I happened to see " Boeing, Boeing" on the TCM cable channel, and enjoyed seeing Tony Curtis and Jerry Lewis in this farce. They reminded me of a slightly more modern version of the comical "Road to ..." series of movies with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby.

Although not quite as polished as Hope & Crosby, Curtis & Lewis performed better than I expected together, and all the actors performed well. The story idea of a bachelor trying to juggle relationships and schedules with three flight attendants staying in one Paris apartment was interesting even if flawed at times.

Fans of Hope & Crosby movies, or Tony Curtis & Jack Lemon should like this pairing of Curtis & Lewis working together to keep the three flight attendants, all engaged to Curtis, from discovering each other. As the scheme falls apart due to flight schedule changes and early arrivals, it is enjoyable to find out how long the girls can be kept unaware that they are sharing the same fiancé and apartment.

I do agree with another reviewer that the movie retains a stage play quality, but that is not a significant drawback to the story.

"Boeing, Boeing" is a very unusual film for the time because although Jerry Lewis is one of the stars of the picture, he neither directed nor wrote it. He's simply there as an actor and isn't quite the same goofy guy he is in his other films. In fact, in some ways he's quite a jerk...a definite departure.

The story is about a super-selfish guy. Bernard (Tony Curtis) is a major womanizer. He's arranged his life in Paris so that he's engaged to three different stewardesses at the same time. It works out because each thinks she's his only woman and because their schedules work out so, they are oblivious to his machinations. However, two things upset his plans...the arrival of Robert (Lewis) and the women's schedules...which suddenly start getting discombobulated. So for most of the film, Bernard works tirelessly to hide each woman from the others...sometimes with Robert's help and sometimes Robert seems to be out for just himself.

This American-made bedroom farce suffers because Bernard and Robert are jerks...and two of the three fiancees seem pretty nasty. The third fiancé is just kind of dumb. Because of all this, the film doesn't work as well as it could and it's obvious that the director and stars try to make up for a somewhat weak plot by putting TONS of energy into their performances. It's not unpleasant but can understand why this isn't one of Lewis' or Curtis' more famous efforts.

Boeing Boeing is known primarily today as the film where Jerry Lewis stepped out of his schnook character and played a lead role in a Sixties sex comedy. Jerry does all right in expanding his range on this one, but the whole thing itself is not the greatest these type of films ever.

It's more of a warmed over version of The Tender Trap than anything else with Lewis playing not quite so second a banana to Tony Curtis as David Wayne did with Frank Sinatra.

Curtis has a great little operation going over at his place, he's got three fiancés, all airline stewardesses working at different airlines who live at his rather sumptuous bachelor pad in Paris. He keeps complete track of the schedule of Dany Saval for Air France, Christine Schmidtmer for Lufthansa, and Susanna Leigh for British Airways. But one fine day schedules change. Not only that, but an old rival Jerry Lewis comes into town and watches in amazement.

I'm still trying to figure out just how Tony Curtis could afford the living quarters he was in together with live-in maid Thelma Ritter who helps him keep the pretenses up. Just how a Jewish maid from Queens got to be living in Paris is also a mystery. All this mind you is on a reporter's salary and no one said that Curtis was Carl Bernstein.

Good thing he could afford her because Thelma Ritter as usual is the best thing in the film despite the statuesque proportions of the ladies involved. Especially Schmidtmer as Ritter caustically commented.

In his memoirs Tony Curtis says he liked making Boeing Boeing and thinks highly of Jerry Lewis as a person and comedian. He also said Lewis even when not doing his usual shtick in a film was still the greatest scene stealer on the planet with whom he had to stay constantly alert.

It's not a bad comedy, some will find it incredibly sexist for their taste. It does suffer by comparison to The Tender Trap.