How to Save a Marriage and Ruin Your Life

1968 "The wife you save... may be your own!"
6.3| 1h42m| PG-13| en| More Info
Released: 17 January 1968 Released
Producted By: Nob Hill Productions Inc.
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

Wealthy playboy David Sloane wrongly believes good girl Carol Corman is his best friend's mistress.

Genre

Comedy, Romance

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How to Save a Marriage and Ruin Your Life (1968) is currently not available on any services.

Director

Fielder Cook

Production Companies

Nob Hill Productions Inc.

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How to Save a Marriage and Ruin Your Life Audience Reviews

GamerTab That was an excellent one.
SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie
Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.
Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.
dukerail Dino is in such good form here and Stella is gorgeous They are very good together Most enjoyable but if fluff so easy to watch
vchimpanzee Carol works in a New York City department store and hopes for advancement, but a lecherous supervisor stands in her way. That's okay. She is given the menial task of delivering dry cleaning, and she ends up finding out that her top manager Harry is cheating on his wife Mary.Harry attempts to keep Carol quiet by offering her a big promotion. He also talks over the situation with his longtime friend David, a fun-loving bachelor who finds out only part of the story and thinks Harry is cheating with Carol. To save Harry's marriage, David pretends to be interested in Carol (hoping she will drop Harry) and finds many opportunities to visit her workplace. Soon they are dating, and David sets her up with an apartment in the same posh building where Harry's mistress Muriel lives. As luck would have it, Carol and Muriel become friends. Another friend is landlady Thelma, who has few good things to say about men.But David soon finds he is in over his head. And one thing he should never have done was claim to have an ex-wife and show Carol where she is buried.The results are hilarious. The writing is very clever. So many misunderstandings create considerable potential for laughs.Dean Martin seems to be a better singer than an actor, but if this movie is evaluated as a mere screwball comedy rather than Oscar material, he does just fine here. Likewise, Eli Wallach is well suited for a role as a straying businessman, but it won't be his most memorable film appearance. Stella Stevens gives a strong performance. One standout actor is a man who finds out what David's plans are for his fictional wife. He is very funny.It's a worthy effort.
Poseidon-3 Toddling in at the tail end of the cycle of "chaste" sex comedies popularized by Doris Day, this installment has several things working in its favor and a few things not. Martin plays a confirmed bachelor whose friend Wallach is carrying on an affair with a woman (Jackson) who is the caring and nurturing antithesis of his needling and superficial wife Bard. In an effort to save the marriage, Martin decides he will seduce the lover and break up the affair, but, due to some contrived circumstances (nearly always the case in films of this ilk), he winds up cavorting with the wrong girl! Stevens is the curvaceous doll that Martin mistakenly targets and it leads to any number of complications and misunderstandings. Martin is decent here, easily bringing more energy and commitment to the role than he had been in other films of this era (such as the Matt Helm frolics, one of which counted Stevens as a co-star.) Stevens gives her all to her role. To say that she is luscious is akin to saying that golf courses contain a small amount of green. She not only looks amazing in her various, snug, Moss Mabry creations, but she turns in an astute and captivating performance. Wallach, who typically worked in pictures far more serious than this, gives an interesting performance. Jackson gets rather short shrift, with the bulk of the attention and close-ups going to Stevens, though she manages to play her role effectively. Ironically, these two actors playing illicit lovers were, in fact, married in real life at the time! (They still are as of this writing, making them one of Hollywood's more successful unions.) A number of stalwart character actors turn up in support. Field plays a knowing landlady who's lines vary in quality, but all of which are given as much spin as she can muster. Albertson (who would reunite with Stevens for "The Poseidon Adventure" a couple of years later) plays a kindly neighbor. Oppenheimer is a lascivious office manager who helps to get the ball of misunderstandings rolling and Furth is a drippy date of Stevens. Fans of "Will & Grace" will enjoy spotting Morrison in the beginning as Stevens' sassy co-worker. The film has that unmistakable crisp, clean quality of mid-to-late 60's Hollywood with the almost sterile sets and the well-tailored clothes. (Stevens wears a jacket in her first scene that seems awfully difficult and elaborate for a single woman to be dealing with!) The music, apart from the credits number crooned by The Ray Conniff Singers, is not among Michel Legrand's more memorable efforts. Unfortunately, the script and story are not only more than a little dated and almost offensive in the presentation of gender roles, but also the endless contrivances and coincidences threaten to make the entire film become tedious. It's only the goodwill mustered up by Stevens and a few of her co-stars that saves the film from being a trite exercise in idiocy. Fans of hers owe it to themselves to see one of her most significant screen roles and to revel in her extreme loveliness. Others may find themselves losing interest as the rather silly plot meanders toward its conclusion.
Amanda Let me confess from the outset that I'm a huge Dean Martin fan, so I was predisposed to like this film. However, I still wasn't prepared for this film to be so delightfully amusing. I truly don't understand the low rating. My only guess is, the people who gave this movie such low marks just aren't the right viewers for this kind of a film. "How To Save A Marriage" is very much like the Doris Day/Rock Hudson films (Pillow Talk & Lover Come Back). Those films don't appeal to everyone - usually either you love them or you hate them. If you loved those films, you will love this one, as well. Dean Martin plays a man who mistakes Stella Stevens' character for his best friend's mistress. Of course, Dean plays the eternal ladies man and Stella Stevens is the nice, small town girl trying her luck in the big city. Hilarious complications ensue when Dean finds it necessary to romance her himself for the good of his friend's marriage (thus, the title). If you get the opportunity to see this (and it is quite hard to find, which perhaps also explains the low rating), you really should give it a chance. It's a wonderful romantic comedy and, aside from his Rat Pack films, one of my favorite of Dean Martin's solo ventures.