The Wheeler Dealers

James Garner is perfectly cast as Texas oilman Henry Tyroon, who heads to New York City to raise money when his newly-drilled wells all come up dry, and Lee Remick costars as Molly Thatcher, an aspiring stockbroker trying to chip away at the glass ceiling in an all-male firm, in director Arthur Hiller's 1963 romantic comedy about a savvy good old boy courting Wall Street and New York high society. Henry is close to being a con-man, but he's less interested in money than in putting together deals in which everyone makes a profit. Henry is also very much taken with Molly, a modern woman with a frank attitude toward sex (the films plays like a Doris Day/Rock Hudson 1960s sex comedy with a Texas drawl). Henry shows the bigwigs that he's no rube as he cuts through the hype with appropriately folksy aphorisms, which turns out to be a put-on of its own kind. For a film that at least pretends to confront women's rights and equanimity in the workplace, The Wheeler Dealers certainly falls back on sexist assumptions and romantic clichés. But it is also entertaining, thanks to Garner's grinning charm, Remick's modernity, and a supporting cast of comic actors that include Jim Backus as a Wall Street boss, Louis Nye as a bohemian artist, John Astin as a financial prosecutor, and Phil Harris, Chill Wills, and Pat Harrington Jr. as a trio of Texas investors who try to play cupid for Henry. A strong optional purchase. (S. Axmaker)