Promise Her Anything is a 1965

1965 in film

The year 1965 in film involved some significant events, with The Sound of Music topping the U.S. box office.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:...

 British

Cinema of the United Kingdom

The United Kingdom has had a major influence on modern cinema. The first moving pictures developed on celluloid film were made in Hyde Park, London in 1889 by William Friese Greene, a British inventor, who patented the process in 1890. It is generally regarded that the British film industry...

 romantic

Romance film

Romance films are love stories that focus on passion, emotion, and the affectionate involvement of the main characters and the journey that their love takes through courtship or marriage. Romance films make the love story or the search for love the main plot focus...

 comedy film

Comedy film

Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...

 directed by Arthur Hiller

Arthur Hiller

Arthur Hiller, OC is a Canadian film director. His filmography includes 33 major studio releases, including the 1970 film Love Story...

. The screenplay by William Peter Blatty

William Peter Blatty

William Peter Blatty is an American writer and filmmaker. The novel The Exorcist, written in 1971, is his magnum opus; he also penned the subsequent screenplay version of the film, for which he won an Academy Award....

 is based on a story by Arne Sultan and Marvin Worth

Marvin Worth

Marvin Worth was an American film producer, screenwriter and actor perhaps best known for his efforts to bring the biography of Malcolm X to the big screen. His efforts spanned from 1967, when he purchased the rights to The Autobiography of Malcolm X that led to the production of the 1972...

.

Plot

Recently widow

Widow

A widow is a woman whose spouse has died, while a widower is a man whose spouse has died. The state of having lost one's spouse to death is termed widowhood or occasionally viduity. The adjective form is widowed...

ed Michelle O'Brien moves into a Greenwich Village

Greenwich Village

Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...

 brownstone

Brownstone

Brownstone is a brown Triassic or Jurassic sandstone which was once a popular building material. The term is also used in the United States to refer to a terraced house clad in this material.-Types:-Apostle Island brownstone:...

 with her infant son John Thomas. Her upstairs neighbor Harley Rummel, a bohemian who earns a living by making nudie films in his apartment, becomes interested in her, but Michele believes her boss, wealthy psychologist

Psychology

Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...

 Peter Brock, is a better prospect as a new mate.

Although he is an authority on children, Peter actually despises them, so Michelle decides to keep John Thomas a secret for the time being. Unbeknownst to her, Harley is using the baby in his movies. When John Thomas is admitted to Peter's clinic for observation, Harley sneaks into his room to complete a film, but his surreptitious activities are captured by a hidden camera recording the baby's behavior. Michelle is furious but, when he saves John Thomas from a potentially dangerous situation, she forgives Harley and decides he may be the better choice for a father after all.

Production

The film was shot in its entirety at Shepperton Studios

Shepperton Studios

Shepperton Studios is a film studio in Shepperton, Surrey, England with a history dating back to 1931 since when many notable films have been made there...

 in Surrey, England.

The title song, with music by Burt Bacharach

Burt Bacharach

Burt F. Bacharach is an American pianist, composer and music producer. He is known for his popular hit songs and compositions from the mid-1950s through the 1980s, with lyrics written by Hal David. Many of their hits were produced specifically for, and performed by, Dionne Warwick...

 and lyrics by Hal David

Hal David

Harold Lane "Hal" David is an American lyricist. He grew up in Brooklyn, New York. David is best known for his collaborations with composer Burt Bacharach.-Career:...

, was performed on the soundtrack

Soundtrack

A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...

 by Tom Jones

Tom Jones (singer)

Sir Thomas John Woodward, OBE , known by his stage name Tom Jones, is a Welsh singer.Since the mid 1960s, Jones has sung many styles of popular music – pop, rock, R&B, show tunes, country, dance, techno, soul and gospel – and sold over 100 million records...

.

Includes a cameo by Donald Sutherland

Donald Sutherland

Donald McNichol Sutherland, OC is a Canadian actor with a film career spanning nearly 50 years. Some of Sutherland's more notable movie roles included offbeat warriors in such war movies as The Dirty Dozen, , MASH , and Kelly's Heroes , as well as in such popular films as Klute, Invasion of the...

.

Cast

• Warren Beatty
  Warren Beatty
  Warren Beatty born March 30, 1937) is an American actor, producer, screenwriter and director. He has received a total of fourteen Academy Award nominations, winning one for Best Director in 1982. He has also won four Golden Globe Awards including the Cecil B. DeMille Award.-Early life and...
  
   ..... Harley Rummell
• Leslie Caron
  Leslie Caron
  Leslie Claire Margaret Caron is a French film actress and dancer, who appeared in 45 films between 1951 and 2003. In 2006, her performance in Law and Order: Special Victims Unit won her an Emmy for guest actress in a drama series...
  
   ..... Michelle O'Brien
• Bob Cummings
  Robert Cummings
  Charles Clarence Robert Orville Cummings , mostly known professionally as Robert Cummings but sometimes as Bob Cummings, was an American film and television actor....
  
   ..... Dr. Peter Brock
• Keenan Wynn
  Keenan Wynn
  Keenan Wynn was an American character actor. His bristling mustache and expressive face were his stock in trade, and though he rarely had a lead role, he got prominent billing in most of his film and TV parts....
  
   .... Angelo Carelli
• Hermione Gingold
  Hermione Gingold
  Hermione Gingold was an English actress known for her sharp-tongued, eccentric persona, an image enhanced by her sharp nose and chin, as well as her deepening voice, a result of vocal nodes which her mother reportedly encouraged her not to remove. She starred on stage, on radio, in films, on...
  
   ..... Mrs. Luce
• Lionel Stander
  Lionel Stander
  Lionel Jay Stander was an American actor in films, radio, theater and television.-Early life and career:Lionel Stander was born in The Bronx, New York, to Russian Jewish immigrants, the first of three children...
  
   ..... Sam
• Asa Maynor ..... Rusty
• Cathleen Nesbitt
  Cathleen Nesbitt
  Cathleen Mary Nesbitt, CBE was an English stage and film actress.-Biography:Born in Cheshire, England in 1888, of Welsh and Irish descent, Nesbitt was educated in Lisieux, France, and at the Queen's University of Belfast and the Sorbonne...
  
   ..... Mrs. Brock
• Michael Bradley
  Michael Bradley
  Michael or Mike Bradley may refer to:*Michael Bradley , Football player from USA*Michael Bradley , American basketball player...
  
   ..... John Thomas
• Warren Mitchell
  Warren Mitchell
  Warren Mitchell is an English actor who rose to initial prominence in the role of bigoted cockney Alf Garnett in the BBC television sitcom Till Death Us Do Part , and its sequels Till Death... and In Sickness and in Health , all of which were written by Johnny Speight...
  
   ..... Frank Focus / Panel Moderator
• Sydney Tafler
  Sydney Tafler
  Sydney Tafler , was a British film and television actor, first appearing in London's West End in 1936, after two years at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, with Sir Seymour Hicks in The Man in Dress Clothes....
  
   ..... Panel Participant
• Michael Kane
  Michael Kane
  Michael Kane may refer to:* Michael Kane , American soccer player* Michael F. Kane , Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives* Michael Kane , Canadian actor.-See also:...
  
   ..... Staff Doctor
• Riggs O'Hara ..... Glue Sniffer
• Mavis Villiers
  Mavis Villiers
  Mavis Villiers, born Mavis Clare Cooney , was a British actress of stage, film and television. Her brother was Cecil Cooney, a camera operator and cinematographer. Her stage name, Villiers, was taken from her maternal grandfather...
  
   ..... Rusty's Mother
• Margaret Nolan
  Margaret Nolan
  Margaret Nolan, also known as Vicky Kennedy, is a British artist and a former actress and glamour model.-Career:...
  
   ..... Mail-Order Film Girl

Critical reception

Variety

Variety (magazine)

Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...

called the film "light" and "refreshing" and added, "Well-paced direction of many fine performances, generally sharp scripting and other good production elements add up to a satisfying comedy."

Time Out New York said, "This dull attempt at an offbeat and sophisticated romantic comedy falls flat on its face, thanks largely to the usual sluggish direction from Arthur Hiller [and] . . . a dismal script by William Peter Blatty."