If a Man Answers

The Missing Scene

Sandra Dee & Bobby Darin
One of many unreleased movies on video of the 1960's is Universals If a Man Answers starring Sandra Dee and Bobby Darin. Made in 1962, the movie was shown frequently on television. By the 1980's and early 1990's, the Family Channel on cable aired If a Man Answers many times. When the Family channel changed to The Fox Family channel in 1997, "If A Man Answers" mysteriously dropped out of sight and has not been shown since.
When the Family Channel aired If a Man Answers it eventually edited a scene from the film. It involved the main characters (Darin's Eugene and Dee's Charlie Wright) waking up in bed and then going to downtown NY for a shopping spree. Why it was cut was not exactly known ( more time for commercials perhaps...) but now you can hopefully re-capture this scene on this page.
Short synopsis:
Early on a Saturday morning, Chantel (Charlie) unsuccessfully tries to rouse her husband Eugene Wright from bed to go shopping with her to Bloomingdales to purchase fabric for drapes for his photography studio. Eugene refuses, so Charlie gets up to secretly look at the book her mother gave her about raising her "pet." (More explaining this part of the film is here.) Charlie reads the instructions to herself about "letting her pet lead the way". Chantel then brings a surprised Gene breakfast in bed and tells him sweetly that she will "go wherever he wants to go." With background music and no dialoge,the couple is shown walking through the NY city streets, looking at a construction site and shopping in a camera store, where Gene is wanting to go. As they are out on the streets again, Chantel looks behind her as Gene lags behind. She laughs as she sees him tying his shoe on a fire hydrant. (Gene only smiles unknowingly.)
The Wrights wind up at Gene's favorite tobacco store where Gene is engrossed in buying pipe tobacco for himself. Chantel tells him she is wanting to go to Bloomingdales but he seems disinterested, saying he will meet her at home. Worried, Charlie calls her mother from a pay phone, since she does not have the book handy.After she tells her tale of woe ,her mother tells her to "jerk and then slacken up the leash immediately, and praise her pet lavishly." Charlie follows her mothers advice as she insists Gene accompanies her to Bloomingdales to shop. She tells Gene she need his good judgement and praises Gene about his good taste. Gene smiles, "I picked you didn't I?" and follows her happily out the door of the tobacco store by the hand.

Audio

" Come on, up slave!"

"Not today, Charlie"

"What did you call me?"

"This is your day..."

"You mean it?"

An impressed Gene and bored Charlie looking at a contruction site on their way to the camera store

Charlie Laughs...

...as Gene ties his shoe on a fire hydrant...

But fortunately Gene doesn't get the joke

"Gene, Bloomingdales is just one block over..."

A worried Charlie calls her mother

MaMa coaches Charlie about how to handle her "pet"