course cleared of all charged :-p), to the point that the word prostitute is too much for this movie, and nobody can say it.
Her friend Ginny settles for marrying the first guy who asks her : "but why?" - "because he asked me" and here she explains her theory that girls don't do the choosing but are merely products on a shelf: men come, take a look, and if they like something "they take us home", and she was getting "pretty scared of staying on that shelf", so Meg Wheeler (MacLaine) has an idea. She asks her boss Miles (Niven) to help her "I want to sell myself - as a wife!". He works in field research and he's intrigued , so he accepts. She wants his brother Evan (Young) to propose to her, so Miles starts dating all the girls in Evan's phone book to find out what he likes about them. For weeks Meg and Miles spend a lot of time together, and Meg learns to laugh like MaryLouise and walk like Ines and dance like Juliet, while dressing like Yvonne, wearing Barbra's perfume and 'blinking' (but I don't think she managed to put on her big fake eyelashes) like Debra O'Toole. Meg has even gone to have her hair done to match Bonny's haircolour, carrot-red. It's not known if she ever managed to cook like Gabriella, but it doesn't matter. Obviously the plan is working, because now Evan can find all the things he finds irresistible combined in just one woman, and he proposes, but now she's not so thrilled, because something has happened. Miles showed her another girl's specialty: kissing, and I love that scene, that one kiss, their only kiss in the film, but it says everything, and changes everything. Spending so much time together they had already started to appreciate one another, they liked each other, and the kiss brought everything to the surface. Now she doesn't want Evan anymore because she had to change herself and he proposed to a fake Meg, not the real one. Before giving Evan her answer, a bit confused poor girl, she wants him to ask for his brother's approval, and again I so love the scene when Evan and Meg get home and Miles is right there in front of them as they open the door. Evan doesn't see him at first, but Miles and Meg instantly see each other and stare at each other, and the way they do that says it all.
She'd want Miles to stop the marriage and say he loves her, but he says "I approve" because he thinks she loves Evan. Meg confesses everything they've done and turns down Evan's proposal.
Now, at the beginning of the film there was another man she had met at her first job: Ross. They dated for a while, until he invited her to his aunt's house without telling her that they'd be alone there. As she finds out she runs away, but now she calls him and accepts that same proposal. Her friend Ginny tells Miles everything and he calls Evan. Together they catch the same train because Miles insists that if Evan loves her he should take her away from there and hit Ross, but then he ends up doing so himself. Meg is utterly drunk and she tells Evan: "I love Miles but he doesn't love me" - "yes he does" - "no he doesn't" :lol: then Miles takes her away and the next scene is Meg and Miles hugging happily on their honeymoon :-)
I've never heard anyone talking about this film, I guess it's true that it's just a little film and, as said already, not at all original, but I love it. Maybe with two different actors I wouldn't have liked it so much, entirely possible and quite probable too, but things being as they are I love it, it's funny and sweet and romantic and adorable.

ITA tutte le ragazze lo sanno