The High Cost of Loving

Jim (José Ferrer) and Ginny Fry (Gena Rowlands) are a happily married couple. She may be pregnant. He goes to work in purchasing in a large company which is merging with another and possibly facing layoffs. He grows concerned when he doesn't get invited to an important executive luncheon meeting. Each perceived slight only adds to his concern for his job.

I wonder if this is humor during the 50's. It's not, at least not in today's term. Humor does change over time. The funniest bit may be backing out of the garage. The movie feels flat. It does have a young Gena Rowlands in her first theatrical film. She's only support. When they're together, they are a 50's couple. This could be satire if it hits harder at the corporate culture. The problem with showing the situation from his bosses' point of view is that it takes away any of the dangers. In essence, the drama is diminished. It's self-inflicted and all a misunderstanding with no real danger. So the movie is not that funny nor is it that dramatic. It has some minor fun towards the end but it's not enough.

Any movie with...

Mr. Howell Mel The Chief Klink Ms. Hathaway Dr. Joe Early Otis Campbell can't be all bad.

The 1950's corporate ethos is on full display in this time capsule of mid-20th century America. The normally affecting Jose Ferrer is serviceable but comes across in this film like a recent graduate of the Jack Webb school of acting. Stiff. Jack Lemmon, or an actor with a greater ability to work in a lighter touch, would have been a better choice. In spite of the less than ideal casting of Ferrer, the movie is generally well acted and nicely shot in black and white. Sit back and watch your favorite TV character actors perform on the big screen before making their bones on the tube.

Ferrer and Gena Rowlands (in her big screen debut) think she may be expecting after nine years of marriage. They're overjoyed about it, but there's trouble at work. Ferrer's company has just been taken over, and despite the statement of the new management that they don't expect to make changes, except to promote people, Ferrer reads the winds and concludes he's going to be fired.

The audience is quickly assured that he is not going to lose his job. Indeed, he's going to be promoted. This turns the movie into a comedy. In support, a lot of the roles are taken by players who would later distinguish themselves in TV comedies, like Edward Platt, Werner Klemperer, Nancy Kulp, and Jim Backus. Ferrer, who also directs, plays his role absolutely straight The result is a peculiar study of 1950s middle-class anxiety in an insulated environment.

This 90 minute movie could have been over in 30 seconds, if Jim Fry had just gone up to his boss and asked why he wasn't invited to the luncheon.

As it stands, it feels like they really had to struggle to stretch this story out to an hour and a half. The first ten minutes is nothing but opening credits and a long pointless scene of Fry and his wife silently getting out of bed, having breakfast, and getting ready for the day. I was hoping their cars would crash when they pulled out of their garage in that weird way, so there would be some action.

There is no romantic spark between Jose Ferrer and Gena Rowlands, and the ending of the movie is blatantly spelled out for the audience about thirty minutes before the movie actually ends. For a "comedy," there are almost literally no laughs.

But on the plus side, I grew up in the 1950's, and I enjoyed seeing all the old appliances and cars and their dashboards and work desks without computers and even smoking in the office. So there's that.

... to put a spin on that old MGM slogan, plus this film is oddly prescient.

Jim Fry (Jose Ferrer who also directs) and his wife Ginny (Gena Rowlands in her film debut) discover that after nine years of marriage they are expecting a child. This is good news for them. But at work, Jim's company has just been bought by a larger firm. Jim is all swaggering and confident with his "law of the jungle" talk about how the larger firm may axe less productive employees until he finds out that perhaps the new owners think he is one of those less productive employees! He gets this idea initially because all of the other employees who have a supervisory role are invited to a luncheon being held by the new owners and he is not. This gets the wheels - and his imagination - turning.

From that point forward he walks in on this or that conversation and hears rumors about possible terminations and thinks this all about him. The audience knows better - we see what happens in every case where Jim does not. In fact the new management intends to promote Jim, but they haven't bothered to tell Jim yet. Not knowing this, he is worried about how he is going to support a wife and now a child if he loses a job at age 40 - too young to retire, too old to find an equivalent position somewhere else.

I don't know how this was received in 1958, but in 2024 it all looks oddly prescient. Layoffs today are a fact of life. If you are over a certain age, it can be hard to find work. Unlike in 1958, it is now illegal to fire someone or not hire them because of their age, so you'll get the excuse that "it's just not a good fit for the organization." Which can mean anything, but it actually means they think you are too old.

The cast has many stars of 60s TV right before they become recognizable faces - Jim Backus of Gilligan's Island, Bobby Troup of Emergency, Werner Klemperer of Hogan's Heroes, Edward Platt of Get Smart, Richard Deacon of The Dick Van Dyke Show, and Nancy Kulp of The Beverly Hillbillies. Several of these folks are not even in credited roles, but skilled performers make the production. Joanne Gilbert is the well-meaning yet shrewish wife of Jim's colleague. Gena Rowlands plays the supportive wife to the point of being almost ridiculous.

With the cast of future TV stars that I mentioned, this thing has more of the feel of a made for TV movie than a theatrical production, but that's not necessarily bad. With the audience being in on Jim's situation it's more of a comedy from the audience perspective and a drama from Jim's. I'd recommend it.