A Guide for the Married Man (1967)

A product of its time, A Guide for the Married Man is like a 60s time capsule of vignettes populated by all the great comedy stars of the era. Lucille Ball, Art Carney, Jack Benny, Louis Nye, Phil Silvers, Sid Caesar, Carl Reiner, Inger Stevens, Jayne Mansfield, and more show up in cameos illustrating the "dos and don'ts" of philandering according to expert adulterer Robert Morse.

Morse's subject is Walter Matthau, who is just beginning to feel the hormonal itch of the "swinging sixties" and wants to get in on his share. Before he can do that, Morse coaches him on the various fine points of doing it and getting away with it, hence the vignettes.

Matthau, who would go on to great stardom as a sad faced comedy actor, stars here as the clueless schmoe who, despite being married to the great-looking Inger Stevens, nevertheless wants to seek thrills outside the marital sack. Before he does so he is instructed in great detail by Morse, self-proclaimed lothario extraordinaire. For every story Morse tells, the camera cuts to a vignette featuring some of the old comedy greats illustrating the wisdom of his words.

While the movie may have had merit in 1967, it suffers from the same difficulty I found with It's a Mad, Mad, Mad ... World. It just isn't very funny any more. The two characters Matthau and Morse essentially act as straight men setting up the comedy vignettes for the laughs. Unfortunately, the laughs are few and far between. Although director Gene Kelly kept it fairly clean with the many fully clothed shots of T&A the scenes look hopelessly dated compared with today's mores and only arouse faint interest while the comic payoffs are quite anemic. The ending gives a weak twist to the knife before the film gives up the ghost. Hurray - Hollywood saves 1960s morality once again. A rave up theme song by rock group The Turtles only makes it seem more dated.

The Fox DVD is dual sided with a choice of both 2.35:1 theatrical format and 1.33:1 television format simply by flipping the disk. The movie is well preserved, in color and runs 91 minutes. Subtitles are the only extras.

I would only recommend A Guide for the Married Man to major fans of the comedy stars who wanted to preserve a collection of their comedy performances in one fell swoop. Everybody else can take the day off.

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Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV