The Art of Love

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source: The Art of Love

In 1938 Rene Clair directed a movie called BREAK THE NEWS where Maurice Chevalier and Jack Buchanan are in the shadow of an egotistical female star, and stage Buchanan's disappearance, and possible murder by Chevalier to build up publicity for both men - only to have the scheme blow up in their faces when Buchanan gets arrested on a capital charge himself, and is prevented from showing up in court to rescue Chevalier. Both men are almost executed - but saved at the last moment by the egotistical star who learns the truth. So she gathers all the good publicity in the end. There is also a short story by Mark Twain entitled "IS HE DEAD?" about a plot to make a reputation for a prominent 19th Century artist, Gustave Courbet, by him pretending to be dead, and his paintings being sold for larger and larger amounts of cash so that the still living Courbet and his friends make a huge profit. Those are possible keys to the plot genesis of THE ART OF LOVE, a 1965 film that starred James Garner, Dick Van Dyke, Elke Sommer, Angie Dickenson, and Ethel Merman. There are some interesting supporting roles for Carl Reiner and Roger C. Carmel, as a French defense counsel and a questionable art dealer too. Garner gets the idea that Van Dyke's paintings are quite good, but would sell for more money if he was to be thought to be dead. Garner announces that Van Dyke has disappeared, and is believed to have committed suicide. But the janitor (Jay Novello) has seen Garner disposing of a dummy. Novello sees the legs being put into the furnace, and thinks it could have been a body. Van Dyke's existence is known to only two people: Elke Sommer (his girlfriend) and Ethel Merman, his landlady. He has to keep a low profile, dressing in disguise all the time. And he notices that Garner is living in luxury from the sale of the paintings by Roger Carmel (an art dealer who may have collaborated with the Nazis). Angered at the lack of interest by Garner, and the latter's opportunistic romancing of his former girlfriend Angie Dickinson, Van Dyke suddenly realizes that Garner has left himself open for suspicion of the "murder" of Van Dyke. So Van Dyke carefully sets up "evidence" of his murder by Garner, complete with bloodstained clothing and broken teeth (and Novello's witnessing of the incident with the furnace). Motive is there - Garner is benefiting from his dead friend's paintings, and he has taken the dead man's girlfriend. So Garner is arrested (as is Carmel, who is soon willing to assist the prosecution). And Van Dyke, in disguise, watches the criminal trial with glee. Reiner, Garner's lawyer, is more concerned with not being associated too much with Garner than with defending him. The end is a race to the guillotine, complete with a clone of Madame Defarge, and Marcel Hillaire as the public executioner who abhors the death penalty. It is a moderately entertaining comedy, with some funny moments. You will never hear the words "Don't touch!" again without thinking of Reiner's attorney. Not a great film, but good enough for a rainy afternoon.

"The Art of Love" is a good comedy and not so subtle satire, with a slightly dark side. It has a cast of top stars of the day. James Garner plays Casey Barnett, Dick Van Dyke is Paul Sloane, Angie Dickinson is Laurie Gibson and Elke Sommer is Nikki Dunnay. Among a very good supporting cast are Ethel Merman as Madame Coco La Fontaine, Carl Reiner as Rodin, and Miko Taka as Chou Chou. The time is the md-1960s, and Barnett and Sloane are expatriate American artists living in Paris. Sloane is serious about panting, and is a good painter but has only been able to sell an occasional piece. Barnett is a writer who hasn't been able to sell a book. But he's more interested anyway in the night life and ladies than in writing. The two bachelors share a flat, which is paid for by an allowance that Sloane receives from his family back home. Sloane decides to chuck it in and go back home, where his fiancé is waiting for him. That means Barnett will lose his only means of support. But then, something happens that changes everything and turns their world into a hilarious, somewhat dark and even illegal existence. After Sloane jumps in the Seine to save Nikki whom he thought had jumped in to commit suicide, he is presumed dead himself. Barnett then starts to sell his paintings which, in the art world of the film were valuable now that the artist was dead. When Sloane turns up alive, Barnett convinces him to stay in hiding so they can reap the profits. He hides out at Madame Fontaine's house of women entertainers. When fiancé Laurie comes to Paris looking for Paul, Barnett meets her and gives her the sad news. When Sloane finds out that Barnett has swept his fiancé off her feet, he plans to get even. So, he arranges details to make it appear that Barnett may have bumped him off. It works so well that Barnett is about to be guillotined. Only Sloane can save him, but will he be in time before the blade falls? The darkness in this comedy is obvious. Director Norman Jewison said later that he regretted the implication of the film that an artist's works would be worth more when he was dead than alive. Yet that is the very core around which the humorous and tangled plot develops. The humor here is mostly in the situations, which are a hoot at times. There are some antics, but mostly it's clever directing and shooting with a screenplay that creates the funny situations. It's not a comedy of dialog. And, while entertaining for many, it's not a family film or even one for impressionable teens.

The separate talents of James Garner and Dick Van Dyke should have guaranteed a better film than The Art Of Love. Still the considerable legion of fans both those guys have should be pleased. Not to mention that Angie Dickinson and Elke Sommer are along for the girl watchers. The guys are roommates in a Paris flat Garner an aspiring writer and Van Dyke an aspiring painter, neither of whom has made their mark. But in Van Dyke's case as is pointed out painters only become legends after their demise. Which while both are in a drunken stupor gives Garner a brilliant idea, especially when Van Dyke jumps into the Seine. He sells whatever he can find for a bundle and then when Van Dyke shows up they keep the fiction going. After that romantic complications set in and other kinds of complications set in as the gag goes way too far. I really expected better. Garner's charming conman gets a bit hard to take. Van Dyke's gift for physical comedy and pantomime are served better in The Act Of Love. Ethel Merman has a part as a brothel madam and she's about as French as Anna May Wong. And what were a husband and wife pair of Jewish Delicatessen owners Irving Jacobson and Naomi Stevens doing here. More suggestive of Flatbush than the Left Bank. Not the best work for any of the quartet of stars.

I was just talking to my wife about this hilarious movie from the mid-sixties and decided to look it up on the web. I first saw it on an afternoon movie show, "Dialing for Dollars" from the Bay Area of California. The premise is nothing short of genius - an artist (Dick Van Dyke) pretends to commit suicide in order to make his paintings more valuable. His best friend (James Garner) helps him pull it off, but horns in on Van Dyke's girl. When Van Dyke finds out about it, he decides NOT to surface after his disappearance starts to look like a murder. His buddy is implicated and Van Dyke decides to let his "friend" sweat it out through a trial (where Van Dyke shows up in an "old man" disguise" a la his old man character from Mary Poppins) where Garner is sentenced for murder. Others on this forum seem to remember the old lady who likes to watch be-headings murmur "Guillotine. GUILLOTINE!" while Garner is being led to his execution. My favorite scene, though, is where Van Dyke is trying to make it to the execution in time to reveal he is not really dead in order to save his friend at the last minute. He's riding in a cab and there is a traffic jam in a small town on the way there. Van Dyke nervously tells the cab driver to hurry because he has to get to his best friend's execution. The driver pulls the cab to a sudden stop, exits the cab, pulls Van Dyke to his feet by the lapels exclaiming, "What kind of a ghoul are you?", throws him on a dirt pile and drives off. The hilarity of this scene is Van Dyke running around with his long lanky legs trying to find a way to the prison where Garner is about to be executed. Kudos to the writer, director and actors in this madcap, scream of a movie!

I wasn't aware of this movie when it was initially released and probably didn't see it for several years after it came out when I saw it on TV. This is a bright, witty charming movie loaded with a talented cast in James Garner, Dick Van Dyke, Angie Dickenson, Elke Sommer, Ethel Merman, Carl Reiner and a lot of great character actors. I've only seen this a few times as it doesn't seem to get much air time on TV and I don't know why because this is a funny movie. Norma Jewison directs this forgotten gem. It's a good escapist romantic comedy and gives Van Dyke a lot of room to display his comedic skills. James Garner hold the whole thing together. If it shows up on TV again sometime try to check it out, some good comedy situations here. I would give this an 8 on a scale of 10 and recommend it.

Why does this movie have such a low rating? This is a really good comedy. The acting is great, the characters are well developed, the story-line(plot) is very original, funny and well executed. I'd say this is a better comedy than any Jerry Lewis movie I've seen and I'm a Jerry Lewis fan. Dick Van Dyke was such a great comedic actor, James Garner and Elke Summers also, such great acting.

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.

This one needs to be out on DVD, with all the violent stuff Hollywood is putting out nowadays, this needs to come out so that we can laugh again. As one other poster commented, PLLLLLLEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAASSSSSSSEEEEEEEEEEE! get this one out. Dick Van Dyke is just hilarious and the way he gets back at his long time friend James Garner is terrific. They don't come up with plots like this in Hollywood anymore. I hope more people can get their votes out on this fabulous movie. Its one of the classics that has been forgotten again, just like some of Danny Kayes classics like "KNOCK ON WOOD" or "MERRY ANDREW" or Bob Hope's "OFF LIMITS".