Dick Van Dyke and James Garner for comedy, Elke Sommer and Angie Dickinson for sex, Carl Reiner writing, Norman Jewison directing, and this is the stinker they stirred up. The plot, a painter pretending to be dead to sell his paintings, recalls some of the contrivances of IRMA LA DOUCE, but ART completely lacks the eye winking Gallic quality Wilder brought to his script. Poorly lit studio sets, frantic overacting, and don't forget Ethel Merman as a PG madam who run's a "Girl's Club." There's barely a laugh in it. Perhaps the whole thing collapsed under the production of Ross Hunter, the clutzy, schmaltzy producer who made Universal millions with Sirk soap operas. ART OF LOVE followed the moderatley amusing THRILL OF IT ALL, with Garner, Reiner and Hunter on board, and suggests that they were tying to follow one hit with another one. But Reiner's scrips sounds like he had it in a desk drawer since the 50s. The oo-la-la acting of ART OF LOVE, in these politically correct times, comes close to racism.
Review of The Art of Love
