Film

Sunday in New York

Name: Sunday in New York
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Released: 1963
Cast: Jane Fonda, Rod Taylor, Cliff Robertson, Robert Culp, Jo Morrow

Romantic comedy
Comedy
Light-hearted

A delightfully fizzy 1963 romantic comedy about a small-town girl who comes to New York determined to lose her virginity before going back home. Jane Fonda is perfectly cast as the wide-eyed but plucky Eileen, navigating the city's social rules and her own conflicting desires. It's that rare sixties confection that stays charming without feeling quaint—smart about desire, funny about manners, and genuinely fun to watch.

TMDb rating

3.4

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy sly, grown-up sex comedies of the early sixties where the banter is sharp, the morals are slippery, and a bachelor's apartment becomes a battleground of wit and bravado.

Skip it if you need fast pacing or modern frankness, since the flirtation is coy, the jokes are gentle, and the romance moves at a leisurely, somewhat stagy clip for a 1963 comedy.

What it asks of you: It runs about an hour and forty-five minutes and stays mostly in a few rooms, so it wants patience with talky scenes and a willingness to watch the characters circle each other.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Breakfast at Tiffany's1961

Audrey Hepburn in New York City, similarly concerned with independence and self-invention. A gold-standard romantic comedy with wit, style, and real vulnerability beneath the glamour.

But The racial elements haven't aged well, and the ending feels obligatory rather than earned.

Roman Holiday1953

Another young woman discovering freedom in a great city, paired with a charming man who lets her be herself. Endlessly romantic and deeply felt, never saccharine.

But It trades in a kind of wistfulness that some find melancholic rather than uplifting.

That Touch of Mink1962

Doris Day and Cary Grant in a very similar setup—hesitation and desire, New York glamour, and a battle of wits that feels genuinely matched. Brisk, fun, and surprisingly wise.

But Gender politics that feel dated; the film is comfortable with assumptions we've moved past.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Sunday in New York

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Breathless1960

Both are about attractive young people using the city as a playground for moral and romantic experimentation, but Godard strips away the safety and grace notes to show what that actually costs.

Jean-Luc Godard's radical romantic thriller about a young man and woman loose in Paris. Like Sunday in New York, it's about seduction and self-determination, but told through a fractured, urgent lens that makes it feel dangerous and alive.

But The French New Wave grammar is demanding—jump cuts, broken narrative, philosophical digressions. It requires active watching, not passive entertainment.

Sabrina1954

Audrey Hepburn again, but this time the fish-out-of-water is older and knowable. A Parisian rather than Manhattan transformation, yet the themes of self-discovery are identical and moving.

But The romance can feel secondary to the social climbing, and some viewers find the class attitudes troubling.

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying1967

A musical about ambition, seduction, and getting ahead in the big city, made just a few years later. The tone is similar—zippy, optimistic, a little naughty, full of style.

But It's a musical, so there are production numbers; if you're not in the mood, they can break the rhythm.

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying poster

The Graduate1967

Also obsessed with virginity, seduction, and generational difference, but from the opposite angle. Funny and aching, it asks similar questions about desire and self-knowledge.

But The tone is darker and more anxious; it doesn't have the breezy charm of Sunday in New York.

Barefoot in the Park1967

Jane Fonda again, this time as a newlywed navigating marriage and independence in New York. Romantic, lively, and genuinely funny about partnership and compromise.

But The marriage plot might feel conventional if you're after something more rebellious.

Funny Girl1968

Barbra Streisand's debut, a woman using ambition and charm to remake herself in the big city. Glamorous, energetic, and deeply felt about the costs of reinvention.

But It's over two hours, and the second half shifts into melodrama; some find the tonal shift jarring.

The Marrying Kind1952

Judy Holliday and Aldo Ray as a couple looking back on their marriage. It's funny and warm, but also honest about how complicated love actually is beneath the rom-com surface.

But The framing device feels slow, and it's more bittersweet than outright charming.

The Mary Tyler Moore Show1970

Both are optimistic about female independence and ambition, but MTM carries that optimism forward into a vision of genuine adulthood rather than just one transformative weekend.

A sitcom about a single woman finding independence in the big city, working and dating and figuring out who she is. It has the same optimism as Sunday in New York, but it's funny in a sharper, more modern way.

But It's episodic, so you need to commit to a season; the early episodes are also rougher than the later ones.

La Strada1954

Both follow an innocent young woman navigating the world beyond her small-town life, but Fellini's version asks what that innocence is actually worth and whether the city saves or destroys it.

Fellini's heartbreaking odyssey of a young woman caught between naïveté and exploitation, traveling through post-war Italy with a brutal strongman. Visually stunning and emotionally profound.

But It's bleak, slow, and deeply sad. There's no charm here—it's about what happens when innocence meets a cruel world, not charmed by it.