The April Fools (1969)
Directed by Stuart Rosenberg

Film Review

Great 1960s movie with Jack Lemmon, Catherine Deneuve, Peter Lawford and Jack Weston, with Sally Kellerman and Harvey Korman. Special Stars, Myrna Loy and Charles Boyer. Also, appearances by David Doyle and Melinda Dillon (Ralphie's mother from A Christmas Story). Wonderful performance from Lemmon, and Catherine Deneuve is just ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL... and it does not matter that she cannot speak English well.  Peter Lawford is ... well Peter Lawford but Myrna Loy and Boyer have outstanding and funny roles as an older eccentric married couple.

The movie is really about nothing other than the fact that Lemmon is getting a promotion and is invited to a party at his boss's (Lawford) lavish Manhatten apartment where he falls madly in love with his boss's wife (Catherine Deneuve.)   He decides, after one night with this woman that he is going to Paris with her, leaving his wife (Sally Kellerman), son and new job just to be with her. And he indeed does that. But the entire movie, after the opening, is his time with Deneuve during that night while visiting with Loy and Boyer. He decides to go home to tell his wife he is leaving her and going to Paris, and there is a very Max Sennet style automobile ride to the airport where Lemmon confronts Lawford (Deneuve's husband) before boarding the plane just in time to fly off with the most beautiful women in the world.  It is entirely fanciful.... . However, with a Burt Bacharach score... and shots of the beautiful Catherine Deneuve and Manhatten in the '60s, it is worth the little more than an hour to watch this cute and entertaining film.

Film Synopsis

Howard Brubaker, a successful company man, is trapped in a loveless marriage to an unsympathetic wife, Phyllis.  At a party hosted by his boss, Ted, Howard is encouraged to pick up a woman and ends up choosing Ted's attractive French wife, Catherine.  The latter is equally disillusioned with her marriage and as the evening progresses it becomes clear that she and Howard are attracted towards one another.  Catherine makes up her mind she must leave her husband and start a new life in Paris.  She invites Howard to accompany her...