The High Cost of Loving

Jose Ferrer and Gena Rowlands star in The High Cost Of Loving as a pair of typical 50s American suburbanites who are about to become parents. But at a time when there should be joyous celebration there's a lot of anxiety around the household because the new arrival may become part of The High Cost Of Loving.

It seems as though Ferrer's company is being taken over in a merger and that usually means a staff shakeup. Ferrer starts to wonder if he has a future with his company's purchasing department after misreading a lot of signals. His position is a universal one both in government and in private industry when these things happen. In my working days I was through situations that Ferrer is experiencing and you try to read signals when you think trouble might be coming your way.

Jose Ferrer also directed this film and assembled a slew of familiar faces from the small screen as well as the big, so much so you might think this was a made for television film. Edward Platt the chief from Get Smart is the new company president, Richard Deacon of the Dick Van Dyke Show is Rowlands's obstetrician, and a favorite of mine the one and only Colonel Klink, Werner Klemperer plays a most officious new personnel director who in one beautiful scene only increases Ferrer's anxiety.

For some reason this film is not often broadcast. Glad I was up early and caught it on TCM today. A great tribute to the multi-talents of Jose Ferrer.

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.

Huge names in this! José ferrer, who had already starred in caine mutiny and moulin rouge. Jim backus is probably best known as thurston howell III, and mad mad world, of course. Gena rowlands made a ton of films with peter falk, and was married to cassavetes. Keep an eye out for ed platt (the chief), werner klemperer was colonel klink! And one of the secretaries is nancy kulp, who will go on to be miss hathaway! Fun scene right at the start, where husband and wife don't speak, but have a perfectly choreographed routine, from getting dressed to eating breakfast. The first words spoken by them come at eight minutes in! The issues of the day are jim thinks they will be making big changes at work, and ginny thinks she might be "with child". It's okay. Kind of slow in the middle, picks up again at the end. It's more interesting for the big names, even though some of these actors weren't so big yet! Directed by josé ferrer. And mrs. Mason was played by henny backus, jim's real wife!

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.