Marriage on the Rocks (1965)

Wonderful character development!

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

The acting in this movie is really good.

This film intends to be wacky, I think, but ends up being nothing more than annoying. Where is the comedy in this comedy? Comedies should be fun. This one saunters through some boring situations, with lackluster performances, and expects laughs, apparently.Frank Sinatra plays the role of the married man, firmly entrenched in responsibility, with a family that doesn't appreciate him. He goes through the motions, except when it comes to his job.Dean Martin is best friend and bachelor--another cliché of the mid-sixties. He is constantly juggling the attentions of sexy women, providing a stark contrast to his "square" buddy, Frank.Deborah Kerr's talents are wasted as Frank's wife--feeling unfulfilled and starved for attention.The entire story revolves around a reversal that is as unfunny as it is improbable--Dean mistakenly marries Deborah. Oh, what will they do? How can they possibly extricate themselves from this situation that is filled with life lessons and comic banter?I cannot recommend this film to anyone. It is mirthless.

Though you'll go a long way to find a bigger Sinatra fan than me I'm not the besotted type who thinks the idol in question can do no wrong and I'm well aware of his substandard work as both singer and actor or, to put it another way, Mama Will Bark was not the only dog with which he was associated. It's hard to imagine exactly who and at what obviously early stage ever thought there was a scintilla of merit in this turkey which relies on the audience 'getting' the joke that Sinatra, a celebrated swinger in real life, is here cast as a boring husband so much so that wife Deborah Kerr seriously attempts to use boredom as grounds for divorce. Nepotism is certainly alive and well with roles for daughter Nancy and real-life (at the time) son-in-law Tommy Sands. Best buddy Dean Martin plays himself and flavor of the month Tony Bill - Sinatra cast him in Come Blow Your Horn and None But The Brave - also turns up cast against type. There's minimal chemistry between Kerr and Sinatra, Cesar Romero does his best as the stereotype foreign jack-of-all-trades and to add insult to injury Sinatra allows Trini Lopez to stink up the screen when he himself could have supplied a real vocal interlude. For completists only.

This movie stars Deborah Kerr, one of the greatest actresses in history. She was nominated for Academy Awards six times and should have been nominated a few more times. I just saw her in "Night of the Iguana," and I thought that was another performance she should have gotten an academy award nomination for. I have never seen her give a bad performance. She gives a charming and funny performance here, keeping the movie together. Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin are spotty, good in some scenes, not-so-good in others.Sinatra is mostly sleepwalking, with Martin occasionally giving some funny lines, but Sinatra doing one-take -- let me out of here,is it 5 o'clock yet -- readings. This could have been a good movie. There are a couple of ways they could have gone with it. First, they could have turned it into a real musical. They already had two of the greatest singers of the time and Deborah Kerr who had starred in "The King and I". How hard would it have been to hire a couple of songwriters to knock out eight songs and get a choreographer to stage a few numbers. This would have added some energy to the slow,plot. Okay, if they didn't want to turn is into a musical, they could have made it into a more realistic comedy. In the movie, Deborah is tired of her marriage to dull Frank and wants to marry swinging Dean. Fine, lets do it. Only in the movie, Deborah gets a fake divorce from Frank and a fake marriage to Dean. This is silly, not funny. In order for the movie to work, the divorce and marriage had to be real. This would, no doubt, have made Frank really sad, and not just pretend sad, as in the film, but that would have made us care about him. Because it is not a real divorce, and Frank and Deborah's marriage isn't really threatened, nor is Frank and Dean's friendship, there is no intensity to the film.Divorce is a painful process. The filmmakers, and, I suspect, Frank Sinatra, didn't want any of that pain in the film. They just wanted a breezy comedy. Unfortunately, fake pain from a fake divorce does not equal comedy. Slipping on a banana peel is funny, faking slipping on a banana peel is not. Most of the film is hit and miss. Joi Lansing as Dean's curvy secretary was funny. Having 21 year old Davey Davison as a Go-Go dancer lusting after 49 year old Frank was not.You know the direction is not very good when you have Nancy Sinatra playing a scene as Frank Sinatra's daughter and you're convinced by the end of the scene that they have never met each before.

"Fuddy-duddy" Frank Sinatra (as Dan Edwards) runs an advertising agency, with "drinking man" Dean Martin (as Ernie Brewer) assisting. Mr. Sinatra thinks housewife Deborah Kerr (as Valerie) is happily married, but she wants a divorce "on the grounds of boredom." Sinatra thinks, "I don't have to be romantic." Ms. Kerr wonders what life would be like if she married Mr. Martin, who romances a succession of busty secretaries. Through a series of misunderstandings, Kerr gets her wish…Sinatra, Kerr, and Martin do not live up to the marquee value of their names. At least, Kerr seems to be alert. Teenage daughter Nancy Sinatra (as Tracy) and Honda hopping son Michael Petit (as David) are much better than the big stars. Boyfriend Tony Bill (Jim Blake) and an able supporting cast help… a little. Strangely enough, Sinatra and Martin sing no songs; instead, their "Reprise" label is represented by Trini Lopez doing "Sinner Man", a minor hit after the film's original release.**** Marriage on the Rocks (9/16/65) Jack Donohue ~ Frank Sinatra, Deborah Kerr, Dean Martin, Nancy Sinatra