If you're looking for a perfectly dated view of premarital sex, you'll be hard-pressed to find another gem like Sunday in New York. Jane Fonda, in a totally adorable role, plays a conflicted "beginner". She's refused to sleep with her boyfriend, Robert Culp, and in her confusion, seeks refuge with her airline pilot brother, Cliff Robertson. Cliff assures her that being a virgin isn't a bad thing and that he himself doesn't sleep around. Of course, he's desperately trying to sleep with his girlfriend, Jo Morrow, and hides that from Jane. To top it all off, Jane meets Rod Taylor and decides to pretend she's more experienced than she actually is.

Adapted from Norman Krasna's hit Broadway play, this 1960s romantic comedy is just that: romantic and hilarious. Jane's comic timing is always great. "In movies, this is where the screen usually goes dark," she says when Rod's kisses make it clear he wants to take things further. When he finally learns she's a virgin, he slams on the brakes. He doesn't want to be responsible for ruining her reputation, and Jane finds his reasoning absurd. He wouldn't have any hesitation in sleeping with her if, say, in a week's time she'd already had a lover. "Call me next week!" she shouts, frustrated that her innocence is off-putting.

It's really a very cute movie, but women's libbers out there will probably hate it. You're better off watching The Electric Horseman or The China Syndrome; Jane is in a strong, feminist role in those movies. In Sunday in New York, she's cute as a button, but not the most liberated tool in the shed. I loved her in this one, and found her just as visually and comically adorable as she was in Barefoot in the Park.

... AKA the unraveling of the motion picture production code and the sexual revolution that began in earnest in the 60s. Most films about sex in this era are pretty unwatchable today because they are trying to shock you with controversies that are long dead, and plus they take such a mechanical view of sex.

This film is different. It stars Cliff Robertson as an airline pilot, Adam, who has a swinging bachelor pad. But he also has a 22 year old sister (Jane Fonda),Eileen, who thinks she is the last virgin in New York. After breaking up with her boyfriend she goes out in search of a stranger with which to lose her virginity. She finds a likely candidate, but then she finds out that in 1963 lots of men don't mind being the second guy, but their Victorian values reveal themselves when they discover they are about to be the first.

And Adam's swinging 60s libertine view of sex? That becomes "not with my sister you don't!" when he discovers Eileen's plan. If you ever want to know what things were like on the dating scene when women still had no real career paths and were expected to quit those jobs anyways and be housewives when they married , just as all of that was about to change, watch this film. Plus it has some of the finest actors of the era who are mainly known for drama in a very funny comedy.

If you're one of those shallow enough to complain, as another reviewer does, when a film "betrays it's Broadway roots," you're probably not sophisticated enough to appreciate the very real pleasures of a film like Sunday IN NEW YORK where the lines in the screenplay actually contribute enormously to the enjoyment of the film. While not quite as well crafted as the classics of the genre, Neil Simon's BAREFOOT IN THE PARK or Jean Kerr's MARY, MARY, Sunday IN NEW YORK benefits enormously from Norman Krasna crafting the screenplay from his own successful Broadway play.

Krasna is, in fact, prescient in several of his lines where he acknowledges that "in the future" people will take these things more in their stride - at least to the extent of premarital sex at the age of these characters - but while the age of experience may have shifted, the frustrations and anxieties of initiation probably never will and following "innocent" Jane Fonda, her protective but experienced brother, Cliff Robertson and the object of her temptation, Rod Taylor, through these beautifully filmed 105 minutes will provide not only enormous fun for those grownup enough to enjoy the ride without explosions and chase scenes (actually, there are a couple of those!) but a wonderful window on how we viewed our sex lives only a few years ago.

Sunday IN NEW YORK may be on a craft level of Neil Simon's first Broadway (and film) hit, COME BLOW YOUR HORN, but Krasna had been providing satisfying works for both Hollywood (WIFE VS. SECRETARY, MR. AND MRS. SMITH, WHITE Christmas) and Broadway (DEAR RUTH, KIND SIR) for decades before Simon started, and this represents some of his best comedy writing. It's a second tier joy. Consider making it a "flying double feature" (Robertson plays an airline pilot with TWA which is complicating HIS sex life) with the British BOEING BOEING, and you've got a great Sunday's escape in any city you please. Solid literate fun.