Building his technique as he transitioned from tv to feature film, director Norman Jewison was content to borrow a personality on early projects. (Later ones, too, did he ever develop one of his own?) Assured in craft by his fifth film, he’d been Capra-esque in 40 POUNDS OF TROUBLE/’62; squire to Doris Day on her last two watchable pics (THE THRILL OF IT ALL/63; SEND ME NO FLOWERS/’64); Blake Edwards wannabee here (THE PINK PANTHER written all over it, right from the DePatie-Freleng animated credits) before finding something that passed as a personal voice aping Robert Rossen’s THE HUSTLER in THE CINCINNATI KID/’65. That leaves this one with the Booby Prize, Edwards’ brand of comedy inimitable even for a chameleon like Jewison. Not much helped by Carl Reiner’s tapped out script* (struggling artist feigns suicide to goose sales only to see his co-conspirator grab his girl and get blamed for his ‘death’); by backlot Universal Studios Paris; and by a cast giving either too much or too little. (Only James Garner as the self-enriching pal finding the right balance.) If nothing else, it does show just how hard the unique talent & personal voice of Blake Edwards was to pull off.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *‘Tapped out’ as in overused ideas and ‘tapped out’ as in facile.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: As the ‘Not Dead’ artist, Dick Van Dyke, placing clowning before character, as usual, does get a knockout gag on a bit lifted straight out of DIABOLIQUE/’55. Then loses any advantage by reprising his doddering Old Man shtick from MARY POPPINS/’64.
WATCH THIS, NOT THAT/LINK: Jewison & Reiner (now only as actor) redeemed themselves as collaborators on THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING/’66. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2011/03/russians-are-coming-russians-are-coming.html
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