Two aging playboys are both after the same attractive young woman, but she fends them off by claiming that she plans to remain a virgin until her wedding night. Both men determine to find a ... Read allTwo aging playboys are both after the same attractive young woman, but she fends them off by claiming that she plans to remain a virgin until her wedding night. Both men determine to find a way around her objections.Two aging playboys are both after the same attractive young woman, but she fends them off by claiming that she plans to remain a virgin until her wedding night. Both men determine to find a way around her objections.
- Nominated for 3 Oscars
- 1 win & 6 nominations total
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaFirst mainstream Hollywood film to use the word "virgin," after a battle with the official and unofficial censors. Also the first use of "seduce" and "mistress" (as a sexual partner). The movie was banned from theaters in Boston for using these words.
- GoofsAfter Donald (William Holden) goes out to meet Cynthia (Dawn Adams) Patty (Maggie McNamra) clears the meal things away and collapses the table but she never saw how it was put up.
- Quotes
Donald Gresham: Believe it or not, I am a full-fledged architect. Build you anything from a cathedral to a bomb shelter.
Patty O'Neill: How much would a cathedral cost these days? A small one.
- Alternate versionsThe filmed was made in two versions, a US version with Holden, McNamara and Niven in the leads, and a German version, Die Jungfrau auf dem Dach (1953), with Krueger, Matz, and Heesters in the corresponding roles. Krueger and Matz have a brief cameo as tourists in the US version, and Holden and McNamara make the same cameo in the German version.
- ConnectionsAlternate-language version of Die Jungfrau auf dem Dach (1953)
- SoundtracksThe Moon Is Blue
Music by Herschel Burke Gilbert
Lyrics by Sylvia Fine
Presentation by The Sauter Finegan Band (as The Sauter-Finegan Orchestra)
The movie makes rather light of a young woman's commitment to chastity, suggests that seduction is an amusing and acceptable pastime for a single male and uses words like "pregnant" and "virgin" offhandedly. The lovely, talkative, self-assured Patty even demands to know the meaning of the charge, by her new boyfriend's barely ex-girlfriend, that she's a "professional virgin." Shocking stuff and approval was denied. Perhaps equally stunning to the Hollywood censors was Preminger's decision to release the film without approval, something he had the clout to do.
As it turned out, audiences were able to deal with this explosive material. :) And almost fifty years later, when virtually nothing remains to be said or done on the silver screen, this film retains its charm, humor and attractiveness because a superb trio of actors - William Holden, Maggie McNamara and an irrepressible David Niven, who steals some of the scenes - gives a timeless quality to their sterling performances.
The script hews pretty much to the original play with minimal set changes. The dialogue is witty and fast. Preminger knew he had created a gem of a romantic comedy and it's good entertainment today in a world where the values expressed by the characters seem as remote as the social customs of the Neandertals. I hadn't seen the film in decades - I rented it and I'm going to buy a copy. This is a true and timeless classic.
By the way, don't skip the trailer that precedes the film. It's very funny.
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Details
Box office
- Budget
- $400,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 39 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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