Search - A Guide for the Married Man on DVD

Walter Matthau at his low key best

John R. Bridell | Minneapolis, MN USA | 09/25/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A GUIDE FOR THE MARRIED MAN is a flic that shows Walter Matthau at his low key best. And what a movie treat to have Robert Morse, who is always at his best, playing the role of Matthau's mentor. This movie was a WOW! The plot is ingenious, not only about cheating in marriage, but about lessons from a professional cheater, creating very sophisticated skits from a stable of comedy stars including Art Carney, Wally Cox [Remember Mister Peepers?], Joey Bishop, Sid Caesar,Jack Benny, Carl Reiner, Phil Silvers, that Magnificent Man in the Bedroom of Errant Brassiers--Terry-Thomas, and Lucille Ball. Was there a "best scene?" No! No! The scenes were all-- ALL OF THEM -- Terrific! I'll bet that Terry-Thomas was still looking for that brassier until the day he died. Pay whatever the price for this movie."

A Romp for the Comedy Movie Lover!

Lorraine Minor | Chicago, IL United States | 11/14/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I don't care if it IS sexist and dated (and, okay... it is), I'm giving 1967's "A Guide for the Married Man" a politically incorrect 5 stars anyway because I love this zany comedy classic!

I have to agree with reviewer manuel hernandez--they absolutely DON'T make movies like this anymore because they CAN'T: There simply is no modern equivalent for the legendary likes of Jack Benny, Phil Silvers, Art Carney, Lucy Ball, Carl Reiner, Sid Caesar, Louis Nye, Terry-Thomas or, for that matter, stars Walter Matthau and Robert Morse. (Witness the inept results of the ill-considered attempt to remake Stanley Kramer's 1963 masterpiece "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World"...)

After having heard about it for years, I finally saw "Guide" for the very first time on a cable movie channel in 1993 and enjoyed it from the zingy start to the satirically sentimental finish. (Any ideas on where I can find the snappy title theme by the The Turtles?)

Walter Matthau is a treat in an uncharacteristic role as a wide-eyed suburban Everyman being tutored in the whys and wherefores of adultery by smarmy neighbor Robert Morse. (You might want to bookend this movie with the stingingly funny "corporate" musical "How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying," also starring the talented Morse and released in the same year as "Guide.") A special nod, too, to the beautiful (and tragic) Inger Stevens ("The Farmer's Daughter") as Matthau's sweetly trusting housewife.

Space won't allow me to detail all the marvelous guest spots featuring the A-list cast, so just rent, borrow or buy this very funny movie and see it all for yourself. Be sure not to miss Reiner's comic pursuit of the stunning "Miss Stardust"!

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A Black comedy satire that delivers

Bennet Pomerantz | Seabrook, Maryland | 02/04/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Director Gene Kelly (yes, the actor/dancer) directs this satire about a cheating men.

Robert Morse, Hot offthe success of the film version of "How to Suceed in Business Without Really Trying" makes this film a hit by playing a Finch-liker character. Walter Matthau plays again the type he would later play to the hilt, the novice. Morse takes Matthau under his wing to how to have an affair with mini skits with famous cameos

This black comedy was strong for the 1960's but by todays standards it was be tame and cute

It still holds up 40 years later and still have an air of truth to it

Bennet Pomerantz AUDIOWORLD"

Both An Instructional Video AND A Disapproving Satire

fredtownward | Palatine, Illinois United States | 05/08/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This classic Sixties sex farce has a decidedly schizophrenic attitude towards its subject matter: marital infidelity. On the one hand it gives the would be adulterer some excellent if joked up advice; on the other hand it clearly portrays said adulterers and would be adulterers in the cast as fools. Perhaps that is the secret of its success -- the tension between these conflicting viewpoints. When screenwriter Frank Tarloff first pitched his story idea to 20th Century-Fox, the focus of ridicule was on the cuckolded wives rather than the philandering husbands. Both the studio and proposed director Gene Kelly were concerned enough about this to push back and get Tarloff to acquiesce in changing the emphasis: "While the cameo sequences still detailed a long list of ways to avoid getting caught having an affair, the connecting storyline now amounted to something of a morality tale." Note: "Although the film credits indicate Tarloff's screenplay is based on his own book by the same name, the book was actually an afterthought of the studio publicity department; it was published in 1967, shortly before the film's release."

After a brief animated opening sequence illustrating a number of pro-adultery quotations, the movie opens with stunningly gorgeous Ruth Manning (Inger Stevens) doing calisthenics to maintain her fantastic body while being completely ignored by her book-reading schnook of a husband Paul Manning (Walter Matthau) who turns down her offer to have sex in order to finish his chapter. Thus in the first few minutes even the men in the audience are thinking what a fool he is. Nothing that happens later in the movie challenges this first impression; Ruth Manning appears to be the perfect wife. Similarly Ed Stander (a devilish Robert Morse) is also married to a nearly perfect wife, Harriet Stander (Claire Kelly); in fact one cannot help but notice that ALL of the adulterers and would be adulterers in Paul's and Ed's circle of friends are less than gorgeous men married to absolutely gorgeous wives.

The Turtles' rousing theme song accompanies the title sequence's comical display of Paul's almost crippling but so far not slaked lust for other women, a lust so obvious that his friend Ed, an experienced adulterer, offers to take him under his wing in order to prevent him from getting caught, the sort of "consideration" that would prove how much he loves his wife. What makes the movie the classic it is, is how Ed emphasizes his lessons with anecdotes acted out by several of the finest comic actors and actresses of the time: Joey Bishop, Carl Reiner, Sid Caesar, Art Carney, Lucille Ball, Jack Benny, Terry-Thomas, Phil Silvers, Wally Cox, etc. These are universally hysterical and downright instructional; they are also the parts of the movie that viewers tend to remember most fondly. Under Ed's coaching Paul finally gets ready to take the plunge, but before any viewer wishes to put these quite practical lessons into practice, he should watch the swicheroo of an ending. They don't make them like this anymore, and they probably shouldn't try.

Note: this bare bones DVD contains no extras beyond the trailer. Both widescreen and fullscreen versions are available on opposite sides of the double-sided disk; the widescreen version, which is the preferred version because some of the jokes are messed up by the snipping, is on the LABEL side.
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