Didn’t we suffer through some rotten movies in the ‘60s? Dean Jones doesn’t look like the dude who would agree to a chaste trial marriage with a sadistic professional virgin played by Carol Lynley in “Under the Yum Yum Tree.” This movie got a lot of hype in LA in 1963 so I took a date to see it at Grauman’s Chinese Theater which was a big deal then.
It’s being shown this month on GetTV so I revisited it and got a slice of the LA lifestyle circa 1963. Horny bachelors of the day favored garish apartments with red walls and drove customized cardinal red Imperials. Jack Lemmon played the lecherous bachelor landlord of the apartment building where the unwed couple cohabited while Walter Matthau or Don Rickles would be better. The story dithers into a tit for tat Laurel and Hardy slapstick scene with Jones and Lemmon. Reason to see this mess: Paul Lynde as the gardener and Imogene Cocoa as the maid. Lynley had an evil look that better suites her to “Dracula’s Daughter” than a romcom. James Darren sings the title song and he could have handled the Jones role. When it came to ‘60s comedies, AIP nailed it with the beach movies franchise.
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