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Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Aspen Orson There is definitely an excellent idea hidden in the background of the film. Unfortunately, it's difficult to find it.

MartinHafer "Boeing, Boeing" is a very unusual film for the time because although Jerry Lewis is one of the stars of the picture, he neither directed nor wrote it. He's simply there as an actor and isn't quite the same goofy guy he is in his other films. In fact, in some ways he's quite a jerk...a definite departure.The story is about a super-selfish guy. Bernard (Tony Curtis) is a major womanizer. He's arranged his life in Paris so that he's engaged to three different stewardesses at the same time. It works out because each thinks she's his only woman and because their schedules work out so, they are oblivious to his machinations. However, two things upset his plans...the arrival of Robert (Lewis) and the women's schedules...which suddenly start getting discombobulated. So for most of the film, Bernard works tirelessly to hide each woman from the others...sometimes with Robert's help and sometimes Robert seems to be out for just himself.This American-made bedroom farce suffers because Bernard and Robert are jerks...and two of the three fiancees seem pretty nasty. The third fiancé is just kind of dumb. Because of all this, the film doesn't work as well as it could and it's obvious that the director and stars try to make up for a somewhat weak plot by putting TONS of energy into their performances. It's not unpleasant but can understand why this isn't one of Lewis' or Curtis' more famous efforts.

bkoganbing Boeing Boeing is known primarily today as the film where Jerry Lewis stepped out of his schnook character and played a lead role in a Sixties sex comedy. Jerry does all right in expanding his range on this one, but the whole thing itself is not the greatest these type of films ever. It's more of a warmed over version of The Tender Trap than anything else with Lewis playing not quite so second a banana to Tony Curtis as David Wayne did with Frank Sinatra.Curtis has a great little operation going over at his place, he's got three fiancés, all airline stewardesses working at different airlines who live at his rather sumptuous bachelor pad in Paris. He keeps complete track of the schedule of Dany Saval for Air France, Christine Schmidtmer for Lufthansa, and Susanna Leigh for British Airways. But one fine day schedules change. Not only that, but an old rival Jerry Lewis comes into town and watches in amazement.I'm still trying to figure out just how Tony Curtis could afford the living quarters he was in together with live-in maid Thelma Ritter who helps him keep the pretenses up. Just how a Jewish maid from Queens got to be living in Paris is also a mystery. All this mind you is on a reporter's salary and no one said that Curtis was Carl Bernstein.Good thing he could afford her because Thelma Ritter as usual is the best thing in the film despite the statuesque proportions of the ladies involved. Especially Schmidtmer as Ritter caustically commented.In his memoirs Tony Curtis says he liked making Boeing Boeing and thinks highly of Jerry Lewis as a person and comedian. He also said Lewis even when not doing his usual shtick in a film was still the greatest scene stealer on the planet with whom he had to stay constantly alert.It's not a bad comedy, some will find it incredibly sexist for their taste. It does suffer by comparison to The Tender Trap.

aimless-46 I don't get it, the humor in "Boeing Boeing" (1965) that is. And neither will those who are not into what passed for sex-farce comedy in the early 1960's. You know, take the Doris Day/Rock Hudson stuff, throw in the Matt Helm "irresistible to women" device, and release to a target audience of Hugh Hefner lifestyle wanna-be's.No wonder the Haight-Asbury, counterculture, free-speech movement got such traction at the time from films like "Bonnie and Clyde" (1967) and "Easy Rider" (1969). Judging from the content of "Boeing Boeing", the movement simply filled a cultural vacuum in which the highest aspiration of an American male was to be playboy with a cool pad and a harem of gullible but gorgeous and adoring women (then again there is a simplistic superficial charm to this notion). In "Boeing Boeing", Bernard Lawrence (Tony Curtis) has a multi-bedroom apartment in Paris which he shares with his three flight attendant fiancés; Vicky (Suzanna Leigh), Jacqueline (Dany Saval), and Lise (Christiane Schmidtmer). None of the three actresses were particularly talented or successful, but their characters are not intended to be anything more than superficial eye candy (although even in this they are not especially notable). Bernard, his friend Robert (Jerry Lewis in a relatively straight role), and his housekeeper Bertha (Thelma Ritter who is responsible for the film's meager moments of actual comedy) spend the film trying to keep the three fiancés from finding about each other. This arrangement is possible because the three work for different airlines and fly at times.The awkward thing for contemporary viewers (and apparently for viewers in 1965 as the film was not well received) is that Bernard has no sincere feelings for any of the three, nor any intention of marrying one of them. He has practiced this kind of scam in the past with other women, and is realistic enough to know that he will eventually be exposed. At which time he will move on and set up shop somewhere else. Now I'm normally willing to suspend disbelief about the entire premise and just go with along with the storyline; even finding some unintended humor in how they dance around and never directly confront the fact that Bernard is sleeping with three women. But I found it troubling that the three women are portrayed as sincere and likable. If they had been gold-digging schemers, or if Bernard was simply indecisive and using the set-up as a means to make a decision about which one to marry, the film would not seem so mean-spirited. The flip-side of this basic premise was the subject of several "Three Stooges" shorts, with the boys eventually getting mega-revenge on the "three-timing" woman. These were considerably more humorous than "Boeing Boeing"; with Larry, Curly, and Moe generally behaving more intelligently that anyone in this film. I would neither avoid nor seek out this film. It does provide some interesting clues about the pre-hippie culture of America or at least what Hollywood thought would attract film viewers during that period. Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

Sarah-95 In my mind Jerry Lewis and Tony Curtis are two of the best actors of that era, and they both bring to this film a star quality, which I don't think the film could do without. Jerry Lewis proving himself to actually be a good actor without having to resort to over the top slapstick. And I really don't think I need to say anything about the greatness that Tony brings.The plot though kind of cute isn't all that, and I suppose nowadays is considered to be quite politically incorrect. However the plot is secondary to the interactions between the two main characters and the housekeeper which is really what the film is about.I used to watch this film on a very regular basis, and I would encourage everyone else to do the same!