Debbie & Tony in One-Gag ‘Goodbye Charlie’ 1964

Tony & Debbie: Two '50s stars turn a corner. Curtis faces 40 & Reynolds morphs into her Vegas persona.

For a one-gag premise, Goodbye Charlie is one of the most gaga sex comedies from the '60s. Some current critics have drooled over Charlie, viewing the gender bending as forward thinking. George Axelrod’s plays were certainly risqué in their era, like The Seven Year Itch, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter, and Goodbye, Charlie. The fact that none of them have endured beyond their original shelf life, along with other Hollywood sex comedies of the era, indicates that they were aiming for prurient Playboy-era laughs than profound humor.  

And Charlie director Vincente Minnelli was not one to push the envelope, like a Billy Wilder. Minnelli craved both the security of his role as a studio director and hetero Hollywood husband, to risk going audacious auteur.

The French poster for 'Goodbye Charlie' is more to the point.

20^th Century Fox bought this lesser George Axelrod play as a possible Marilyn Monroe movie, one of several properties earmarked for Marilyn before she went goodbye in the summer of ‘62. Fox offered the movie to Billy Wilder, who had directed MM in Axelrod’s The Seven Year Itch, but Billy turned it down to direct his own tasteless sex comedy, Kiss Me, Stupid.

Tony Curtis as the late Charlie's pal, Richard, who's about to get a surprise!

The premise: an alpha male screenwriter gets shot aboard a wild yacht party, only to be reincarnated as a female, when alleged hilarity ensues. Debbie Reynolds is the new Charlie, found naked by a millionaire Mama's boy, dropped off at Charlie's pad, where his pal Richard is staying to settle his affairs.

Fox brought in a gaggle of MGM pros to help put this over, director Vincente Minnelli and star Debbie Reynolds, with backup from Metro’s Helen Rose for gowns and Sydney Guilaroff to design Debbie’s hair/wigs. Tony Curtis, who had starred with Debbie in The Rat Race, is cast as Richard.

Debbie Reynolds is game as Charlie, reincarnated as a woman. But is she good aping a guy? 

Reynolds tries to put over this one-note material, but is mostly one-speed. She first plays Charlie trance-like, as if she's under hypnosis. When she realizes who she was, but now in a woman's body, Debbie’s performance goes broad and butch. Debbie certainly had comedic talent, but is miscast, and overcompensates. Reynolds has some smaller, sly moments that demonstrate what might have been.

'Charlie' gets a makeover, while scheming to make his new situation work to his advantage.

Tony Curtis seems to be on autopilot, but his character isn’t given much to do. Tony is competent, but is stuck playing the straight man, when he was actually a Charlie type. Perhaps Tony should have donned Some Like it Hot drag again!

Tony's Richard with Ellen Burstyn's Frannie and her burstin' floral hat!

Walter Matthau has amusing moments, hamming outrageously as the horny Hungarian producer who shot Charlie. Joanna Barnes, the mean fiancée in 1961’s The Parent Trap, is amusingly snarky here as a Hollywood matron Janie. Pat Boone is smooth if smarmy as millionaire Bruce—not Wayne—who wants to marry Charlie.

Walter Matthau as the Hungarian film producer whose accent changes with each scene!

Also, look for Ellen Burstyn—billed as Ellen MacCrae—as one of the Beverly Hills wives Charlie dallied with. Interesting that Ellen is the same age as Debbie Reynolds and many of her contemporaries, yet Burstyn was just busting out at age 32 in movies, late by Hollywood standards. By the mid ‘70s Ellen was a "realistic" star, while old school stars like Debbie were considered passé in movies.

Debbie's Charlie is washed up on shore, now a woman, with white blonde hair and makeup.

Since this is a Vincente Minnelli movie, set in Hollywood to boot, you can bet the sets and women are highly over-decorated! The women are an array of “Color Me Beautiful” Helen Rose gowns. And whoever did Debbie’s makeup was “inspired” by MM’s last makeover, lots of white and beige costumes, pale blonde hair and nude eye makeup. The Monroe-esque makeup and hair job they gave Reynolds reminds me of all the other actresses of the era who took over parts for Marilyn or were supposed to be the next Monroe. Like Joanne Woodward in The Stripper or Carroll Baker, who looked more like MM than Harlow during this era.  Charlie's Malibu pad is a dress rehearsal for Elizabeth Taylor's Big Sur hippie "shack" in Minnelli's next movie, The Sandpiper. Both abodes looked like the ideal beach home for a tasteful, older director rather than a randy screenwriter or a free-spirited artist!

The animated opening credits gave 'Charlie' a sitcom feel, the Previns' title song didn't help.

The movie's opening, complete with a nutty theme song and animated credits, feels like a ‘60s sitcom—minus the smut. Dory and Andre Previn offered up more of their very on the nose ditties for Charlie, that feel like parody. Three years later, they took this to an art form with Valley of the Dolls.

The glossy production values, stage-bound feel, excess rear-projection shots, and the leering attitude, all made Charlie instantly dated upon release. Time hasn’t changed that. But if you’re in the mood for a time capsule rom-com romp, Goodbye Charlie might be for you.

This movie still sums up the problem with 'Goodbye Charlie.' Released at the end of '64,
it looks, sounds, and feels like a '50s film. 'Virginia Woolf' and 'Bonnie and Clyde' were just around the corner.

FYI: I put all the movie overflow on my public FB  movie page. 

Check it out & join!  https://www.facebook.com/groups/178488909366865/