The War Between Men and Women

Trailer—The War Between Men and Women

source: The War Between Men and Women

The War Between Men and Women as a whole is okay, but fairly meek. For a comedy it's more often just silly than humorous. Apparently it's a biographical film of sorts, leads Jack Lemmon and Barbara Harris are solid. Suppose there's meaning in it, of finding beauty from which everything stems, until feud or war breaks out and you "lose sight" of it or it's destroyed and you have to find the beauty again or start over. This feeling isn't as strongly captured within however. The animations are fine, but I dislike how they're merged into reality this way. Swish, swish, bish, another one in the casket, hehe.

It takes a good sense of humor and a lot of honesty to admit that the problem in the world isn't mayo or female, but humanity in general, and this film takes a hysterical look at the issues that befall everyone regardless of gender. Jack Lemmon has written a book (the title of the movie) that has stirred up some controversy, and indeed, he is a man with a lot of problems. It's by an ironic coincidence that he meets Barbara Harris at a meeting with women discussing his book and they end up in a wacky relationship that results in marriage, made even wackier by the sudden arrival of her ex-husband, Jason Robards. No sooner has the jealousy subsided than the two men find themselves on the same side, having a wacky fantasy fight with animated figures from Lemmon's book, but by this time, the children from Harris and Robards' marriage have come to love Lemmon as if he was their father, probably because he's just an immature little boy in a grown man's body, and a wacky new playmate. Not only are the three leads amazing, 70's sitcom teen Lisa Gerritson ( "The Mary Tyler Moore Show", "Phyllis") is quite memorable as the oldest child from the first marriage, sort of like the Greek chorus of the film, and like she was as Cloris Leachman's daughter, much smarter than the adults. This is certainly very dated in modern terms, but it is such a wacky premise that it becomes hard to dismiss for certain attitudes it presents. Lemmon, whose character is completely blind without his glasses, has several hysterical scenes where he has to be rescued because of that, usually by Harris. Fans of the original "Freaky Friday" willl see similarities in her performance, and it's obvious that someone saw this and thought that you would be perfect as Jodie Foster's mother. She even gets to sing, reminding audiences that she was a talented Tony winning Broadway musical star. Like many films of the '70s, this has some great location footage in Manhattan, and the pacing is very fast, making it seem much shorter than it's near two hour running time. Lemmon, as the narrator, seems destined in the opening to steal the film because of his often misguided wit, but with Harris quickly introduced and Robards coming in later, this obviously will become a great ensemble piece where the kids are amusing and not cloying and in a smaller role, Herb Edelman ("Golden Girls") gets some good material as well. Of all the forgotten comedies of the '70s (many of which are indeed forgettable), this is perhaps one of the most underrated and most deserving a rediscovery, with the script and direction by Melville Shavelson top notch. There's a very funny cameo at the beginning by a well-known therapist, obviously spoofing her image and having a lot of fun. Lemmon, who got great acclaim the same year for the comedy "Avanti", and would win his second Oscar the following year, is at the top of his game, and Harris shows that she can be a fun wacky screen comic to rival that other Barbara, the one that tossed an a out of that first name and got to do one of Harris's Broadway musical roles on screen.

This movie is based on Thurber's book and his life, it's funny but very touching, like James Thurber himself. Of course Thurber's absurdest humor is not everyone's cup of tea, and much of this movie was over the audiences head. As usual the almost forgotten Barbra Harris is perfect, funny pretty and just a bit mad. When this movie came out there was a TV show on at the same time based on the same work. It was called "My World & Welcome to It" Lisa Gerritsen played the daughter in both . What seems to annoy many people who see this movie is the use of Thurbers cartoons. And I admit it took me a while to finally get the humor in his cartoon strips. so, although this may only be a film for Thurber fans , it is an excellent one.

A few weeks ago, I accidentally stumbled into the beginning-after the credits-of this movie while flipping channels. Since it was late, I didn't bother to watch the rest of it so when I found it in the listings again a few days later, I immediately time recorded it on the DVR. I'm very glad I did as I was enthralled by Jack Lemmnon's performance as a cartoonist who's going blind and, despite his cynical attitude concerning women and children, meets a lady (Barbara Harris) with three kids that he falls for as her temper matches his to a T! There's also her ex-husband (Jason Robards) to deal with whenever he comes to visit. Of the offspring, the most charismatic is the middle one played by Lisa Gerritsen-perhaps best known as Phyllis' daughter on both "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and the spin off "Phyllis"-who has a speech impediment. As Lemmon's character is based on real life cartoonist James Thurber, we see drawings and animation by Playhouse Pictures that is directly inspired by his work including a perfect rendering of his picture tale called "The Last Flower". To me, The War Between Men and Women is both hilarious and very dramatically touching so on that note, this movie is highly recommended.

The title of the film comes from a story told in drawings - The War Between Men and Women - whose author was the famous American humorist, James Thurber (1894-1961). Thurber's most famous work is the short story "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" which was made into a movie starring Danny Kaye in 1947. A new version of "Mitty" is in production. The character of Peter Wilson played by Jack Lemmon in this film suffers from failing eyesight which also plagued Thurber and contributed to his unique drawing style. This film was probably inspired by William Windom's portrayal of a Thurber-like character in a TV series broadcast in 1969 called My World and Welcome To It which is a title of one of Thurber's books. Windom went on to do a one-man stage performance of Thurber's works including some animation of some of Thurber's drawings. At the end of The War Between Men and Women we see one of these animations, an anti-war piece by Thurber called "The Last Flower".

One of Jack Lemmon's most innocuous pictures. He plays a professional humorist in New York City, a cynic and confirmed bachelor quickly losing his eyesight, who thinks very little of marriage, women and dogs. How soon do you think it will be before bookstore manager (and marriage-minded divorcée) Barbara Harris gets him to the altar? She's got the dog, plus three kids and a puppy dog-like former husband, but what's in it for Lemmon? We are never sure what motivates him to take on this brood, to attempt winning over the children, to compete for attention with the ex-spouse. It isn't incredible that Jack should fall for Miss Harris (she's winsome and a little daft, despite an ugly hairdo), but it is fairly difficult to believe Lemmon's character would take this plunge--and there's nothing in the script to convince us otherwise. The production is colorful, the animation interesting (if not amusing) and the acting very fine (particularly by young Lisa Gerritsen), however the essence of a plausible story is missing. Based on the writings of James Thurber, screenwriters Danny Arnold (who also produced) and Melville Shavelson (who also directed) shift from satire to the more outré, silly kind of TV comedy without grounding the scenario in a bittersweet style of realism. As such, the movie is one-part comedy (with satirical inflections), one-part drama (with pathos) and one-part character study (disguised as a family's journey). It isn't any wonder the end results are cute, yet iffy. Shavelson, Arnold and Gerritsen had all previously tackled Thurber on the short-lived television series "My World and Welcome To It". **1/2 from ****

Very cute, with clever interweaving of cartoon and live action ( particularly for an older movie. Lemmon does an outstanding job, as does Gerritsen. Many endearing scenes, peppered with mostly good fun throughout.

Unless you are trying to see all of Jack Lemmon's films you should probably skip this film. Lemmon plays an almost blind cartoonist who is getting progressively worse. He has a weird relationship with Barbara Harris's character. She was formerly married to Jason Robards. The movie is not funny though it is supposed to be a comedy. It didn't really have any point or redeeming feature. 3 out of 10.