Sex and the Single Girl

Sex and the Single Girl is a 1964 American Technicolor comedy film directed by Richard Quine and starring Tony Curtis, Natalie Wood, Henry Fonda, Lauren Bacall and Mel Ferrer. The film is based on Helen Gurley Brown's 1962 non-fiction book of the same name. Plot Bob Weston works for Stop, a tabloid magazine whose owner and staff are proud of being regarded as the filthiest rag in the United States. One of Bob's colleagues has just written an article about Dr. Helen Gurley Brown, a young psychologist and author of the best-selling book Sex and the Single Girl, a self-help guide with advice to single women on how to deal with men. The article raises doubts on her experience with sex and relationships. Helen is very offended, having lost six appointments with patients due to the article discrediting her as a "23-year-old virgin." Bob wants to follow up by interviewing her, but she refuses. Bob's friend and neighbor, stocking manufacturer Frank Broderick, is having marriage issues with his strong-willed wife Sylvia, but cannot find the time to go to a counselor. Therefore, Bob decides to impersonate Frank and go to Helen as a patient, with the goal of getting close to her in order to gather more information. Meanwhile, he will report back to Frank on her advice. During their first couple of sessions, Bob acts shy and smitten, and tries to gently seduce Helen. She seems to respond to Bob's courteous advances, all while insisting that it is a transfer and that she will play the role of Sylvia to the benefit of his therapy. After he fakes a suicide attempt, the two of them end up making out in her apartment, with Bob realizing he is actually falling for Helen, which is the reason he still has not written anything about her, prompting an ultimatum from his boss.