Reviews

Cheesy sets that resemble a souped up Motel Six match the banal plot and dialouge in this cut rate thriller that relies on miniature shots of burning building to keep the audience awake. Unlike Towering Inferno of Did Hard, there is no feeling of claustraphobia, of being trapped in small space with fire and danger all around you. Here, you never leave the soundstage. TheRock ids well name as an actor.

Dick Van Dyke and James Garner for comedy, Elke Sommer and Angie Dickinson for sex, Carl Reiner writing, Norman Jewison directing, and this is the stinker they stirred up. The plot, a painter pretending to be dead to sell his paintings, recalls some of the contrivances of IRMA LA DOUCE, but ART completely lacks the eye winking Gallic quality Wilder brought to his script. Poorly lit studio sets, frantic overacting, and don't forget Ethel Merman as a PG madam who run's a "Girl's Club." There's barely a laugh in it. Perhaps the whole thing collapsed under the production of Ross Hunter, the clutzy, schmaltzy producer who made Universal millions with Sirk soap operas. ART OF LOVE followed the moderatley amusing THRILL OF IT ALL, with Garner, Reiner and Hunter on board, and suggests that they were tying to follow one hit with another one. But Reiner's scrips sounds like he had it in a desk drawer since the 50s. The oo-la-la acting of ART OF LOVE, in these politically correct times, comes close to racism.