Womanizing Charlie is shot by an angry husband and falls in the sea. He arrives home after his memorial as a cute, amnesic woman. His old friend helps her/him.
Shot by a jealous husband, Charley falls out a porthole and is lost at sea only to find himself returned as an attractive blond woman. His best friend is staying at his house as he puts Charlie's affairs in order and after being convinced, finds himself an unwilling helper in Charlie's new plan to marry into money.—John Vogel <[email protected]>
George Tracy and Charlie Sorel, both thirty-six years of age, are writers - a Paris novelist and Hollywood screenwriter, respectively - best friends, and partners in crime in skirt chasing. Charlie is shot dead aboard a yacht during a party by filmmaker Sir Leopold Sartori after he catches Charlie fooling around with his wife, Rusty, Charlie's body which falls overboard and which is not found. Sartori's act is despite he being a notorious womanizer himself. Charlie's sparsely attended funeral service, at which George provides the eulogy, demonstrates how Charlie's womanizing ways negatively affected his so called friendships. Staying at Charlie's Malibu beach house, George meets a beautiful young woman who seems to be suffering from amnesia, but is drawn to Charlie's house. George initially believes she is one of Charlie's conquests, but she eventually comes to the realization and is able to convince George that she is Charlie reincarnated. George ultimately believes it is God's divine retribution for Charlie to come back as an object of his own derision. But together and individually, George and Charlie have to devise a way for Charlie to live in this new female body, George who has no money to support Charlie, and Charlie's estate which is bankrupt. In addition, Charlie, who has always been a player, figures that she should be able to capitalize on her new womanhood, which includes using knowledge of her former indiscretions as a man, and getting back at Sir Leo. But she may also be able to eke out a lucrative life as she becomes the object of affection of wealthy momma's boy, Bruce Minton III.—Huggo
Philandering Hollywood writer Charlie Sorrel (Harry Madden) is shot and killed by Hungarian film producer Sir Leopold Sartori (Walter Matthau) when he is caught fooling around with Leopold's wife, Rusty (Laura Devon). Charlie's best and only friend, novelist George Tracy (Tony Curtis), arrives at Charlie's Malibu beach house for the memorial service, after an exhausting series of flights from Paris that have left him broke. There are only three people there, Charlie's agent and two ex-girlfriends. George does his best to eulogize his friend but there is little to be said in favor of Charlie, whose final bad joke on George is making him executor of his estate --- which is a mess of debts and unpaid taxes.
Soon after the guests leave, an exhausted George is awakened by a knock at the terrace door and the appearance of Bruce Minton III (Pat Boone) assisting a petite blonde woman swathed in a huge brown overcoat. Bruce came to her aid when he found her dazed and wandering on the road, completely naked. She does not remember much, but she recognized Charlie's house as they drove past it and it made her feel safe. Bruce rushes off to a dinner engagement, leaving a sleep-deprived George to cope with the delirious woman. The next morning, George awakes to her screams. It all comes back to her: She is Charlie, reincarnated as a woman. After getting over the shock, she convinces George of her identity by telling him about a dirty trick that she had recently played on him as a man. George realizes that this must be a case of karmic retribution for all of the women Charlie has used and betrayed.
All manner of complications arise as Charlie decides to take advantage of the situation. George helps her by establishing her as Charlie's widow, figuring out their finances --- they are both broke --- and boosting her morale. From the beginning, Charlie finds herself subject to a whole new set of emotions and sensations. Her masculine mannerisms begin to fade, partly because Charlie is a consummate actor, but also because the change is more than skin deep. At one point, she bursts into uncontrollable tears. George comforts her as he would comfort a weeping girl, wiping her tears and stroking her hair to calm her down, and then pulls back, disturbed at the tenderness.
Although Charlie has changed her gender, she is unable to change her ways: she decides to solve her money problems by using her intimate knowledge for blackmail and by marrying Bruce for money. The plans fall apart when Bruce, on the verge of passing out, reveals the depth of his love for her. Charlie takes pity on him and slips the engagement ring into his hand.
Eventually, in a grim role reversal that she recognizes all too well when it happens, Charlie ends up being chased around the house by Leopold, who cheerfully spouts amorous nonsense and is intent on making love to her. Rusty arrives, gun in hand, and just as Charlie climbs onto the terrace railing to jump, Rusty shoots her; she plunges into the ocean below. George, who has arrived in the midst of the mélée, leaps after Charlie, but there is no sign of a body. After lecturing the Sartoris for their actions, George orders them to leave and never tell anyone about it. The couple reconcile and Leopold promises eternal gratitude to George.
George is asleep in a chair; the sound of a woman's voice calling "Charlie" over and over again wakes him. This time there are two beings on the terrace --- a woman and her Great Dane, Charlie. George quickly establishes her bona fides as a real person, Virginia Mason. She takes one look at him and decides he needs food. She commands Charlie to sit and stay. Virginia and George talk in the kitchen; it is clearly love at first sight. The dog goes into the living room, to the bookcase, to Charlie's secret cache of vodka (behind War and Peace). The bottle falls and breaks; Charlie laps a bit from the floor and looking heavenward, begins to howl.
