Ellas y las otras

It's a case of money not buying happiness in the 1960s comic romp Wives and Lovers. Van Johnson and Janet Leigh are happily married and poor, until his latest novel becomes a hit and they move to a beautiful new home in the suburbs. Then it's cocktail parties and publicity and keeping up with the Joneses and drinking before noon and maladjusted children and unfaithful spouses. . .

While there is some post-Code naughtiness (like Shelley's comments of "musical beds" and "first wives' society"), the more memorable element is the realism of everyday family life. Their daughter makes regular remarks about her parents fighting all the time. She also has an eating problem and doesn't ever like her foods to touch the same plate. Neighbor Shelley feeds Janet martinis when she recognizes the slow decline into divorce. And Van criticizes Janet's outfit before a dinner party. She's wearing trousers, and he asks, "Is the bottom of your underwear supposed to show through?" pointing to her panty-lines. She changes into a spectacular floral halter dress, and while she waits for a compliment, he merely complains that they don't have enough vodka to satisfy their guests. And - in a terrible disaster, one of the party guests shows up wearing the same dress!

I liked seeing Van and Janet together as a married couple fifteen years after they were paired together in her debut movie, The Romance at Rosy Ridge. There were some laughs to be found, and some lessons, so unless you're totally against the cast, you'll probably enjoy it.

This is a typical story of suburban married life, the roses and thorns, the bliss and clashes.

As an aspiring writer, Bill Austin (Van Johnson) stays home to churn out some writings while his wife, Bertie (Janet Leigh) goes out to work. He isn't happy about it, wants change. However, soon Fortune smiles on him and good changes occur; then he's on his way up as a writer, but there's a price.

Problems begin when he spends too much time away from his wife and being assisted by his attractive literary agent, Lucinda (Martha Hyer). One thing leads to another while they work on scripts together. Bertie, left alone, also goes astray, all of this leading up to a divorce as the only solution.

It is middle-of-the-road entertainment about family feuds and makeups. If you are a fan of Van, Janet, or Martha, you'll enjoy this bright and witty film.

I'm sure that Van Johnson had hoped this film Wives And Lovers would reignite his career after MGM let him go in the late Fifties as they did to all their contract players. Though he and Janet Leigh who worked together at MGM back in their salad days and they were good in this film together it never had the desired result for Van.

When we meet them Van and Janet and their little girl Claire Wilcox were living in a small apartment where Van can't even find enough garbage cans in the place. He's a writer working on his masterpiece and Leigh is supporting the family as a dental hygienist.

One day their ship comes in and it arrives in the form of Martha Hyer, Van's literary agent. His book is a smash and with all the money they now have they move to Connecticut and more expensive digs. Hyer has all kinds of ambitions for Van both professional and personal. They include a Broadway play with a Hollywood film star Jeremy Slate.

As for Slate he's cut quite a swath in Hollywood bedrooms of the rich and famous and he sets his sights on Leigh when Leigh starts feeling neglected. To make it all even more incestuous Slate and Hyer were once involved.

The code was crumbling with this comedy about proposed infidelity. In a few years Johnson and Leigh would have done the deed with other partners.

Some of the best lines come from new suburban neighbors Shelley Winters and Ray Walston. Ray is Shelley's house guest and Shelley has some sage advice being a member in good standing of the Hollywood first wives club.

Wives And Lovers got an Academy Award nomination for costume design and the literate wit of the script holds up well today. Do love all the trouble Johnson has with his new stereo set. How quaint that looks today.

Wives and Lovers (1963)

Janet Leigh is great, Van Johnson likable but a little over the top. Together they make a decent pair struggling with newfound wealth as he sells a big play and they move from the Upper West Side to Connecticut. In the process, their marriage goes on the rocks, and all the clichés of suburban life are played out. It's funny and warm and silly and a bit thin overall, but not so bad as entertainment goes.

Director John Rich is a television man, which explains a lot. Picture the style of "Gomer Pyle" and "Gunsmoke" and "Dick Van Dyke" (all part of his pedigree) and you'll get something of the feel of this "movie." The fact it rises above these trappings is pretty encouraging. Behind the scenes is Lucien Ballard, the crack cinematographer who also did "The Wild Bunch" six years later, among many others.

You can't avoid thinking of other couples in suburban traps, like Tracy and Hepburn, or in a different and more contemporary sense, Hudson and Day. There are good jokes and flat ones here, amidst some pretty good dialog. There are sidekicks of note, squandered perhaps, mainly Shelly Winters and Ray Walston. (One really funny moment occurs when Walston is playing with the stereo and these radio whiny noises come out, exactly like "My Favorite Martian," which he is most famous for.)

Van Johnson is no Spencer Tracy, for sure, but that's okay. He's likable enough, and natural enough, to be a good struggling dad. The opening scenes look more like 1940s New York than 1963, but that's really the point, because old New York gets left behind. Johnson is better, in fact, as a dad than as a successful playwright, and for the second long half of the movie I just never believe him. Nor his supposed attraction to his agent with her horrid hair.

But Janet Leigh? She's worth watching and holds the movie together. If you loved her in "Psycho" for the half hour she's alive in it you'll maybe see another fuller actress here. Her role, as a struggling, willing, and then slightly rebellious housewife, is not very attractive, but she makes it attractive anyway, and less a cliché than many other actresses who might start to shriek or cry far too often and loud. Once you tune out the dreck you'll see a very good actress pulling off a difficult role, and my appreciation of her rose a little.

I guess when you'll hunting hard for pieces to like in a movie you know the whole is disappointing. But heads up about those pieces if you do give it a whirl.

This one is a forgotten gem. I watched it again after some 35 years and it struck me that all the ingredients for a good film are on display. Firstly, a stellar cast that are all uniformly excellent. A directer who, tho predominately from a TV background, innately understands the material .. and lastly, a wonderfully taught script by Jay Presson Allen who would go on to pen such films as Hitchcock's "Marnie" and "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie".

If you're a fan of the genre, in this case the early 60's 'sex comedy', you could do worse than to seek this out. It's a cut above the Doris Day/Rock Hudson films of the period.

I don't know who manages the back-catalogue for Paramount, but this could certainly do with a DVD release given the popularity of the afore-mentioned Day/Hudson films and the buying power of the baby boomers. Certainly, it has more 'bite' in the screenplay with some dialogue that obviously went under the censor's radar at the time.