The Frame

Slight but enjoyable Shirley MacLaine vehicle from the ’60s. She’s unlucky in love, in the sense that every time she falls in love and gets married, her husband suddenly makes a fortune, stops paying attention to her, and dies. An astounding array of men play her serial spouses: Dick Van Dyke, Paul Newman, Robert Mitchum, Gene Kelly, and Dean Martin. Nice haul. The most interesting thing about it is that each marriage is introduced with a different filmmaking style. Her life with Dick Van Dyke is done as a silent film; she meets painter Paul Newman in Paris, so they’re a European sex comedy; Mitchum is rich already and their life together is a glamorous Hollywood lifestyle; Gene Kelly, obviously a musical. These vignettes are never taken far enough to be really ground-breaking, though, making them a clever addition to a mildly entertaining film, when they could have marked a highly innovative postmodern experiment if they’d been pushed to the limit. Ah, well. Expecting too much from 1960s Hollywood, I guess.
Average