A Vênus de Carne

One of those frustrating comedies in which misunderstandings arise because the characters fail to talk to one another. Stand-up comic George Gobel is an ad exec married to Diana Dors (before weight gain turned her into a plump parody of the sex-bomb she once was), who used to be the model for his agency's leading client. A few bright spots - but not many - and Gobel and Dors come across as a second-rate Ewell and Monroe.

I guess George Goebel was a popular enough as a TV comedian that it was worth a try at seeing what he could do on the big screen. But outside of the peculiarities of his show, such as constantly turning to the audience and explaining what he's thinking, or anticipating what's to follow in a skit he's in, he is as generic a comic actor as could be. This story is equally generic, and typically of late RKO films and perhaps Hollywood comedies of the 1950's, a generally safe, monotonous atmosphere prevades. Goebel is cast as an advertising man with an overstated, mountain out of a molehill problem of writing some ad copy, and a similar problem with his marital relations. Though he struggles through endless rewrites and sleepless nights, his job problem seems easily accomplished to us non-ad men. If it weren't for needless, plot extending meddling by his boss, the story could have been halved. Goebel is married to georgeous blonde Diana Dors, which would seem unlikely on the face of it, considering how mild-mannered and less than he-man a catch George would be, but Diana herself always seemed quiet and mild and ladylike in most every film or guest appearance on TV I've ever seen, despite the sexy, bombshell exterior. Maybe it's her British reserve. She's beautiful but calm. She plays a scatterbrain, running on impulse power, making petty schemes to con George into doing or buying things, assisted by her equally devious mother. She instigates a twist in the story to make Goebel jealous, while his boss is setting him up in an ad campaign he doesn't know he's in, and it's all handled in so dull a way it makes one think how much livelier it would have been if it were compacted into the short space of a TV program, where this story really belonged. An interesting gag in it was getting John Wayne to play in an imaginary movie scene playing in a theatre, that's in color, whereas the rest of the film, i.e. the "real life" scenes are black and white. Later, George and Diana meet John Wayne, and he's still in color, though now NOT on a movie screen, until his wife shows up, and they go to half color, half black and white, then he too, joins her in the all black and white world. I speculate what that means, if there's supposed to be a message about percieved "reality" of film, or the debilitating conseqence of marriage?

Wonderful to see the great Diana Dors in her prime. She really was an actress but was seldom allowed to show it, as in this film. The storyline is similar to romantic comedies of the '30s and '40s. Dors married to Gobel, somewhat reminiscent of the Marylin Monroe characters often matched with male characters thought not to be in her league, are an enjoyable couple. No doubt that this is a piece of fluff, but enjoable to watch both leads at the time their names were part of pop culture.

An American comedy; A story about a mild-mannered advertising executive who finds that his life has added complications after he marries the glamorous model from his beer commercial. The script was lame and unfunny, and the direction fails to make the distant signals of humour work, relying on narration to overfill the gaps. Diana Dors, as a pouting beauty trying to rescue her marriage, has to call on her charm and sparkle because, on paper, the film doesn't work well. Dors was matched with George Gobel, who failed to come up with the required robust persona that would make a tale about a neglected wife stick. Only John Wayne, who shows up in a cameo role, produces a genuine laugh. Angie Dickinson, similarly in a brief appearance, is creditable.

This is probably more fun now than it was when it came out.

It's a bit of black and white nostalgia now. Then, it was a showpiece for George Gobel, improbably married to sexbomb Diana Dors -- I guess that was the "joke."

Jessie Royce Landis is fun, as always, and the supporting cast supports very well.

It's by no means awful. It's kind of a man's fantasy about being a wimp who's adored by a gorgeous girl -- not unlike the better and better known "Seven Year Itch."