General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20264 min read

Ask Any Girl

Ask Any Girl is a 1959 American romantic comedy produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, directed by Charles Walters and starring David Niven, Shirley MacLaine, and Gig Young. It is based on the 1958 novel Ask Any Girl by Winifred Wolfe, with a screenplay by George Wells, and was produced by Joe Pasternak.¹

Key fact	Detail
Release	New York opening 21 May 1959; general release June 1959¹
Principal cast	David Niven as Miles Doughton, Shirley MacLaine as Meg Wheeler, Gig Young as Evan Doughton, Rod Taylor as Ross Taford, Jim Backus as Mr. Maxwell¹
Source	Novel Ask Any Girl by Winifred Wolfe (New York, 1958); screenplay by George Wells¹
Technical format	CinemaScope widescreen in Metrocolor, Westrex recording, Panavision photographic lenses; 11 reels, 8,804 feet, 98 or 101 minutes¹
Awards	Shirley MacLaine won the Silver Bear as best foreign actress at the Berlin Film Festival and best foreign actress at the British Film Awards; she was also nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical²^•³
Finances	Reported production budget of $1,140,000 against a reported worldwide gross of $3,745,000⁴

Spoilers

Plot

Twenty-one-year-old Meg Wheeler leaves her small town for New York to find happiness, and moments after arriving her suitcase containing all her clothes is stolen. She takes a room at the Albemarle Hotel for Women, where she joins other young single women looking for employment and husbands, and is befriended by Jeannie Boyden, who lends her clothes for a job interview. At a sweater manufacturer, Meg demonstrates poor secretarial skills but is hired anyway because owner Mr. Maxwell likes how she looks in a sweater.¹

Meg begins dating the wealthy client Ross Taford and accepts an invitation to his aunt and uncle's cottage upstate, believing meeting his family means a proposal is coming. Instead, Ross has deliberately not mentioned that his relatives are away, and Meg flees, spending a stormy night alone at the train station. On the morning train Ross implies to Mr. Maxwell that he and Meg spent the night together; Maxwell then pursues Meg at work, forcing her resignation.¹

Through Jeannie, Meg joins an advertising trial and eventually lands at a market research firm run by the punctilious Miles Doughton (Niven) and his playboy brother Evan (Young). Meg falls for Evan and enlists Miles's help to market herself as a product that will appeal to him; Miles, who does not recognize that he has fallen in love with her himself, plays the mentor.¹^•²^•⁵

Production

Production began in late November 1958 and ran into early January 1959, at the MGM studios in Culver City.¹^•⁵ The three leads were each coming off well-received 1958 performances: Gig Young in Teacher's Pet, Shirley MacLaine in Some Came Running, and David Niven in Separate Tables, for which he would be nominated for Best Actor. Shortly after production wrapped, all three received Academy Award nominations for those other films; Niven won, and the publicity surrounding the Oscars coincided with Ask Any Girl's release.²

According to a Hollywood Reporter news item, Twentieth Century-Fox refused MGM's request to borrow Stuart Whitman for a major role. Trade-paper casting lists also added Robert Bronner, Gene Blakely, Roy Sickner, and Kathryn Card to the cast, but their appearance in the finished film has not been confirmed.¹

The production crew included cinematographer Robert Bronner, editor John McSweeney, art directors William A. Horning and Urie McCleary, costume designer Helen Rose, and composer and musical director Jeff Alexander. The film uses the standard "I'm in the Mood for Love," with music by James McHugh and lyrics by Dorothy Fields.¹

Reception and legacy

MacLaine's performance drew the strongest notices. A contemporary trade comment quoted by Turner Classic Movies said the film was "climbing to the top of the box office totem pole largely because of her enchanting performance in a second-rate story."² She won the Silver Bear as best foreign actress at the Berlin Film Festival and best foreign actress at the British Film Awards, and received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical.²^•³

The film earned a reported $3,745,000 worldwide against a reported $1,140,000 budget.⁴ Released a few months before Doris Day's Pillow Talk, it belongs to the same cycle of late-1950s working-girl sex comedies, and one retrospective critic has described it as a "working-girl lark" that anticipated that cycle.⁶ The songwriting team Holland/Dozier/Holland later took the film's title for a 1964 Supremes song.⁶ On IMDb the film holds a rating of 6.5 out of 10 from about 1,000 users.⁵

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026