Eine Frau zuviel

The fact that I disliked so much of "No Minor Vices" says a lot, as Dana Andrews is one of my favorite actors. But good actor or not, the plot to this film is pure nonsense...and I don't mean that in a good way.

Perry (Dana Andrews) is a very successful child psychologist who seems to always know how to cut through to the roots of the problem with his patients. He's really good...and dreadfully aware of this. However, when he meets a kooky guy, Octavio (Louis Jourdan) he's finally met his match. Octavio is not mentally ill so much as a manipulator...and soon he's manipulated himself into the life of both Perry and Perry's wife, April (Lili Palmer). All sorts of silliness ensues...or at least is supposed to ensue.

The first 15 minutes or so of the film is quite good...and most enjoyable. But when Octavio is introduced, the story becomes muddled and dumb. It just doesn't make sense but most importantly, it's not funny...and this is supposed to be a comedy. A huge misfire...though the actors try their best.

If you do watch the film, watch for a really bratty kid at the beginning. That's seven year-old Beau Bridges in his first film.

This is a curious existentialist comedy with a touch of Preston Sturges about it.

Dana Andrews plays a medic who dabbles as a psychologist who puts marital bliss with his wife Lilli Palmer in jeopardy when he meets a European artist and musician (Louis Jourdan) who brings chaos to their lives with his easy charm and talent as he reveals their hidden selves.

Andrews has taken things for granted, his wife does everything for him, his secretary is in love with him and his medical assistant wants to be him.

It is a frivolous even an erudite comedy but the story is too light and despite a very good and different performance from Jourdan, Andrews always looks uncomfortable with the material.

"No Minor Vices" is a gem. It uses wit and humor to comment on the conflict between Life and Art. The plot centers on a confrontation between the quintessential MD, who fancies himself a psychologist, and the quintessential Artist, who fancies himself a philosopher. While every dullard believes he may criticize Art, no one would ever suggest criticizing the validity of scientific judgment. The supercilious Artist (played to perfection by Louis Jordan) decides to teach a lesson about Art to the know-it-all MD (effectively played by Dana Andrews), using as tools: Love and the MD's wife (charmingly played by Lilli Palmer). In a series of funny episodes, each teaches the other understanding and respect. The Artist's satiric drawings, used to comment on the MD/and the Scientific, are wonderful and all too true to LIFE and to the Humor in the human condition. Ars longa vita brevis, Hippocrates said. Bravo Lewis Milestone for bringing the truth of this home to us with so much fun.

A whole lot like Preston Sturges's Unfaithfully Your's with a technique originated in Eugene O'Neill's Strange Interlude, No Minor Vices is the story of the marital crisis of Dana Andrews and Lilli Palmer brought on by the disturbing presence of artist Louis Jourdan. Of course it doesn't come near being as good as either of the other two works.

The biggest problem that No Minor Vices has is the casting of Dana Andrews in the lead. I don't think that it's an accident that Dana Andrews never did another comic lead again in his film career. The man was just not blessed with the light touch of comedy in his player's persona. The film needed someone like Fred MacMurray or Ray Milland in the part of the jealous husband.

Andrews is a rather smug and self satisfied child psychologist who dispenses advise on everybody's problems asked or not. He thinks that married life is just perfect with a wife who does his bidding at his whim. That is until another guy who is rather full of himself, artist Louis Jourdan enters his life. Jourdan has nothing but time on his hands as his bills are paid by his mother. Charm can come easy when you don't have to worry about bills.

The film could also have used an Ernest Lubitsch or a Mitchell Leisen as well. Lewis Milestone who peaked early in his career with his Oscar for All Quiet On The Western Front is also not a director for classic comedy. Even Billy Wilder would have gotten so much more out of this film.

Not in the best work of Dana Andrews though Louis Jourdan has a few moments I suspect interpolated in the film on his own.

Calm child psychologist Dana Andrews encounters artist Louis Jourdan and suggest that he paint people at his office. Jourdan agrees and observes a staff devoted to him and likewise his wife, Lili Palmer' Andrews life is idyllic. Jourdan decides to seduce Miss Palmer.

It's not so much a movie as a stage play with occasional interludes of the characters thoughts recited aloud. The situations are amusing, but as Andrews' life and self-assurance crumble, and he comes to realize that Jourdan's observations are accurate, he grows increasingly frenzied. The performances are excellent, although always too well-mannered to be more than mannered observations in a three-set drama. With Jane Wyatt, Norman Lloyd, and Beau Bridges (age 7) in his screen debut.