Promise Her Anything is a 1966 romantic comedy film directed by Arthur Hiller, starring Warren Beatty and Leslie Caron.
Harley Hartwell (Beatty) is an aspiring filmmaker who lives in Greenwich Village. Harley has dreams of cinematic art but is stuck making nudie movies, which is frustrating both to him and to his producer, Angelo (Keenan Wynn), who thinks Harley's T&A movies don't have enough T or enough A.
Enter Michele O'Brien (Caron), recently widowed, with a toddler son. She works as secretary/assistant to Dr. Philip Brock (Bob Cummings), a famous child psychologist. Despite his career as a bestselling author and lecturer in the field of child psychology, Dr. Brock has no children and doesn't even like them. So Michele, who would like to land Philip as a husband for the financial security, is carefully hiding the existence of her little boy, John Thomas.
Michele moves in to the apartment next to Harvey's, and romantic sparks fly between the two attractive young people, even while Michele continues to chase after Philip. Also, Harvey, casting about for something to make his nudie movies more interesting, starts splicing in footage of little John Thomas.
Bessie Love, star of silent and early talking films, appears briefly as a customer in the pet store. Donald Sutherland, who would soon get his Star-Making Role in The Dirty Dozen, appears briefly as a father seeking Dr. Brock's autograph. William Peter Blatty—yes, the guy who wrote The Exorcist—wrote the screenplay.
Tropes:
- Alcohol Hic: Michele hiccups when Harley starts plying her with champagne in an effort to get her drunk enough for sex.
- As You Know: Angelo's frustration at Harley's nudie movies being too tame leads to a bunch of exposition about how they met in the army and Angelo got Harley into motion picture school.
- Body Paint: The models performing in Harley's movie in the opening scene are wearing painted-on bustiers.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Little John Thomas wanders into the apartment and calls Harley "Dada." Harley looks straight into the camera and says "I deny everything and demand proof."
- But Liquor Is Quicker: Harley tries to get Michele liquored up for sex, serving her champagne that he lies is cut with 7-Up. It seems like it's about to work when the baby starts crying and kills the mood.
- The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes: Dr. Brock writes best sellers about child care, hosts seminars in which he lectures mothers about infant development, and has a research lab where he studies infant psychology. He has no children and doesn't like them.
- Conversation Cut: Rusty is telling about a dream she had. She says "Once I dreamed I went to the opera in my—" and the scene cuts to Michele saying "—rubber pants!". She's looking for John Thomas's diapers.
- Cool Old Lady: Philip's snarky old lady of a mother. She pesters him about going out on dates so he can find someone and give her grandchildren, saying "You got an Oedipus complex or something?" Later, when Philip asks his mom why she's taking the Mercedes out, she says "I like it. It's a sex substitute."
- Dirty Old Man: The dirty old man isn't shown or even heard, but Harley takes a phone order for one of his T&A films from someone at a "Senior Citizens Recreational Center" in Brooklyn.
- Disturbed Doves: Harley, who seems to be driven to add surrealistic touches to his films of half-naked ladies, has a bunch of disturbed doves flapping around in the film he's shooting in the opening scene.
- The End: The closing credits play over a blinking neon sign advertising flights to Italy, "NON-STOP". After the credits end the sign blinks to "STOP" and the movie ends.
- Fanservice: Most of this movie is filled with fanservice from the gorgeous models that appear in Harley's skin flicks, but Leslie Caron gets in on the action when she wears a skin-tight, midriff-baring white lace outfit for when Philip comes over.
- Fanservice Extra: The models in Harley's movies. One of them, Margaret Nolan, also played Dink in Goldfinger and the Gambler Groupie in A Hard Day's Night.
- Food Slap: Done by accident. Harley is putting the full-court press on Michele while John Thomas is pushing around his baby food with a spoon. When Harley gives Michele a meaningful look and says "Today you can enjoy the benefits of being married without actually being married," John Thomas flicks his spoon and splatters Harley's face with baby food.
- Funny Background Event: A panicked retreat of the cast of Harley's movie leads to a half-naked Rusty jumping into Sam's crane. This is followed by a scene where Philip is casually chatting with Michele in her apartment, while behind him the crane careens around wildly as Sam tries to remove the rest of Rusty's clothes while she tries to fend him off.
- Funny Foreigner: A Running Gag has Michele, who is obviously from somewhere in Western Europe, mangling English words. In one scene she changes "hypochondriac" to "hydrochondriac".
- Hand-or-Object Underwear: The models in Harley's movie in the opening scene are pretending to play guitars that they're holding in front of their breasts.
- ISO-Standard Urban Groceries: Harley has two loafs of French bread sticking out of the bag he's carrying back to his apartment.
- I Want Grandkids: Philip's mother wants grandkids, which is why she's pestering him to go out with Michele.
- Leg Focus: As Michele sits at her desk while wearing a knee skirt, a camera zoom illustrates Philip's Male Gaze as he stares at her calves.
- Meet Cute: John Thomas wanders off while Michele gets distracted with the movers, and walks right into Harley's apartment. A frantic Michele finds the two of them together in the hallway.
- The Peeping Tom: Harley has a friend named Sam that appears to be a window washer—he has a crane. He likes to use his crane to peep through the window while Harley makes his nudie movies.
- Shout-Out:
- "You are the Ingmar Bergman of the mail-order movies!"
- At the end Harley has gotten a dream job working in Italian art cinema. An indignant Angelo, begging him to stay home, says "They'll have you directing shoeshine boys stealing bicycles from two women!".
- Someone to Remember Him By: Michele's husband was a test pilot who crashed. She says he never saw his son John Thomas.
- Tablecloth Yank: Michele's frantic scramble to conceal all signs of a child in her apartment ends with her whipping off a kid-friendly tablecloth, leaving the vase of flowers in place.
- Title Drop: The landlady warns Michele to steer clear of Harley the handsome rogue, saying "He'll promise you anything."
- Title Theme Tune: Tom Jones sings a song called "Promise Her Anything" over the opening credits.
- Toplessness from the Back: More fanservice from the models in Harley's movies. It was 1966 so American/British films weren't quite ready to show topless women.
- Unusual Euphemism: Harley and Angelo refer to their T&A films as "mail-order movies".
