Bague au doigt, corde au cou

Despite being a 30 year old dyed-in-the-wool film buff when this was released I don't remember hearing about it.That despite being a huge fan of Dean Martin and his "playboy" sensibility at the time. (Still am.) This was approximately the period when the country's sense of humor slowly began to change to that of irony and sarcasm.In less than 10 years it would be David Letterman, the Smothers Brothers, and Saturday Night Live.The humor extant in this film would be relegated to dreary TV sitcoms. Dean holds his own with Eli Wallach (no easy feat) and he really seems to be working a little harder than usual to get the laughs.While I'm not familiar with Stella Stevens' body of work (no pun intended)if this is representative then she bears closer examination(again no pun intended). The best way to put it? This is 1968's version of those great screwball comedies that dominated the 30's and early 40's and it doesn't do too badly by comparison.

Dean Martin shows his comedic talents in these fast laugh a minute comedy written by the author of Pillow Talk and That Touch Of Mink. It deserves to be re-released. Stella Stevens looks terrific. It just goes to show you that you don't need a large cast to produce a good comedy and this one is better than just good. I'm looking forward to seeing it again.

Let me confess from the outset that I'm a huge Dean Martin fan, so I was predisposed to like this film. However, I still wasn't prepared for this film to be so delightfully amusing. I truly don't understand the low rating. My only guess is, the people who gave this movie such low marks just aren't the right viewers for this kind of a film. "How To Save A Marriage" is very much like the Doris Day/Rock Hudson films (Pillow Talk & Lover Come Back). Those films don't appeal to everyone - usually either you love them or you hate them. If you loved those films, you will love this one, as well. Dean Martin plays a man who mistakes Stella Stevens' character for his best friend's mistress. Of course, Dean plays the eternal ladies man and Stella Stevens is the nice, small town girl trying her luck in the big city. Hilarious complications ensue when Dean finds it necessary to romance her himself for the good of his friend's marriage (thus, the title). If you get the opportunity to see this (and it is quite hard to find, which perhaps also explains the low rating), you really should give it a chance. It's a wonderful romantic comedy and, aside from his Rat Pack films, one of my favorite of Dean Martin's solo ventures.

May I give a bit of advice to millenials and anyone under 50? Please stop watching films that were made before you were a twinkle in your father's eye. No, really. I am serious. It's good advice.

This film was made 50 years ago. That's half a century ago. In that amount of time things have changed so much you'd think two centuries have passed, not half. Trust me. I went through that change.

Unless you were born ten years before this film was made you could not possibly understand the mentality of the time, much less enjoy the humor.

Unless you are really open-minded andand can therefore make allowances for how things were half a century ago, just stick to films that were made no earlier than the year 2000.

So next time you watch an old film, try to take it in stride, instead of insisting on telling everybody how dated/sexist/un-PC it is.

Of course it is, Dr. Obvious. It was made half a century ago.

This is a very well written movie. I missed the very beginning. I wasn't prepared for the articulate war of the sexes theme. Some people might consider it too talky. At times it sounded like a George Bernard Shaw play. Sometimes it seemed that Dino was sleepwalking and this much wordplay was a little too much for him. Perhaps the interesting dimensions owe something to the participation of Wallach his wife. Movies from this period project a particular mise en scene of imperial America at its zenith of hubris and naivitee. The characters Martin and Wallach play are unselfconsciously "upper class" and enjoy the life of extreme privilege without any consideration if they deserve their good fortune. The US was up to its neck in Vietnam at the time and modern consumer society was being born. A nice old chestnut from a time we can remember fondly but not aspire to emulate.