Le Manège du ménage

James Mason and Susan Hayward two big film names replaced Broadway stars Charles Boyer and Claudette Colbert for the film version of the play The Marriage Go Round. Mason and Hayward were both at or near the top of their careers, Hayward being just three years away from her career Oscar winning role in I Want To Live and Mason was off a big box office hit in Journey To The Center Of The Earth.

The two play a pair of married professors and the film is done in the format of both of them giving a lecture on some recent trial their marriage went through. The trial came in the person of blond statuesque Swede Julie Newmar who is the daughter of a colleague that Mason knows. He knew Julie as a child, but she's all grown up now and fully developed in all the right places.

Mason's considered a genius and Newmar who has an IQ to match her measurements is brutally frank in what she wants. She wants Mason, but she's not clear in why she wants him at first. Simply for breeding purposes. She wants him to father a super genius child. Today I'm sure Mason might just donate his sperm.

Well whether for romance or breeding Hayward ain't having any. Such is the basis of this comedy which on Broadway had a 431 performance run for 1958-1960. It's slight and amusing and probably played better on stage on the one scene in the living room of the Mason/Hayward home. Still fans of the stars will like it.

A happy middle-aged couple (Susan Hayward and James Mason) allow a Swedish girl (Julie Newmar)--a daughter of a friend--to stay in their house for a few days. While there she promptly tells Mason she wants to have a child with him because he's so intelligent! Predictable complications ensue.

Silly sex comedy. This was based on a VERY successful Broadway play. However what worked on stage does NOT translate to the screen at all (this was not a hit). The plot is pretty dumb and probably an insult to Swedish people. It has incredibly dated sexual politics (even for 1961) and a discussion on infidelity is more funny than shocking. What saves this from being totally unwatchable are the actors. Mason and Newmar are very good in their roles and Hayward is excellent in hers. Also their house is stunning to look at. But, all in all, this is a forgettable movie. I give it a 4.

I do like James Mason and what else can be said about Susan Hayward?. With the cast of capable actors, the story should be a given, and should work.

Somehow it doesn't. Is it just dated?. Is it just that romantic romps with hip chicks (Julie Newmar) and rock music have no resonance?. Despite the backdrop of Frank Lloyd Wright's house in Lakeland Florida, the story comes up banal and empty.

Perhaps it is the portrayal of Hayward and Mason as a married couple After the requisite jealousy, tantrums, and throwing around of suitcases, the couple gets back together. We still see formula like this today in recent films like "The Break Up". It just doesn't work, and leaves the viewer feeling they have witnessed somehow, another wooden version of Hollywood romance.

Take three competent actors, James Mason, lovely Susan Hayward and Julie Newmar, and an idiot script with a lame premise and what do you get? Right. A mediocre movie. But, it's OK. Mason plays a cultural anthropologist who Newmar wants to share genes with. However, Mason's wife, Hayward, is having none of it. It goes down from there. Lamewitted writing, silly situations but always good acting and hey, Newmar was ALWAYS worth the price of a ticket. Hayward too is great but you can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear, the saying goes and a poor script does not a great movie make.

The outside scenes of this movie were partially filmed in Lakeland, Florida (my hometown) on the Florida Southern College campus. The buildings were designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and are situated adjacent to Lake Hollingsworth. It made a beautiful setting for this romantic comedy. Co-star Susan Hayward was one of my favorite actresses and of course, Julie Newmar was almost as smashing as Bo Derek in "10". I thought the plot was a bit sophisticated for the time (1961). More to my liking were the Doris Day - Rock Hudson comedies of the same period. A little less sophistication and more "slapstick" type fun films. Tony Randall's masterful comedic genius added greatly to most of them.