CommentsXp Best movie ever!

Sexyloutak Absolutely the worst movie.

Loui Blair It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Janis One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

js-58417 "Under The Yum Yum Tree" (1963) is not as bad as some reviewers may have you believe if you consider the time it was made.It's hard to believe that no other reviewer seems to get the basic premise of this story. The concept is shown at the beginning titles (not to mention the film's title.) The "Yum Yum Tree" has grapes (fruit) hanging off of it while a man and woman dance around it. This is clearly representative of the Bible story in Genesis with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Eve is tempted by the snake (Satan) to take a bite of the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Doing so will make her aware of her nakedness and therefore 'Carnal Sin'. She then corrupts Adam by convincing him to do the same.In this film, a young college girl, Robin (Carol Lynley) moves into a new apartment with her boyfriend, Dave (Dean Jones in Goody-Two-Shoes mode) to prove that they can cohabitate as intelligent adults in a platonic situation before they get married. The landlord, Hogan (Jack Lemmon), is literally the devil incarnate. He spends the entirety of the movie doing all he can to entice the young couple to break their moral code and have sex. Even going so far as to make sexual advances toward her himself.The film is presented as something of a fantasy/fairy tale, so the behavior and sets do seem a bit unreal. This sort of approach was popular as a sub-genre of the day. Compare it to "Damn Yankees" (1958) or "Bedazzled" (1967) as devil characters presented broadly, or even "Bell, Book & Candle" (1958). Therefore, Hogan is certainly a lecherous creep and Peeping Tom, surrounding himself in his apartment complex with young women of perhaps loose morals, which when considered as real human characteristics would be far beyond acceptable behavior. But when seen as the Devil himself his behavior makes more sense. It is supposed to be over-the-top! Hogan dresses in red, drives a red sports car, has an apartment with red carpet, walls, & furnishings. At one point Dave is sleeping on the couch snoring. Hogan sneaks in and waves his hand above Dave's head and the snoring stops, showing a bit of supernatural power. Later, Hogan mentioned that he is devilish while examining his key cabinet, then the film cuts to Dave who briefly prays "Oh God".True, the premise isn't too complicated and there is very little plot, but for an early '60s foray into "modern" sexual relationships it's all pretty harmless. Especially since the couple passes the test to stay chaste until married. The fun is in the over-the-top performances by Lemmon and the always amusing Paul Lynde & Imogene Coca. Worthy viewing for fans of the era, genre, or stars.

marcslope Ben Mankiewicz noted on TCM that Jack Lemmon was not happy being assigned this film version of a semi-hit Broadway sex comedy from 1960, and you can see why. As the libidinous landlord of a California complex who rents out only to nubile young things, he's playing an absolutely awful man, and for all his comic finesse, he's charmless and irritating. In Lawrence Roman's oversexed plot (he adapted his play with director David Swift), Lemmon's Hogan mistakenly rents a beautiful one bedroom (for $75 a month; oh, to be in 1963) to undergrad Carol Lynley, who plans to share it platonically with her fiancé, Dean Jones, who had played this part on Broadway. And from there it's one long smirk, with Lynley wiggling her fanny in short-short outfits, Jones bemoaning how difficult a no-sex policy is, and Lemmon mugging and being thoroughly unpleasant. Edie Adams, as Lemmon's ex and Lynley's aunt, is a pro, and Paul Lynde, as a horny-for-young-girls (ha) gardener, and Imogene Coca, as his disapproving wife, wring what laughs they can out of repellent material. If you want to know what '60s sex comedies were like, with endless jokes on will-she-won't- she-lose-her-virginity, this is a good example, typically over lit and supplemented with a cutesy Frank DeVol score. And Lynley and Jones are charming. But given the change in morality in intervening years, it looks it was made on another planet.

ferbs54 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....

Poseidon-3 Films certainly underwent some massive changes during the 60's. Compare the "chaste" sex comedy of this 1963 movie with the far more permissive and blatant movies of the latter part of the decade. Lemmon plays a relentless, lascivious skirt-chaser who runs an apartment complex called Centaur Apartments. Renting only to women, he says goodbye to former flame Adams and, before he can adjust to it, has rented the vacant apartment to her pert and very attractive niece Lynley. Lemmon can barely contain his glee as he sets out to carve yet another notch on his figurative bedpost, but he's unaware that Lynley has arranged for her boyfriend Jones to live with her (platonically) as well as part of an experimental, pre-marital arrangement! While Lynley and Jones wrestle with their hormones and strive to shield each other from temptation, Lemmon peers through windows and hangs from the roof when he isn't just trotting right through the front door with one of his many, many keys. The goings-on are observed by Lynde, as an envious gardener, and Coca, as his disapproving, cleaning-lady wife. Plenty of predictable misunderstandings and shenanigans take place with opposing sides either vigilantly defending Lynley's virginity or trying to get it taken away. All of it is handled with a soft touch through suggestiveness, innuendo or comedy. Lemmon tackles a very unusual role for him and is at least partially successful with it. He outrageously skulks around like Wile E. Coyote, with a battery of tricks up his sleeve, while appropriately cartoonish music plays. His antics eventually grow tiresome and he overacts with abandon, but it's still fascinating to see him in this light. Lynley was probably never more beautiful than in this film and, most of the time, she's quite appealing. She handles a stock "liberal, progressive virgin" role with skill. Jones (impossibly skinny, especially during the seduction scene towards the end) is charming and endearingly lunkheaded. He and Lynley make a very nice couple. Adams is saddled with a fretful role, but she looks pretty nice and manages a few nice moments. Handsome Lansing, as her new fiancé, has a very thankless part (one which was not in the original Broadway play on which this is based.) Coca is afforded several amusing bits as is Lynde, but Lynde was capable of far more hilarious screen activity than he's allowed to show here. Some of the material was just a tad obvious and tired, even for 1963. The film would have benefited well from a little bit of pruning in the redundant dialogue and more lengthy sequences. Still, it's a very colorful, silly, wacky romp that, if nothing else, makes for a fascinating time capsule of what filmmakers of the era thought (or perhaps wanted audiences to think) was the right way for people to behave. The sets are quite amazing, actually, though patently artificial-looking at all times. The opening credits for the film are really bizarre with a big fake tree hovering over two dancers as James Darren croons the title song. It's amazing how similar Darren sounds to the much later Harry Connick Jr. Incidentally, among Lynley's belongings in the apartment is a Darren LP! Bixby appears briefly as a potential male tenant, given the brush-off by Lemmon. A few years later, Ryan O'Neal, Leigh Taylor-Young and Harold Gould would film a pilot movie intended to set this up as a series, but it didn't come to fruition.