Believe it or not How to Succeed With Women Without Really Trying: The Dastard’s Guide to the Bird and the Bees isn’t your run-of-the-mill coffee table book you can buy at Urban Outfitters but an actual dating book from the 1950s that’s being considered for the big screen. THR reports that producer Grant Turck has optioned the book’s rights, with screenwriters Dax Shelby and Robert Stevens working on the adaptation. Turck told THR, “In terms of tone, we’re developing the film to have the feel of a modern Billy Wilder romantic comedy.”
The book was written by the late author Shepherd Mead (he was an advertising consultant for a spell) whose work includes a host of other satirical guides like the Broadway/film adapted, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. How to Succeed With Women, published in 1957, includes chapters like How to Be Irresistible in Short Pants and How to Select the First Wife–poking fun at the lunacy that often colors male and female relationships.
I haven’t read the book, but I’m kind of curious as to how this will play out on the big screen. Yet another book to add to the dating book reading list.

February 20, 2010 11:00 AM | by