THERE'S A GIRL IN MY SOUP

UK, 1970, 95 minutes, Colour.
Peter Sellers, Goldie Hawn, Tony Britton, Nicky Henson, Diana Dors.
Directed by Roy Boulting.

There's A Girl In My Soup is the type of sex comedy that has been popular at all times. This is a stage play transferred to the screen and echoes the styles of frankness and permissiveness of the late sixties and early seventies.

It was very successful on the stage at this time. It was used as a vehicle for a Peter Sellers performance and he is very good at suggesting the ambiguities of the popular celebrity, the womaniser who leads a lonely life. Goldie Hawn, fresh from her Oscar success in Cactus Flower, gives quite a good performance as her usual kooky type. There is a good strong British supporting cast.

A lot of the humour is very broad, the tone is superficial and reflects the lightness of attitudes in morals and manners of the time. Underneath, there is some attempt at indicating the loneliness and lack of fulfilment of the hero that it presents. It was directed by the Boulting Brothers, who had made a lot of good dramas in the forties and fifties and some strong satirical comedies in the fifties and sixties.

1. The appeal of this kind of sex comedy?

2. How did the film rely on the conventions of the British sex comedy? Audience presuppositions about the battle of the sexes, sixties and seventies permissiveness, ultimate moral tone? Ambiguity, farcical elements? Sexual innuendo and wit? How good an example of its kind?

3, Peter Sellers' comedy style and his inventiveness in this role? Did it match Goldie Hawn's particular innocent yet shrewdly calculating style? What kind of team did they make?

4. Use of colour, British locations, France? Musical score representing the musical styles of the late sixties? The
romantic song? Was it evident that the film was based on a play - the contriving of scenes, characterisations? The strength of the dialogue and the style of humour?

5. Peter Sellers' interpretation of Robert Danvers? His appearance, age, clothes, television style and his making love while he is talking from the television (and the ambiguity of the dialogue in this sequence?) His being alone, his affectation? His being a womaniser, his attitude towards women, sexuality and seduction? An ageing roue, bolstering his vanity by liaisons with younger women? His apartment, the decor of his room? The film's long presentation of his technique of seduction? His remark about the girls being lovely? The irony of his encounter with Marian and the possibility of a change in his approach? The sad irony of his returning to his initial attitudes after the experience with Marian? The film's comment on what happened to him?

6. Insight into Danver's character by the comments and attitudes of John, his wife? The domestic comedy of John and his wife and their talk? The contrast with Andrew and his attitudes towards Robert? Andrew and his family life with the children?

7. The picture of the various girls and their throwing themselves at Danvers? Their expectations of a liaison? vis treatment of them? Glamour, girls being used, girls using men?

8. Goldie Hawn's style as Marian? her appearance, way of speaking, naive innocence yet shrewdness? Blunt and direct? The background of her relationship with Jim, her resenting Caroline? The party, her changing of her way of life and background? The choices that she was faced with, her going to see Jim again after the experience with Robert, her option for Jim and her going away at the end? What had happened to her during the film?

9. The initial encounter between Marian and Robert? His avoiding the party, taking her home, going into his routine with its cliches and expectation, his awkward response to her directness? Her timing him etc.? Her changing moods and her telling a sad story? His taking her back and his discovering the truth about her? The decision to go to France? The farce with her wine tasting and drunkenness? the bond between the two - the marriage suite, their being treated as if they were married? The lyrical sequence and the driving and the swimming with its humour and romance? The song that 'The Girl's In Love'? A honeymoon atmosphere and the effect on each? Newspaper reporters and the repercussions and facing of reality?

10. Robert's choice? would he or could he have married Marian and lived happily ever after? Could she have married him? The background of Jim's character and the way that he was presented, slovenly and a slob? Jealousy? His wanting to have two women? Marian seeing this and yet deciding to return?

11. The portrait of men and women? The comedy of manners in contemporary society? Themes of love, marriage, sexuality?

12. The irony of the ending? The film as a slice of life, moral comment or moral abeyance of judgement? The funniness of life, futility, hope?