A Guide for the Married Man
Gene Kelly directs A Guide for the Married Man, a film that is truly a product of its time. The 1967 “bedroom farce” feels quite dated today and seems to rely on its guest stars a bit too much, but the root of it is a pretty funny little send-up of infidelity and how not to get caught screwing around on your wife. The premise is ludicrous from the outset, with a bunch of slovenly dopes paired with some truly glorious hotties, so right away you know Kelly’s up to something…
To take anything in A Guide for the Married Man seriously requires the bending of logic. We have to accept that Walter Matthau’s Paul Manning could be married to Inger Stevens’ Ruth Manning, for instance, and we have to imagine that he’d want to cheat on Inger Stevens. This takes some doing. We also have to accept, rationally, that Robert Morse’s Ed Stander is going to help Paul cheat on his wife and that his gap-toothed idiot grin is something women look for.
The puzzle is whether all of this stuff is meant as parody or meant to be taken as a sort of “lesson movie” in which Paul eventually discovers how happy his marriage really is. The premise involves Ed telling Paul all sorts of tips of the trade to help him avoid getting caught. This means that Ed and Paul have to go on a trial run that includes renting a car and getting a seedy motel room to make sure that Paul doesn’t get caught when he decides to cheat.
Of course, Paul doesn’t really have anyone specific in mind and his decision to cheat simply seems to come out of general boredom with his marital existence with Ruth. Why he’d be bored with Ruth’s generous breasts and hips is a giant mystery, of course, but that might be all a part of the comedy. How good a movie A Guide for the Married Man actually is depends largely on how much of the premise is meant as parody and how much is meant as comedy.
If, for instance, the clearly chauvinistic rantings of the characters are meant as send-ups of how men acted in the 50s and 60s, this is truly funny stuff. And if this is all meant as a send-up of how magazines like Playboy treat women in general (how these rags still treat women), this is good stuff indeed. But if it’s all a part of the general lexicon and simply a lame product of its time, there’s little good about A Guide for the Married Man.
I suppose the greatest failing here is that Kelly isn’t an adequate enough director to make his intentions clear. Sure, he wraps the thing up in a nice “family values” bow and tells us how happy it is to make a home. But there’s tinges of blatant, strong sexism throughout and the women in the film only exist as eye candy and nothing more. There aren’t any female characters worth relating to beyond a butt shot or a peek at the generous cleavage.
Kelly’s direction simply leaves too many questions about the film’s intent and, while there are some funny bits and some truly over-the-top moments, it’s hard to decide if the chauvinism and backwards attitudes is intentional or meant to be sent up for laughs. Even so, a lot of A Guide for the Married Man feels dated and awkward and there really isn’t much to this picture beyond a pile of sexy women and a lot of mucking about with Walter Matthau. If that’s your cup of tea, this movie might be for you.
Trailer:
