A Guide for the Married Man
Short description
Paul Manning has been happily married to his wife Ruth for twelve years, but middle age has left him restless. His friend Ed Stander, a married man who has kept mistresses for just as long, offers a solution: take a lover, or the marriage will suffer. Paul, a respectable family man, is reluctant, so Ed tutors him in the art of adultery and how to avoid discovery.
Gene Kelly directed the comedy, which came near the end of a run of musicals and comedies that included On the Town and Singin' in the Rain before it and Hello, Dolly! after it. Frank Tarloff wrote the screenplay and Frank McCarthy produced. Walter Matthau leads as Paul, with Robert Morse as his instructor in infidelity, Inger Stevens as Ruth, and Sue Ane Langdon, Claire Kelly and Linda Harrison among the credited cast of 57.
Released by 20th Century Fox in May 1967, the film cost about 3 million dollars and returned roughly 5 million worldwide, a modest result against its budget. On TMDB it holds a rating of 6 out of 10 from 44 votes. The premise rests on Paul's repeated attempts to go through with the plan rather than on any actual betrayal, with his fondness for his wife steadily undermining his friend's lessons.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film features a considerable number of cameos (in Ed Stander's stories): Lucille Ball, Jack Benny, Terry-Thomas, Jayne Mansfield, Sid Caesar, Carl Reiner, Joey Bishop, and Wally Cox. Each of them was paid $10,000 for two days of filming.
- In May 1967, a New York film critic wrote in a review that one of the funniest moments in the film was the scene in which Jayne Mansfield's (1933-1967) character loses her bra in Terry-Thomas's house. Filming the two-minute scene was not easy. It was shot in December 1966, while Zoltan Hargitay, the actress's youngest son from her marriage to Mickey Hargitay (1926-2006), was recovering from spinal meningitis in a California hospital. This followed brain surgery required after an accident in a lion cage at a zoo in November 1966. Zoltan remained in the hospital for exactly one month and returned home on Christmas morning. Following Mansfield's untimely death, several films featuring her were released, but her final cinematic role was in this film.
- The opening song is performed by the band The Turtles. The Turtles received $10,000 for this.
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