Petit Guide pour mari volage

How to cheat your wife without the danger that she ever notices it? That's the big issue for the friends that are surrounding Walter Matthau who thought that loving his wife is the sole thing on earth that counts even if there are other parts of the body that says it differently. Well it's called a sexcomedy but mind you this is as friendly as cinema from the sixties can get but it works brilliant and not in the least because of Walter's great performance.

A movie from a time when "mature" didn't mean graphic. The plot is right out of the buttoned-down 60's -- Walter Matthau consults with expert adulterer Robert Morse before cheating on his wife (a very sexy Inger Stevens). Robert Morse's lessons are illustrated by hilarious vignettes featuring a Who's Who of comedy stars. The Joey Bishop turn on how to handle being caught in the act -- Deny, Deny, Deny is a classic.

Some background - Walter Matthau's character is a successful man who loves his wife (Inger Stevens) - she is attractive, she and Matthau still do things together and get along. She is prime rib, but no man wants to eat prime rib for 50 years.

So a "A Guide for the Married Man" is exactly what the title indicates. On one level, it is a hilarious comedy in which a philanderer (Robert Morse) senses his friend's (Walter Matthau) restlessness, and then proceeds to school him on how to commit adultery safely. Each principle is illustrated by a skit performed by other comedians of the time.

On another level, it actually provides sage advice for anyone thinking about getting a little on the side. That sage advice is, in the words of Micky Rourke in 1981's "Body Heat" about a completely different subject - "This is not (stuff) for you to be messin' with. Are you ready to hear something? I want you to see if this sounds familiar: any time you try a decent crime, you got fifty ways you're gonna (mess) up. If you think of twenty-five of them, then you're a genius... and you ain't no genius."

So this film is not as trapped in 60's sexual mores as other films of the decade, because married men will always want to rent a house at the beach now and then although that does not mean they want to sell their house in the suburbs and disrupt their way of life. Probably making wives nervous for over fifty years, this is a 60s film still worth seeing.

Walter Matthau has great fun in his role of a husband experiencing the "seven-year itch" who tries to learn the ropes of philandering by a co-worker buddy and expert adulterer (Robert Morse). Aided and abetted by a host of guest stars in flashback who offer the "do's" and "don't's" of extramarital affairs, our novice soon learns that cheating is a serious and very technical business. One misstep or a brief lapse of judgment...and it can be curtains for Casanova.

Matthau manages to keep the potentially smarmy material light and engaging while Morse is wickedly humorous as the no-nonsense "big brother." Of the numerous cautionary "lessons" offered by the guest stars, Joey Bishop, Ann Morgan Guilbert, Terry-Thomas and Jayne Mansfield manage to grab the biggest yuks in their brief scenes.

The irony of it all is that the late Inger Stevens, who plays Matthau's wife, is a spectacularly beautiful dish who, in my mind, has it all over the bump-and-grind shennanigans of Sue Ane Langdon and/or tawdry allure of Elaine Devry. Why Matthau's character would even consider cheating on the best looking femme in the picture is beyond me.

Nevertheless, relax and enjoy these comedy pros at work, guided by the assured hand of dancer-turned-director Gene Kelly.

This entertaining bit of froth stands up well, as Robert Morse, the neighborhood Lothario, attempts to instruct Walter Matthau in the How-To's of philandery (why he should be interested in philandery when he is married to the incredibly built Inger Stevens is an unexplained mystery). Of course the many delicious cameos by such as Phil Silvers, Sid Caesar, Jack Benny, Joey Bishop, et. al. keep the film bouncing merrily along. Well worth a see.