How To Save a Marriage (And Ruin Your Life)

Dino pleasantly saunters through
"How To Save A Marraige (And Ruin Your Life)" has long been one of my favorite Dean Martin films. It's a light romantic farce / drawing room comedy and the pairing between Dean and Stella Stevens works extremely well. Dean's comic timing shines through and here he was at his most likeable suave romantic lead. "Who Was That Lady" is another favorite that, like the other movie, hasn't been seen much in several years. It's a gem that lies somewhere between romantic farce and slapstick. Dean -- as best friend -- plays well off Tony Curtis here, and the absurdity of the plot is what makes this so clever. While these are not Dean's finest film work (not in the realm of "Rio Bravo", for example), you'll enjoy this double feature. Thanks to SONY for putting it out!

A buddy flick and a chick flick finally on DVD!!
It's about time these two films were released on DVD! The quality on these is FAR better than the VHS versions. As always, Dean shines as the suave, smooth, debonair bachelor with a wonderful supporting cast, and gorgeous women to boot! In "Lady", his friendship with Tony Curtis is put to the test as they both pose as phony FBI agents. In "Marriage" his "relationship" with Stella Stevens is put to the test as Dean poses as a phony widower. Both of these films are very likable as Dean always manages to put a smile on your face. How does he get in and out of these messes, you'll just have to find out. Don't miss out on this double-feature classic!

A good Martin comedy paired with a bad one
Dean Martin made quite a few comedies away from the Rat Pack in the 1960s. Most of them were pretty interesting and even the bad ones are worth seeing. This DVD double feature includes one that worked well for me and had me laughing out loud more than a few times and one that didn't work as well and only had me laughing in its last 15 minutes (out of a 115-minute movie).

The good one, HOW TO SAVE A MARRIAGE AND RUIN YOUR LIFE (1968), introduces the necessary characters and relationships and builds up the set of circumstances that leads, quite plausibly, to the misunderstanding that sets the plot in motion. We see how shopgirl Stella Stevens (as beautiful as I've ever seen her) learns something incriminating about her boss (Eli Wallach) that leads to a promotion that buys her silence about the apartment where he keeps a mistress, hence starting the rumor that she herself is the boss's mistress, which leads the boss's best friend, Wall Street investor Dean Martin, to try to...

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