Honeymoon Hotel is a 1964 American romantic comedy film directed by Henry Levin.
Jay Menlow (Robert Morse) is about to get married to Cynthia Hampton (Anne Helm) and abandon bachelor life, much to the dismay of his skirt-chasing friend Ross Kingsley (Robert Goulet). At the wedding site, Ross convinces Jay to engage in some girl-watching for old times' sake, only to get caught by Cynthia, who is furious and calls the wedding off. To lift Jay's spirits, Ross takes advantage of a reservation he and Cynthia had made at a fancy coastal hotel and goes with him. As it happens, the hotel is a honeymoon hotel, meant for newlywed couples only, but they somehow manage to stay anyway. While Jay is depressed over Cynthia, Ross flirts with the hotel's social director Lynn (Nancy Kwan) and alternately avoids and blackmails his boss (Keenan Wynn), who is having an extramarital affair with a ditzy secretary, Sherry (Jill St. John).
No relation to the animated short Honeymoon Hotel (1934).
Tropes:
- Alone Among the Couples: After his wedding to Cynthia is called off, Jay still goes to the honeymoon hotel to have a vacation with his best bro, if nothing else. The sight of all the recently married and very passionate couples at the hotel make Jay very depressed.
- Homoerotic Subtext: Two guys share a room in a hotel meant only for newlywed (heterosexual) couples. Other than the fact that several characters mistake them for gay, there's a scene where one of them is found hiding inside a closet and behind a feminine nightgown, looking like he's wearing it.
- Ladykiller in Love: Ross starts as a proudly incurable womanizer who balks at marriage. Falling in love with Lynn changes his mind.
- Mistaken for Gay: When Ross and Jay try to explain to the hotel manager about Jay's canceled wedding and why they're staying together, they accidentally make it sound as though they were stopped from getting married to each other, much to the manager's horror (to his credit, he doesn't kick them out for it).
- Perspective Reversal: Ross starts as an enthusiastic skirt-chasing bachelor, while Jay is looking to settle down. At the end, Ross goes steady with Lynn, while Jay has broken up with Cynthia and looks happy living the bachelor life as he plays around with Sherry.
- Worst Wedding Ever: While waiting for his wedding to start, Jay gets into ogling women with Ross. When Cynthia catches them, Jay takes too long to notice her fuming behind him and she calls the wedding off. This disaster hangs over Jay's head and makes him depressed for much of the film. Cynthia's father is also comically aghast at the cancellation because of how expensive it was.
