The terrible sex comedy the Coen brothers would watch forever: “If I could keep only one film”
The Coen brothers are often described, rather non-specifically, as ‘quirky.’
Their movies are full of singular, loveably hapless characters. Their dialogue tends to be incongruously light and verbose, no matter how dire the circumstances. And their plots often resemble capers and comedies of errors, even when they are dark and bloody. Even when they’re working with nasty pieces of work, they find a way to make them endearing, even if they give you nightmares.
This abundance of goodwill extends to their taste in cinema. Although they aren’t like Quentin Tarantino, who writes books and does hours-long interviews about all the movies he’s ever enjoyed over the years, they do occasionally drop hints. Not surprisingly, their affections lie with some pretty unusual options.
When discussing their favourite films, the Coens have tossed out titles as diverse as the 1976 family movie The Bad News Bears to Robert Downey Sr’s completely unhinged acid western Greaser’s Palace. One of the ones that they have consistently championed is even more obscure and unlikely, though. In a 1994 interview, they name-checked the 1965 sex comedy Boeing, Boeing as one of their all-time favourites.
It came up during a conversation about their influences for the film The Hudsucker Proxy, and while they mainly listed comedy greats like Preston Sturges and Katharine Hepburn, they couldn’t help but throw Boeing, Boeing into the mix as well. “That’s a great movie, Boeing Boeing, by the way,” Joel Coen said. “That’s probably the formative movie.”
Later, he added, “If I could keep only one film on video for all time, it would have to be Boeing, Boeing, a terrible 1965 sex comedy.”
Directed by John Rich, Boeing, Boeing was based on a French play that satirised Americans, the emerging Hollywood sex farce genre, and the new globetrotting mobility afforded by the airline boom of the 1960s. It stars Tony Curtis as Bernard, a journalist from the States living in Paris who is engaged to three flight attendants without their knowledge of each other. When his friend Robert (Jerry Lewis) drops in for a visit, things start to get messy.
You won’t find many people who think Boeing, Boeing is a masterpiece. In fact, you probably won’t find many people who think about it, full stop. However, the Coens consider it to be one of their greatest inspirations, and they are particularly tickled by a bit of behind-the-scenes trivia. Because Curtis and Lewis both considered themselves to be the most important stars of the picture, they insisted on exclusive top billing. To avoid a dustup, the studio put their names on a spinning axis so that both could claim to have what they’d asked for. On the poster, their names were presented in an ‘X’ formation, and in the trailer, neither of their names was mentioned to avoid a tantrum about whose name was said first. Such was the condition of the male movie star’s ego at the time.
The Coens loved this factoid so much that they talked about doing it in their own movies. They might not have gone such a direct route yet, but they have shown a particular delight in sending up male movie stars. Brad Pitt playing a vain gym rat in Burn After Reading and George Clooney playing a dim-witted prima donna in Hail, Caesar could easily have scratched an itch provoked by the unchecked childishness of Curtis and Lewis in Boeing, Boeing.
