Review of For Love or Money

This was the era of the civil rights movement, the war protests and the gay marches,one of the most forward thinking times in American civil and political history. The movie comedies of this period therefore tried to look at simpler and more nostalgic times with silly plots, stuffy wardrobe for the performers and traditional locations for the escapism. This nine character ensemble movie captures this in spades with tight direction, utter foolishness and no social or political criticism. Kirk Douglas did not often play comedy, Mitzi Gaynor did not often play non singing movie ingenues and Thelma Ritter did not often play glamorous ladies making them stand out among the generally sterling cast. There is the traditional sixties comedy technicolor naughtiness of a guy normally in a suit coming out of the shower and a gal normally in a tailored dress photographed in lingerie. Other than old timers familiar with screwball of the thirties and forties predicting every nutty turn of events including the so called surprise ending this is an historic gem of an important era in movie making. William Bendix, Gig Young, Dick Sargent, Julie Newmar and Leslie Parrish add their traditional comic flair to roles they often played on film.