Goodbye Charlie (1964, Tony Curtis, Debbie Reynolds)

When a Hungarian film producer (Walter Matthau) finds his wife in bed with a writer friend, Charlie Sorel, he fills his friend with bullets. The writer is reincarnated as a woman played by Debbie Reynolds, who enacts his/her revenge by (sometimes subconsciously) using his/her feminine wiles.

The strengths of this film, directed by Vincente Minnelli, involve the big-name cast and comic, gender bending storyline. Tony Curtis plays Charlie Sorel’s old friend whom the woman (Reynolds) moves in with; he’s understandably perplexed by her character traits, which he knows he’s seen before, in someone else.

Ellen McRae, named in the credits for Goodbye Charlie, is really Ellen Burstyn. This was her first film role, after nearly a decade of TV work, and she used the last name McRae for a couple of years, until she took her husband’s last name.’

production details
USA / 116 minutes / 1964

Director: Vincente Minnelli
Producer: David Weisbart
Cinematography: Milton Krasner
Editor: John W. Holmes
Music: Andre Previn
Script: Harry Kurnitz
Costume Design: Helen Rose
Art Direction: Richard Day, Jack Martin Smith

cast
Tony Curtis as George Wellington Tracy
Debbie Reynolds as Charlie Sorel réincarné / Virginia Mason
Pat Boone as Bruce Minton III
Joanna Barnes as Janie Highland
Ellen Burstyn as Franny Salzman
Laura Devon as Rusty Sartori
Martin Gabel as Morton Craft
Roger C. Carmel as Inspector
Harry Madden as Charles Sorel
Myrna Hansen as Starlet
Walter Matthau as Leo Sartori
Leoda Richards as Airport Extra / Beauty Salon Extra