MISBEHAVIN

MisBehavin' starring Leslie Bovee, Gloria Leonard, Kurt Mann, Dick Galan, Eric Edwards, Arcadia, Molly Malone, Jack Wrangler, Marc Valentine and directed by Chuck Vincent

The Plot: Leslie Bovee has been married numerous times. Once she divorces one of her rich husbands, she takes half of their money. God and The Devil make a bet about whether her next marriage will be for love or money and they both try to influence the outcome.

There are two other sub-plots in MisBehavin' - Molly Malone, Bovee's ex-Mother-In-Law is upset about Bovee collecting the divorce settlement from her son. She makes numerous unsuccessful attempts to kill Bovee. Malone is so completely incompetent she reminded me of the coyote in The Roadrunner cartoons. The other sub-plot is about Marc Valentine, a spurned lover of Bovee's who is trying, also very unsuccessfully, to commit suicide.

: Andrew Sarris has defined screwball comedy as "a sex comedy without the sex". MisBehavin' is a screwball comedy with sex. It contains all the necessary elements: the farcical situation of God and The Devil making a bet on humans with the rewards being souls, a plot involving marriage/courtship, slapstick, and different classes of people. The only element it really seemed to be missing was fast talking repartee. This last element was replaced with the characters "breaking the fourth wall" and talking to the audience.

The least interesting parts of MisBehavin' turned out to be the sex scenes. While they were integrated into the plot and weren't long and drawn out like modern day sex scenes, they were for the most part uninteresting and generated little or no heat.

The non-sex parts of MisBehavin' on the other hand were great fun to watch. It had a well thought out logical plot with LOTS of humor (even if sometimes, that humor did resort to some stale jokes). With the two running sub-plots, as mentioned above, the characters "breaking the fourth wall", and a surprise ending, this all added up to make for an enjoyable viewing. Without the sex scenes MisBehavin' would still be worth recommending, something I usually can't say when reviewing a XXX movie, I grade MisBehavin' a solid B.

A final note relating to my other blog Gonna Put Me In The Movies, the band Harlequin appears during the outdoor party scene at the first of MisBehavin' playing the song "Stray Pussy".