Gare à la peinture

Pretty mid-1960s sex comedy set in Paris, filmed on Universal's back lot, but extremely well faked. It's a rather dark-hearted farce about two buddies, an artist (Dick Van Dyke) and writer who doesn't write much (James Garner) who fake Van Dyke's death to raise the price of his paintings. That in itself is pretty tired satire, and it gets more tired when we're introduced to the two men's ladies, a suicidal local girl (Elke Sommer) and Van Dyke's wealthy fiancee (Angie Dickinson), who faints a lot and gets passed between the two guys like a soda. There's also a cabaret-owner-and-probable-madam (Ethel Merman in a series of bizarre wigs), a Jewish deli owner (Irving Jacobson), a fervent private investigator (Pierre Olaf), and a fair amount of slapstick. Van Dyke's expert and does some cute pratfalls; Garner, playing a real rotter, is atypically shrill and charmless. Dickinson hasn't much to offer but a series of eye-popping fashions, and Sommer is unaffected and delightful. A few laughs, but Carl Reiner and Norman Jewison, having recently delivered "The Thrill of It All," were capable of far better.

This is one of the funniest movies I have ever seen, and I can not, for the life of me, understand why it STILL isn't out on Tape or DVD. Its premise is hysterical and the acting is pure Academy Awards! Especially the old lady who sits by the Guillotine and cackles nothing but "Guillotine! Ha Ha Ha! Guillotine!" I swear; everyone in this film is GREAT! James Garner; Dick Van Dyke; Elke Sommer: Angie Dickinson; They're all hysterical, and the last 15 or 20 minutes of the film is is a total riot! PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE, Hollyweird Moguls, Get this one out to us!!!! With all the celluloid effluvia out nowadays, let's get this CLASSIC out as soon as possible!!!

A struggling American painter in Paris (Dick Van Dyke) fakes his death so his paintings will sell. His buddy (James Garner) helps him along. However Van Dyke's girlfriend (Angie Dickinson) believes he's dead and falls for Garner. Then there's Elke Sommer (who's great) as an innocent down on her luck girl and Ethel Merman as a madam (in a wholesome PG sort of way).

Frantic and somewhat amusing comedy. It moves at a fast clip and has a great cast. The main problem is that it just isn't that funny. Dickinson fainting at everything gets old real quick and Garner is a real jerk. However I kept watching and the fast pace kept me interested. This was not a hit when it came out and is kind of difficult to see now. Look for it on TCM.

I saw this movie once a long time ago and never forgot it.It has several funny lines and wierd situations in it as well as Dick Van Dyke fakes his suicide, but survives to get even with the friend played by James Garner who is getting rich off his phony death. Not that I condone suicide, but it's unreal as the phony murder that Van Dyke sets up takes up a life of its own. Ethel Merman is the dance hall owner keeping them from killing each other as she is unaware of the extra duties of her female dancers.Beautiful Elke Sommar and lovely Angie Dickinson are Van Dyke's and Garner's love interests as "Star Trek's" Roger C. Carmel and Van Dyke's TV boss Carl Reiner provide some comic relief in this black comedy.

Theowinthrop: "There is also a short story by Mark Twain entitled "IS HE DEAD?" about a plot to make a reputation for a prominent 19th Century artist, Gustave Courbet, by him pretending to be dead, and his paintings being sold for larger and larger amounts of cash so that the still living Courbet and his friends make a huge profit." It was Millet, the artist responsible for THE GLEANERS and other works, who faked his death in order to raise the value of his art. Twain later turned the scam into a play, IS HE DEAD?, which finally got discovered in 2002 and produced on stage in 2007.

That said, THE ART OF LOVE has long been one of my "Favorite Films I Haven't Seen in a Long Long Time." The lack of video release is depressing. Hopefully Universal will start a cable movie channel dedicated to its own films, much like Fox Movie Channel (a great place to see long-forgotten flicks like PRUDENCE AND THE PILL).