User reviews

Really, if you have an hour and a half of your life that you want to waste...no, even then I am sure you could find something better to do. I was very disappointed. Yes, I know the stars have done good work but not here, not with this tedious play turned into a movie. I was around in 1968 so I am accepting of the fact that the pacing of movies then, (see the original Pink Panther) was simply slower. It is not that. It is that, to put it simply, really nothing happens. Nothing at all. Okay, maybe one thing but who can even tell? And certainly by that point, no one cares. Matthau (even a younger one) as a matinée idol, oh, come on, never. If it were played by Rock Hudson or even Tony Curtis, maybe but Walter Matthau. What atrocious casting! Anne Jackson is certainly more appealing here than usual but there is frankly always something a little pitiful to me about her, a desperate quality and never more than here. Really - rent the Odd Couple if you want to see Matthau,and almost anything with Anne Jackson in it but this!

Failed comedy from producer-writer-director George Axelrod is mostly a case of miscasting sabotaging an already talk-heavy script that plays like failed dinner theatre. Anne Jackson (often addressing the camera directly) is a bored Connecticut housewife and mother of two who wants to show her stuck-in-a-rut husband (Patrick O'Neal) that she's still desirable. Posing as a call girl (!), she tries seducing a neurotic, pampered movie actor (Walter Matthau). Jackson and O'Neal are both fine actors, but they're not star personalities; the 'clever' dialogue here really needs some sparkle and personality to give it a boost because neither the script nor the handling has much pizzazz. Matthau is the drawing card here (also Edy Williams as a fantasy bombshell); however, the idea of having Matthau play his character aloof and superior doesn't do much for the audience (Matthau is more much attractive without all this affectation). Jackson, cast as an "ordinary housewife", is often filmed looking glamorous, laughably waking up at 7 a.m. In full make-up and sporting a flirty red fall. It doesn't make sense, then, that she should feel the need to reinvent herself as a sexpot. The rest of the picture is equally mishandled. *1/2 from ****

I fell in love with Anne Jackson in this movie--neurotic, insecure, wise and wonderful. She comes to meet the Movie Star, played by Walter Matthau, she touches through his celebrity to his humanity, and he finds something like real love. The movie is sexy, witty, wise, and enjoyable.

Another reviewer complains that nothing happens. Why should something happen? Do I take it my fellow review needs explosions and sex? Why can't a movie just show us what is without changing anything? Why can't a movie be about a middle-aged woman coming to know that not only is there nothing wrong with being a middle-aged housewife, but there is something absolutely wonderful about being a middle-aged housewife! Sorry, no nudity, no sex, no murders, no explosions, no CG, no FX. Just some wonderful acting and interacting, some great lines, some true wit, some real wisdom. I commend wisdom to all viewers. It's out there, it's worth finding! Watch this movie.

In "The Secret Life of An American Wife".Ann Jackson plays a 34 year old wife whose husband(Patrick O'Neal) is the agent of an arrogant,excentric sex symbol movie star(Walter Matthau).Thinking that she(Ann Jackson has lost her sexual attractiveness to men.She poses as a call girl to the movie star in order to prove to herself that she is still sexual attractive.This is an overlooked Matthau Movie especially with the superb dialogue of Ann Jackson.It's an intelligent witty comedy that's well worth a look!!