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The Worst Film Ever

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

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.

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 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.

Although I haven't seen this film in many years, it was so funny that 99% of it is still in my mind and I look forward to the day it is put on video-though I don't know why it isn't out now, as funny as it is. If you get a chance to see it-DO IT! You won't be sorry!!!