"It is a truth universally acknowledged", wrote Jane Austen in the famous opening words of "Pride and Prejudice", "that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife".
That truth may have been universally acknowledged when Austen wrote those words in the 1790s, but by the 1960s some were beginning to question it. Stanley Ford is a single man with a good fortune, but one who feels no need of a wife. He works as a cartoonist, one whose work is syndicated in 463 newspapers from Bangor, Maine, to Honolulu, and is successful enough to live in a luxury New York townhouse, furnished in a severely masculine style. His life revolves around his work and an exclusive gentleman's club, where he spends most of his free time working out in the gym. He is cared for by an urbane English valet named Charles and his love life consists of a series of one-night stands, referred to but never shown directly.
One night Stanley gets drunk at a party. Upon waking the following morning he discovers that, while drunk, he got married to a young lady. To make matters worse his new wife, although extremely attractive, is Italian and cannot speak a word of English. He considers having his marriage annulled, decides against it, but then finds that his life has been turned upside down. Charles resigns as Stanley's valet on the grounds that he only works for single men, not married couples. The new Mrs Ford (we never learn her Christian name or her surname before marriage) proves to be an excellent cook, but Stanley is not impressed as he is the sort of man for whom watching his weight is far more important than the pleasures of the table. Worst of all, Stanley is expelled from his club when his wife breaches the strict rule forbidding entry to women.
Even his cartoon strip, "Bash Brannigan", changes. This originally featured the adventures of a James Bond-style secret agent, but after his marriage Stanley turns it into a domestic comedy based upon the various mishaps of his own married life. Stanley decides to get revenge by writing a storyline in which Bash murders his wife, but when his own wife disappears Stanley finds himself arrested and on trial for murder.
Whether or not one enjoys this film is very much a matter of taste. It has certainly come in for some criticism on this board, the film-makers being accused of both tastelessness and sexism. Personally, I have always enjoyed it, largely because it stars the highly talented Jack Lemmon, one of the finest comic actors from this period, as Stanley. It is essentially a satirical black comedy, with some echoes of the screwball comedies of the thirties and forties, and black comedy has always been a genre which has enjoyed a certain licence to try and get laughs out of serious subject-matter such as murder.
The main target of the film's satire is the sexism (or "male chauvinism" to use the sixties term) of the entertainment industry. Most of the characters represent the reductio ad absurdum of common stereotypes in the movies and television programmes of the sixties. Mrs Ford is the glamorous dolly-bird housewife (think of, say, Samantha in "Bewitched"). Stanley's meek-mannered lawyer friend Harold is the put-upon, henpecked husband and his wife Edna the monstrous female chauvinist who does the henpecking. Stanley himself lives his life vicariously through his alter ego Bash Brannigan, the tough, ultra-macho alpha male, acting out Bash's adventures in person before drawing them. Charles is the smooth, urbane gentleman's gentleman, with a hint of repressed homosexuality about him. (I wonder if the details of Stanley's casual womanising, and the final scene in which Charles falls for Mrs Ford's mother, were inserted to allay any suspicion that they might be more than good friends). We realise what a monster Charles is when he comes to the erroneous conclusion that Stanley really has killed his wife and, far from being horrified, congratulates him warmly. Terry-Thomas (another talented comic actor) makes the most of this part.
Besides Hollywood sexism, the film's targets also include infantile comic strips, the closed world of gentlemen's clubs and the legal system; the climax comes in the brilliant courtroom scene when Stanley persuades Harold to press a button which will (hypothetically) cause Edna to disappear for ever. There are plenty of amusing lines ("Been married 38 years myself. And I don't regret one day of it. The one day I don't regret was... August 2, 1936") and a witty musical score from Neal Hefti which fits perfectly with the cynical, tongue-in-cheek mood of the film. And those who think that the film is seriously arguing against marriage should remember that Mr and Mrs Ford end up together. 7/10
That truth may have been universally acknowledged when Austen wrote those words in the 1790s, but by the 1960s some were beginning to question it. Stanley Ford is a single man with a good fortune, but one who feels no need of a wife. He works as a cartoonist, one whose work is syndicated in 463 newspapers from Bangor, Maine, to Honolulu, and is successful enough to live in a luxury New York townhouse, furnished in a severely masculine style. His life revolves around his work and an exclusive gentleman's club, where he spends most of his free time working out in the gym. He is cared for by an urbane English valet named Charles and his love life consists of a series of one-night stands, referred to but never shown directly.
One night Stanley gets drunk at a party. Upon waking the following morning he discovers that, while drunk, he got married to a young lady. To make matters worse his new wife, although extremely attractive, is Italian and cannot speak a word of English. He considers having his marriage annulled, decides against it, but then finds that his life has been turned upside down. Charles resigns as Stanley's valet on the grounds that he only works for single men, not married couples. The new Mrs Ford (we never learn her Christian name or her surname before marriage) proves to be an excellent cook, but Stanley is not impressed as he is the sort of man for whom watching his weight is far more important than the pleasures of the table. Worst of all, Stanley is expelled from his club when his wife breaches the strict rule forbidding entry to women.
Even his cartoon strip, "Bash Brannigan", changes. This originally featured the adventures of a James Bond-style secret agent, but after his marriage Stanley turns it into a domestic comedy based upon the various mishaps of his own married life. Stanley decides to get revenge by writing a storyline in which Bash murders his wife, but when his own wife disappears Stanley finds himself arrested and on trial for murder.
Whether or not one enjoys this film is very much a matter of taste. It has certainly come in for some criticism on this board, the film-makers being accused of both tastelessness and sexism. Personally, I have always enjoyed it, largely because it stars the highly talented Jack Lemmon, one of the finest comic actors from this period, as Stanley. It is essentially a satirical black comedy, with some echoes of the screwball comedies of the thirties and forties, and black comedy has always been a genre which has enjoyed a certain licence to try and get laughs out of serious subject-matter such as murder.
The main target of the film's satire is the sexism (or "male chauvinism" to use the sixties term) of the entertainment industry. Most of the characters represent the reductio ad absurdum of common stereotypes in the movies and television programmes of the sixties. Mrs Ford is the glamorous dolly-bird housewife (think of, say, Samantha in "Bewitched"). Stanley's meek-mannered lawyer friend Harold is the put-upon, henpecked husband and his wife Edna the monstrous female chauvinist who does the henpecking. Stanley himself lives his life vicariously through his alter ego Bash Brannigan, the tough, ultra-macho alpha male, acting out Bash's adventures in person before drawing them. Charles is the smooth, urbane gentleman's gentleman, with a hint of repressed homosexuality about him. (I wonder if the details of Stanley's casual womanising, and the final scene in which Charles falls for Mrs Ford's mother, were inserted to allay any suspicion that they might be more than good friends). We realise what a monster Charles is when he comes to the erroneous conclusion that Stanley really has killed his wife and, far from being horrified, congratulates him warmly. Terry-Thomas (another talented comic actor) makes the most of this part.
Besides Hollywood sexism, the film's targets also include infantile comic strips, the closed world of gentlemen's clubs and the legal system; the climax comes in the brilliant courtroom scene when Stanley persuades Harold to press a button which will (hypothetically) cause Edna to disappear for ever. There are plenty of amusing lines ("Been married 38 years myself. And I don't regret one day of it. The one day I don't regret was... August 2, 1936") and a witty musical score from Neal Hefti which fits perfectly with the cynical, tongue-in-cheek mood of the film. And those who think that the film is seriously arguing against marriage should remember that Mr and Mrs Ford end up together. 7/10