If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

That Funny Feeling marked the last film that husband and wife Sandra Dee and Bobby Darin made together. Soon after this they split, but the passion was so strong they never remarried.I'm thinking that around this time Rock Hudson was getting set to depart from Universal and I'm sure the studio thinking was that Darin and Dee could step right into the shoes of Hudson and Doris Day. Ten years earlier Rock and Doris would have made this film no doubt about it.Sandra lives in a cracker box apartment with her friend Nita Talbot when she meets man about town Darin. Among other things Dee does to make the rent is clean apartments and she cleans Darin's though she never met him. Not knowing who he is, she pretends that his apartment is her's while Darin is supposed to be away on business.The business he's on is trying to protect and hide the assets of his boss Donald O'Connor in the Tony Randall role, to wit some modern art paintings, hideous to some, valuable to others from being part of a divorce settlement. After this film gets positively zany in the Rock and Doris tradition.O'Connor has some of the best lines in the film. I suppose had the Rock&Doris type comedies stayed in vogue O'Connor might have had a second career in these parts. A lot of other familiar faces dot the supporting cast, again like a Rock and Doris flick.Darin even sings the title song over the credits of That Funny Feeling. What more could you want?

Funny premise seems to go awry when want-to-be actress, Sandra Dee, who is working as a maid, pretends to be an elderly Janpanese woman on the phone, when she is speaking to her boss, executive Bobby Darrin.The fun starts when Dee moves into the apartment to stay while Darrin is on business in California. Of course, Darrin's trip is canceled and he is amazed to find her acting as though she is living in the apartment.To complicate matters, Donald O'Connor plays Darrin's boss who is going through a messy divorce and as a result has hidden some valuable paintings in the apartment.Nita Talbot steals the scenes that she is in as Dee's fellow maid and room mate. In the 1940s Eve Arden would have had this part as the wisecracks that are uttered are most appropriate to her.The picture gets bogged down with everyone staying in everyone else's apartment. This is not exactly 1960's "The Apartment."

Sandra Dee manages to dress exquisitely and take taxis all around New York City despite working as an out-call maid who has so little money she's forced to live in a cramped hovel with a girl roommate. But no matter. She meets eligible publishing magnate Bobby Darin and temporarily takes over an absentee client's bachelor pad as a front for her residence. The not-so-hilarious catch is: it's Darin's apartment. Tepid bedroom-comedy laden with misunderstandings and innuendo. Dee, making herself to home in Darin's swinging pad, actually manages to find bubble bath in his bathroom, while he--going along with her ruse--impersonates an interior decorator! A few funny moments (Darin, in his boxer shorts, causing a scene outside a pay phone; two nosy bartenders gossiping like sisters on the job) cannot compensate for an extremely thin screenplay by David R. Schwartz (working from Norman Barasch and Carroll Moore's story), which plays like third-rate Hudson & Day. *1/2 from ****

I don't for the life of me understand why critics have been so negative toward this film. It is a jewel of a movie, a romantic comedy that succeeds in both areas.This was the last film that the late former married couple, Sandra Dee and Bobby Darin made together, and it is one of their best.Joan Howell (Dee, adorable as always) is a struggling actress who works as a maid-for-hire. Tom Milford (Darin, handsome and charming)is a playboy business man. They seem to have little in common, except for the fact that Joan cleans his apartment (of which they are both unaware). After several run-ins (literally) the pair decide to go on a date. Humilated at the thought of taking him back to her cramped apartment which she shares with her wisecracking roommate, Audrey (the hilarious Nita Talbot), she decides to pretend that the apartment she is cleaning is her place, but what she doesn't realize is that it is Tom's apartment!!! Things escalate from there as a bewildered Tom goes along with her, all the while driving his poor harassed boss Harvey Granson (the one and only Donald O'Connor)insane, as he desperately wants to retrieve his priceless (but ugly) paintings from Tom's home. Of course, Joan discovers his deception and wants to get even, although she has fallen in love with him, and he has fallen in love with her. Wonderfully comedic complications and consequences take place.Larry Storch is priceless as Joan and Audrey's scrappy neighbor Luther, and Leo G. Carroll has a nice role as the owner of a pawnshop. James Westerfield nearly steals the show as a cop that Tom continually runs into, Robert Strauss and Ben Lessy are hysterical as two middle-aged bartenders with very vast imaginations, and Reta Shaw has a funny little bit as a miffed old lady.All in all, irresistible romantic fun!!! The title tune alone (written and performed by Darin) is in a class all by itself. Tons of fun.