A charming British anthropology Professor Bruce Patterson has to live with Helen Bushmill, his fiancée. Helen is away traveling, and has failed to tell him that she has a 17-year-old daughter Libby, who shows up at her mother's home unaware that Helen is engaged. Meanwhile he has to resist the advances of the neighborhood ladies who barge in unexpectedly.
At the same time, Patterson must deal with the continual invasions of Mike, his cynical neighbor and law student, 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 October 1960, 20th Century Fox's Robert Goldstein announced he had bought the screen rights to a British stage comedy, Libby by Budd Grossman. The play had been staged in London the previous year. Grossman would write the script, Jack Cummings would produce, and Frank Tashlin would direct.[5] The plot was about an English professor at Hunter College who got involved with a group of 17 year olds on the loose from boarding school. It was to take place in Greenwich Village and was to be shot on location in New York in 1961.[6]
Eventually the action was relocated to Malibu, where the film was shot starting April 1961.[7] Lead roles were given to Fox contract stars Richard Beymer and Tuesday Weld. Gene Tierney was announced for the part of Weld's mother but Celeste Holm ended up playing it.[8] After Ian Carmichael turned the film down[9] Terry-Thomas was cast in the lead role; his first lead in an American film.[10]
In an interview with Peter Bogdanovich, Tashlin said he included the dachshund as a satire on CinemaScope due to the dog's shape.[11]
Critical reviews
Variety called it a "frivolous, farcical concoction" and credits much of the great comedy to the supporting cast. They praise Terry-Thomas's "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."[12]
Eugene Archer in the New York Times did not favor 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."[13]
^Solomon, Aubrey. Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History (The Scarecrow Filmmakers Series). Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1989. ISBN978-0-8108-4244-1. p. 253
^BACHELOR FLAT
Monthly Film Bulletin; London Vol. 29, Iss. 336, (January 1, 1962): 2.
^New Company Will Spend $8.5 Million: Robson Directs 'Inspector'; Dana Wynter Will Join Kaye
Scheuer, Philip K. Los Angeles Times October 7, 1960: A9.
^RANDOM VIEWS FROM A LOCAL VANTAGE POINT
By A.H. WEILER. New York Times November 6, 1960: X7.
^Nolan May Fly From 'Formosa' to 'China'
Los Angeles Times March 14, 1961: C9.
^Beymer and Weld to Do 'Bachelor Flat'
Hopper, Hedda. Chicago Daily Tribune March 24, 1961: b5.
^pp. 130-131 Ross, Robert The Complete Terry-Thomas Reynolds & Hearn Ltd. 2002
^Entertainment: Comic Takes First Shot at Hollywood Britain's Terry-Thomas Deserts Home Base for 'Bachelor Flat'
Hopper, Hedda. Los Angeles Times June 6, 1961: A6.
^Bogdanovich, Who the Devil Made It? 1998 Ballantine Books
