Truly Dreadful Film

Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

The late Walter Matthau is completely wasted in this unfunny film. Matthau made a name for himself in tour-de-force performances in for example "The Front Page" with Jack Lemmon and "The Fortune Cookie" to name only two. These were however directed by a master, the great Billy Wilder.This film goes to show Gene Kelly's inexperience as a director. He's a dancer for goodness sake , what was he thinking making this garbage. The script is also overly complicated and unfunny in the extreme.Matthau is completely miscast in this movie. The subtlety which he normally offers is not on show at all in this film and what results is a complete disaster for Matthau, turning in the worst performance of his career.Robert Morse over acts to the point of being so bad that his acting must rate as the worst on screen comedy performance of all time. This type of over acting would probably work better on stage than in a film. I don't think the director (Gene Kelly) told him this at the time. Morse sickeningly over acts and Matthau under acts! The only saving grace is the sexy Inger Stevens, although this is not supposed to be a porn picture, she is clearly naked underneath her see-thru nightdress in one scene, trying to entice Matthau. A fact which he completely ignores, preferring instead to lie in bed and read his book. Of course this is the only mildly amusing part of the movie, Matthau ignores his hot wife to run around with other less hot women. This is the ONLY joke in the whole movie that works! Although one joke and one good looking hot woman does not a movie make. It takes a good script, good acting and good directing as well, which this film is totally lacking.Inger Stevens was of course in real life a manic depressive who sadly took her own life. Which is the greatest tragedy in movie history, losing such a hot babe to suicide. Her depression was probably not helped much after seeing the daily's of this movie! What an awful awful film!

I think i know what this was intended to be. This story and editing should swing in front of your eyes the same way Gene Kelly used to wing, literally, dancing in his past musicals. I tender the idea, the man uses the image the public has of him, and tries to be coherent with it, behind the camera. The story is about swingers, guys who dance around adversities, schemes to fool their wives, that environment where adultery is fun, and the good guy never falls for it, because deep down, he'll fall for the truth of loving his wife. So we're constantly shifting sets, and than turning to those sets, introducing new characters, telling stories which we don't know for sure happened, and that is made in a kind of frantic (for those days) succession. Kelly tries hard to keep editing up with the story, and i appreciate the effort, but he is not skilled enough to do this properly. This same year, Stanley Donen directed one remarkable piece of filmaking, which i think is essential, 'Two for the Road', he tried similar stuff, but he succeeded in ways Kelly couldn't do. There, Donen managed to control editing and storytelling in coherence. These two minds had been responsible for a great experience, Singin' in the rain. By this film, and "two for the road", we understand they knew they could get somewhere else. Donen did it but this is just a try.My opinion: 2/5 http://www.7eyes.wordpress.com

Let me start off by giving credit where it's due: Gene Kelly and company put a lot of lovely female pulchritude in this one. Not a skinny babe in the bunch. That's a big plus for us dirty old men.However, the script itself is not only misogynistic -- every female character is treated as an object, not a person -- but mostly unfunny. Part of the problem is miscasting. The two male roles should've been reversed: Matthau as the cynical smoothie, and Morse as the naif. Neither actor here is showcased to his best advantage.The cameos are pretty lame too, with comedy greats like Lucille Ball and Jack Benny largely wasted. The best one has Carl Reiner, who's funny as always in a mainly physical comedy role, but the ending of the sketch is weak.The dumbest aspect of the whole enterprise is the central notion of Matthau wanting to cheat on his incredibly gorgeous, hot-to-trot wife, played by knockout Inger Stevens. After an eyeful of her I spent the whole rest of the movie muttering to myself about what an idiot he was.As a time capsule of the 'Swinging Sixties' this might provide some nostalgic amusement. But there are much better sex comedies from the period. Check out Jack Lemmon in HOW TO MURDER YOUR WIFE.

I am sure this is a movie that was very funny in the swinging sixties in the sexual revolution, upper-middle-class to wealthy meant found themselves in a whole new sexual ballgame. After all pretty much all of the men in this movie were in real life wealthy middle-aged men who happened to be some of the biggest entertainment icons of the day. Somehow the magic that these individual entertainers had individually that translates even today didn't make it here.The story, direction, and my god THE WOMEN!!! It was all very unique, and very sexist. I think this movie works as a period piece, seeing some of these legends acting and saying this kind of stuff, quite unheard of before from what I can gather. Walter Matthau gives a very inspired performance as the lead, a sexually unsatisfied man who has an unbelievably gorgeous wife he isn't interested in.The movie gives a very unique even dark look into our deepest sexual desires, women so willing to sleep with married men, men that are so willing to cheat, on that level it really works, a look inside what both of us what. Sure a movie like this is very sexist, a lot of people may not agree with the lifestyle Robert Morse's character leads, but it definitely is a conversation piece. For some people I am sure it remains very funny, for me as much as I love your Jack Beny's Phil Silvers, Walter Matthaus and the rest of these legends it was too dated for me to be funny, but remains a unique look at the time and the attitudes of the day. But there were a few funny moments, so it was worth it.