What do the American film "Under the Yum Yum Tree" (1963) and the British film "The Magic Christian," made six years later, have in common? Well, not much really, except for the fact that they're both supposed comedies with a large cast of pros, and that both stunned me with appalled disappointment the first time I saw them. In "Yum Yum," Jack Lemmon plays a character only known as Hogan, the lecherous landlord of the Centaur Apartments, who only rents to nubile young women...until he slips up and lets an apartment to Carol Lynley and her fiancé (Dean Jones). Stretching the viewer's credulity, the two are cohabitating platonically; as Lynley's character puts it, she doesn't want to be carried away by her "own fermenting juices." What follows are some inane, cartoonish, hard-to-swallow situations, as the jealous Hogan (who would today be recognized as a serial sex addict) eavesdrops on the young couple, uses his "inexhaustible" supply of housekeys to barge in on them at all hours, and contrives to exhaust Jones with an exercise regimen to prevent him from getting amorous with his own fiancée. That Jones doesn't call the cops on Hogan or beat the crap out of him early on stretches all believability past the breaking point; Lemmon has rarely played such a thoroughly unlikable character in a "comedy." Indeed, the laffs are sadly few and far between here, but don't blame the three leads. Pros that they are, they give it their all, as do the always dependable Edie Adams, Imogene Coca and Robert Lansing ("Star Trek"'s Gary 7), but the script continuously lets them down miserably. Only Paul Lynde, with his trademarked smarmy line readings, manages to engender any chuckles. From the film's insipid title tune, sung by James Darren, to its entirely predictable ending, this picture is something of a drag. I can't believe I'm writing this, but I've finally seen a Jack Lemmon movie that's a labor to sit through. Guess I'll have to screen "The Apartment" for the 30th time or so to wash the memory of this lemon out of my head....
Review of Under the Yum Yum Tree
