Under the Yum-Yum Tree Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

Under the Yum-Yum Tree Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 1, 2021

Considering what a “nice guy” Jack Lemmon was generally perceived to be by the filmgoing public, with an overall persona engendering responses that might be likened to how people tend to react to Tom Hanks nowadays, there was an awful lot of smarm, either subtextually or in some cases textually, in quite a few films featuring Lemmon. Phffft, one of the other in a quartet of Lemmon films Sony-Columbia has just released on Blu-ray, might be an example of the former type, with Lemmon’s character repeatedly reading from a racy “dimestore paperback” that features Lemmon quoting a passage of a woman slowly unbuttoning her sweater in a seductive fashion. Under the Yum Yum Tree is probably a much more overt example of a certain smarminess, dealing with a lothario who runs an apartment house catering to nubile young women.

Hogan (Jack Lemmon) is a freewheeling guy who has discovered the key to being a successful bachelor: he's used his considerable wealth to buy an apartment house where he rents only to single young women for an incredibly reasonable rate. Suffice it to say that, while this film's 1963 production date required a certain amount of circumspection, there are broad (no pun intended) hints dropped that Hogan is at the very least romancing and quite possibly bedding several of the "yum-yum girls". The film actually begins by introducing Robin Austin (Carol Lynley), a young college student who would seem to be the perfect "target" for Hogan, but who is involved with boyfriend David Manning (Dean Jones, reprising his performance from the original Broadway stage version). Robin and David have decided to cohabitate, albeit without any sex, before marrying, just to see how it goes, but they're desperately in need of an apartment. Can you feel the plot points being "artfully" arranged?

That questionable quality continues as Robin attends a class in sexuality (or something like that) which turns out to be taught by her aunt, Irene Wilson (Edie Adams). Irene mentions in passing she's getting ready to move from an apartment Robin has obviously been to, with Irene's friend and fellow professor Charles Howard (Robert Lansing) having agreed to help. Suffice it to say Robin immediately scurries over to Hogan's facility, introduces herself and takes possession of the place, without letting Hogan in on the "little" fact that David's moving in, too. Hilarity, as they say, ensues, or at least is supposed to.

Under the Yum-Yum Tree was not exactly a smash hit during the 1960-61 Broadway season, but it did well enough to run for several months, probably based at least in part on the star power of Gig Young as Hogan, as well as the New York City marquee value of Sandra Church, then just coming off of her Tony nominated performance as the titular character in Gypsy, here playing the role which would be taken over by Carol Lynley in the film version. The story tries fitfully to be a farce, but it simply doesn't have the interlocking plot strands that idiom typically offers, and instead the "comedy" is often pretty forced, and my personal hunch is it will be downright objectionable to some females in particular raised in an era of increased awareness of perceived incipient sexism in the media. The best example in this particular regard probably comes early in the film when Robin is checking out the apartment and Hogan is checking out Robin. Robin asks if Hogan needs any references, bending over to look at something. Hogan admires her posterior and says, "Oh, you've given me your references." If that's the sort of line that sparks guffaws in you, Under the Yum-Yum Tree may actually provide a bit of entertainment.

Under the Yum-Yum Tree Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Under the Yum-Yum Tree is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. This presentation is somewhat in line with the one of Blu-ray release of Good Neighbor Sam, the film Lemmon went on to make with this film's director David Swift the year after Under the Yum-Yum Tree was released. As with the previous film, the opening credits sequence looks faded and rough, but then there's a definite uptick in saturation, clarity and general quality (see screenshot 2, taken from the film's actual opening moment). Unfortunately, as with Good Neighbor Sam, the image suffers some pretty noticeable downgrading a bit after that, in this case around the 17 minute mark, where once again things deteriorate noticeably. Part of this is due in this instance to the fact that Under the Yum-Yum Tree has a lot of optical dissolves, and it looks to me like editor Charles Nelson didn't "bump" in and out of dupe elements, since often dissolves give way to more dissolves throughout the film. You can almost spot where dupes due to dissolves occur in this film begin and end due to the very noticeable drop off in saturation and clarity, along with a chunkier, grittier grain field. On the whole, though, the "primary" moments here look rather good, with a solid accounting of a palette that is often drenched in deep reds. Fine detail on fabrics and the like tends to be very good, at least in the best looking moments. I noticed no compression anomalies of any kind.

Under the Yum-Yum Tree Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Under the Yum-Yum Tree features an engaging DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track. The film gets off to a somewhat iffy start with a pretty forgettable theme song warbled by James Darren in a kind of quasi-Bobby Darin mode, who perhaps reveals why he never became a huge singing star. This film, like Good Neighbor Sam, features an otherwise bouncy score by Frank De Vol, which sounds fine throughout. Dialogue is also rendered without any problems throughout the presentation. Optional subtitles in English or French are also available.

Under the Yum-Yum Tree Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Jack Lemmon: The Man Behind the Magic is a fun archival piece on the actor with some good interviews with son Chris, and some perhaps now less appreciated ones featuring Kevin Spacey. This is split into two parts as follows:

  Part 1 (1080i; 18:23)

  
  

  Part 2 (1080i; 24:12)

• "Marriageable Man" Episode of Ford All Star Theatre (1080p; 25:48) is a vintage television episode starring Ida Lupino and Jack Lemmon.


• Teaser Trailer (1080p; 00:56)


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 3:03)

Under the Yum-Yum Tree Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This is one of those supposed comedies where you can feel the writing attempting to move the "pawn" characters around to create mirth and merriment, but where those machinations often come off as overly contrived and frankly just not all that funny. I can't imagine younger feminists not getting outraged by the general storyline here, not to mention some of the depictions of the women in the film. That said, the cast is fun and Lemmon fans in particular may get at least a bit of enjoyment out of the film. Video quality kind of ebbs and flows, but audio is fine, and unlike several of the other Lemmon films Sony-Columbia has just released on Blu-ray, this one at least has some decent supplements, for those who are considering a purchase.