For Singles Only

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For Singles Only
For Singles Only Poster.jpg
Directed by Arthur Dreifuss
Screenplay by Hal Collins
Arthur Dreifuss
Story by Arthur Hoerl
Albert Derr
Produced by Sam Katzman
Starring John Saxon
Mary Ann Mobley
Lana Wood
Mark Richman
Milton Berle
Cinematography John F. Warren A.S.C.
Edited by Ben Lewis
Music by Fred Karger
Color process Eastmancolor
Production
companies
Four Leaf Productions, Inc.
Distributed by Columbia Pictures Corporation
Release date
  • June 5, 1968 (1968-06-05)
Running time
91 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

For Singles Only is a 1968 American comedy drama film directed by Arthur Dreifuss and starring John Saxon, Mary Ann Mobley (in her last theatrical feature), Lana Wood, Mark Richman and special guest star Milton Berle. [1]

Contents

Plot

Close friends Anne Carr and Helen Todd move into a singles complex where every tenant must be unmarried and under 30.

Jim Allen and Bob Merrick, neighbors of bachelor playboy Bret Hendley, make a wager with him that he can't seduce Anne successfully. Bret is too much a gentleman to accept, but when Anne learns the money would pay for Bret's college education, she willingly goes along with a romance.

Mr. Parker, the building's manager, throws an engagement party for Bret and Anne, then proceeds to evict them from the premises. While they work through their issues, Helen, having endured a traumatic romance with married womanizer Gerald Pryor, goes to the waterfront intending to commit suicide, but is assaulted there by a gang of hoodlums, making her consider giving up men for good.

Cast

Production

Filming started 18 September 1967. [2] It was a rare comedy role for John Saxon. [3]

Critical reception

A contemporary review in The New York Times by film critic Vincent Canby described the film as "a mindless, witless romantic drama about the mindless, witless young people who live, swim and boogoloo all day in one of those southern California apartment houses restricted to chamois-skinned unmarrieds," adding that the movie "is really an impotent fantasy about the sex life of the young [...] only an elderly movie producer living in southern California could remain alive and yet be so dead to the meaning of the world around him." [4] In her review for AllMovie, critic Sandra Brennan wrote that the film "is basically about the exploitation [of] two naive young women," one of whom "gains firsthand experience with gang rape and suicide." [5]

See also

References

  1. For Singles Only at IMDb
  2. 'Detective' Type Role for Mia Martin, Betty. Los Angeles Times 15 Aug 1967: e12.
  3. Vagg, Stephen (July 29, 2020). "The Top Twelve Stages of Saxon". Filmink.
  4. Canby, Vincent. "Singular California". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved 2023-01-06.
  5. Brennan, Sandra. "For Singles Only (1968)". AllMovie. Netaktion LLC. Retrieved 2023-01-06.