Under The Yum Yum Tree

UNDER THE YUM YUM TREE was the 19th most popular entry in 1963, grossing $14,100,000, and the 10th most-seen of the year’s plethora of comedies—there were around four dozen! Alas, it’s not one of the better ones, despite the valiant attempts of a game cast. “Yum Yum” means s-e-x (if you couldn’t take a wild guess) and, like too many inexperienced volunteers it unfortunately it fumbles its tease quotient into leer territory, with satisfaction left wanting. In un-reel life, lechers aren’t as amusing as they muse, but in movies, with the dial turned to deft, the caveman-turned-swinger shtick can make for fruitful farce. Just not this time. *

“If I didn’t know you so well I’d swear you were trying to seduce me.”

L.A., the Sixties entering mid-Swing. ‘Hogan’ (Jack Lemmon) owns and on-site manages the ‘Centaur’ apartment complex. Bachelor, libertine and irremediable con man, he only rents to attractive single women. His harem setup includes his own pad, festooned with artsy/cheesy exotica, a bar and push-button mood enhancers. When divorced college professor ‘Dr. Irene Wilson’ (Edie Adams), a previous Hogan ‘conquest’, moves out, he rents out her apartment to student ‘Robin Wilson’ (Carol Lynley, 21), who happens to be Irene’s niece. Naturally Irene is alarmed by what traps await her younger relative, but Hogan’s determined scheming faces resistance not only from clued-in (and uninterested) Robin but from her fiance ‘David Manning’ (Dean Jones) who stealthily moves in as her room-mate. He’s as libido frustrated as Hogan because Robin insists they save…uh, yum yumming…until they’ve proven their non-romping compatibility—“David, we’ve been all thru that. I won’t be lobbied into marriage by over-stimulated glands!”

It was directed by the more than capable David Swift (Pollyanna, The Parent Trap, How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying), who co-wrote the script with Lawrence Roman from Roman’s Broadway play. But despite the hard work from the actors, the material, while it fit with the emerging “let’s play” mood of the era, was at the same time outdated, labored and obvious. There are few laughs, most of them generated by a well-trained cat who shows up to confound some of Hogan’s more outlandish peeping activities. Even if were funny to start with, at 110 minutes it drags out twenty longer than necessary. The wink-wink score from Frank De Vol makes sure to let you know when you’re supposed to smirk, giggle or roll your eyes.

Lemmon, 38, who’d just come off the heavy drama Days Of Wine And Roses, didn’t like doing this one (his next, Good Neighbor Sam, also directed by Swift, was much better) but he nonetheless brings his typical energy. Lynley, stuck doing sex kitten roles, is pretty, but little more, plus the writing is insipid enough defeat anyone. Jones, 32, was fresh from his TV series Ensign O’Toole as well as having done this role in the play. The great Edie Adams, 36, adorned four features in ’63, chiefly the immortal It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. In other supporting gigs are Paul Lynde, 37, getting noticed that year, and with a much better part in Bye Bye Birdie , and venerated pro Imogene Coca, 54; they try to wrest smiles and dignity from the situations.

An unbilled co-star is the way-cool futuristic sportster Hogan drives: a concept car, the ’62 Ford Cougar 406. James Darren sings the title tune. With Robert Lansing (in a comedy?), Bill Bixby, Joy Harmon, Celeste Yarnall, Linda Gray (22, debut, uncredited), Irene Tsu and Army Archerd.