Bachelor Flat

Plot

A charming British anthropology Professor Bruce Patterson (Terry-Thomas) has to live with Helen Bushmill (Celeste Holm), his fiancée. Helen is away traveling, and has failed to tell him that she has a seventeen-year-old daughter Libby (Tuesday Weld), who shows up at her mother's home unaware that Helen is engaged. Meanwhile he has to resist the advances of the neighbourhood ladies who barge in unexpectedly. At the same time, Patterson must deal with the continual invasions of his cynical neighbor, and law student, Mike (Richard Beymer), who soon develops a crush on Libby. Intertwined in the story is Mike's persistent dachshund, determined to bury the professor's prize possession of a rare dinosaur bone.

In an interview with Peter Bogdanovich, Tashlin said he included the dachshund as a satire on CinemaScope due to the dog's shape.

Cast

Critical reviews

Variety called it a "frivolous, farcical concoction" and credits much of the great comedy to the supporting cast. They praise Terry-Thomas' "comic intuition and creativity" saying it is also "responsible for most of the merriment." However, they say "neither Weld nor Beymer seems comfortably at home in farce, and the strain often shows through," and that Celeste Holm is "stuck regrettably in a rather bland role." The critic adds: "The dachshund, incidentally, is an accomplished low comedienne."

Eugene Archer in the New York Times did not find favor with the film, stating that Terry-Thomas "is at the mercy of the writer-director who usually turns out Jerry Lewis' broadest japes," referencing director Tashlin as the "responsible party." He also calls the plot "flimsy" and that Terry-Thomas "seems perplexed" in his performance. He concludes that "viewers with a tolerance for brash vulgarity and a fitful pace" will most likely show "astonishment, resignation and, eventually, mild amusement."