MARRIAGE ON THE ROCKS (MGM 1965) Warner Home Video

Frank Sinatra’s movie career went through several permutations – with as many snags along the way. One of them, Jack Donohue’s Marriage on the Rocks (1965) finds ‘ole blue eyes’ playing second fiddle as a lovelorn hipster, turned family man, whose wife is decidedly beside herself. How badly did Sinatra need the money to make this one? What about Dean Martin, who appears to have zero interest here beyond cashing his check to divide up into martinis? Stars are worth money because the studios - especially in the mid-60's - desperately needed some sort of cache to bring audiences into theaters. So, are Sinatra and Martin the real 'reel' deal here? Hardly, and that, plus the deadly dull screenplay, inveigling all three players in one ruthlessly awful and contrived scenario after the next, quickly adds up to the sort of cinematic gumbo that, in the last analysis, only seems good for a glance 'because' of its stars! After all, familiar faces paraded in dreck are still familiar faces, whatever tarnish is applied to them.

Valerie Edwards (Deborah Kerr) has, in fact, run out of good reasons to stay married to hubby, Dan (Sinatra). The Cy Howard screenplay is clever enough, though perhaps a tad too conventional to be considered anything better than an overblown excursion of all those feather-weight and antiseptic rom/coms, then populating TV. Dan and Valerie have been married for nineteen years. Alas, the strain has begun to show. Though Dan sees no cracks in the eternal bliss of his wedded days, his wife has grown restless with his stability in the business world. Odd, because this has afforded them with all the luxuries that are supposed to represent the American dream – a lovely home, a couple of cars, and two wonderful children, Tracy (Nancy Sinatra) and David (Michael Petit). So, what’s missing? That fiery spark of youth for which Dan seems not to care, but has since driven Valerie to wilder distractions.

Valerie is constantly throwing Dan’s swinger business partner and long-time friend, Ernie Brewer (Dean Martin) in his face. Ernie has never grown up. He is constantly cavorting with hot young girls and living the sort of exciting lifestyle Valerie thinks she wants. Predictably, the old adage of ‘be careful what you wish for’ holds true. After Ernie encourages Dan to take his wife on a second honeymoon, the couple arrives in Mexico to discover themselves on the brink of divorce. In fact, the decree is granted most willingly by amiable, Miguel Santos (Cesar Romero); a one-man town council in the hamlet where Dan and Valerie are currently staying. Santos is the town’s only judge, attorney, hotel proprietor and party coordinator. To rectify their divorce, Dan decides to let his business acumen lapse and remarry Val’ in a lavish Mexican ceremony. Unfortunately, Dan is called away on business at the last moment, leaving Ernie to explain the situation. Instead, Ernie arrives at the altar on the day of the wedding and is accidentally wed to Val’ by a Mexican priest. Seeing his moment to teach Valerie a lesson she will never forget, Dan moves out of their home, allowing both Valerie and their children to see what life would be like if their ‘Uncle Ernie’ were, in fact, their stepfather.

Marriage on the Rocks abounds in clichés and ‘60’s stereotypes of a woman’s place. Valerie is presented as something of a frustrated scatterbrain who does not know what she wants until she is afforded the opportunity to sample both sides of the marital fence with less than stellar results. After reinvigorating his career in the mid-1950’s with some truly inspired work, Sinatra is barely going through the motions in this movie. He is as bland as pabulum and relegated to the back burner during the second half of the story as the plot shifts to illustrate how ineffectual Ernie is at taking Dan’s place on the homestead. Of the three principals, only Kerr is giving it her all, at least trying to make something of this clattering mess. It’s the screenplay that continually let’s the stars down here; coy, too concise and cinched together with enough cliché to sincerely stifle the average intellect with an ‘Oh, please!’ I suspect, Cy Howard is going for the jugular in screwball comedy here. But he never gets above the knees – the humor, generally situated somewhere below the belt as Valerie pines for the heady days of youth without first acknowledging that the ship has sailed and she and Dan are no longer on it. In the final analysis, Marriage on the Rocks is a dinosaur.

Better news ahead. Warner Home Video’s DVD delivers a fairly solid image. Colors are relatively vibrant. Contrast is nicely realized. The sets are obvious, but beautifully lit and photographed by William H. Daniels (who also happens to be the picture’s producer) with rich tones lovingly reproduced herein. Minimal grain and age-related artifacts yield a rather impressive and tight anamorphic transfer that will surely please. The audio is a 5.1 stereo reworking of the original six track Cinemascope elements with inherent shortcomings in audio fidelity. There are NO extras.

FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)

2

VIDEO/AUDIO

4

EXTRAS

0