COME BLOW YOUR HORN

US, 1963, 112 minutes, Colour.
Frank Sinatra, Lee J. Cobb, Molly Picon, Barbara Rush, Jill St John, Tony Bill.
Directed by Bud Yorkin.

Come Blow Your Horn has strong credentials. It was based on one of Neil Simon’s earliest plays which had been successful on Broadway in the early 60s. It was adapted by comic writer Norman Lear. Director was Bud Yorkin who directed a number of television programs and made several films at this time including Divorce American Style and Inspector Clouseau.

However, the style is firmly set in the early 1960s. Frank Sinatra (in fact too old for his character) and Tony Bill play two brothers who escape from their Jewish family in Yonkers and set up in contemporary New York. It is the worldly attraction of life in the Big Apple. However, there are various complications and some comeuppance – although some commentators wonder how the jobless character played by Frank Sinatra was able to afford all his luxury trips!

However, the film impressed the critics at the time and it was nominated for many Golden Globe awards, especially for the main cast including Jill St John. Lee J. Cobb and Molly Picon portray the Jewish parents very effectively. And Barbara Rush is the attractive good girl.

For those interested in Neil Simon – and what life was like, or was thought to be like, in the early 1960s.

1. The meaning of the title within the film, the song and its tone, the meaning of the whole film in terms of its title?

2. How successful was the film as comedy? How engaging? appropriateness of colour, widescreen, music, the song, new York backgrounds, situation, farcical situations? The stage background? The wittiness of the dialogue and the quips? a good comedy?

3. How important was the Jewish background of the film, the language, the situations, the intonations, the strident tones, the relationships? How humorous and how humane?

4. How successful was the film as drama Did it seem real? Did the underlying meaning seem real, even if the style was artificial? points were being made about life? How convincing were these main points? Did the film tend to moralise?

5. How attractive a character was Bud? Could audiences identify with him or enjoy watching his growth? As a young man, naïve, uneasy at home, his relationships with his parents, his work, his admiration for his brother? his not wanting to be a bum, his ambitions, The change that his brother made – clothes, style, Peggy? Was the change for the better? His relationship with his mother and father? His taking Allan’s place? The party and its artificiality? His awareness of the truth? The slap on the face? What future would he have, would he be like Allan for long or settle? What point was being made about life and reality through his character?

6. How enjoyable was the character of Allan - the cliches about smoothness, bigness, relationships with girls? The fact that he was forty and unsettled? Was he a bum? Frank Sinatra’s style? His relationship with Connie and its seriousness? Mrs Echmann and his deserving the punch by her husband? The good in training Bud for life and its bad repercussions? When did Allan begin to change, realise the truth? The effect of Connie, the effect of Bud’s taking his place, the artificiality of the party, slap on the face? How convincing was his marriage and the reconciliation with his father?

7. How enjoyable was the mother - the fussiness, incessant talking, fear of the neighbours? Her relationship with her husband, her sons? The effectiveness of the comedy with the phone and pencil sequence? leaving Dad? The final reconciliation? What insight into mothers and their relationship with their children?

8. How important was the father figure in the film? what kind of man was he? Hie relationship with his wife at home? His belief in himself and his work? Attitude to Allan and Allan being a bum? Attitude towards Bud? His talk - its self-centredness, lack of realisation of his children’s worth, the wisdom in what he said? How convincing was the reconciliation?

9. How important was Connie for the film? Did she seem real? Her seriousness? The nature of love for her and for Allan?

10. How amusing was the satire with Peggy and the scene with Bud? Her belief about the film producer?

11. The importance of the scene with Mr and Mrs Echmann? The satire on the southerners?

12. Did the film hold together - or did it seem a collection of farcical scenes? How important were the situations and did the film gain its impact via these? And the dialogue? Was this a good film?