How To Save A Marriage And Ruin Your Life (1968)

When an attorney (Dean Martin) finds out his married best friend (Eli Wallach) has a mistress (Anne Jackson), he decides to break it up by seducing the mistress thus proving to his friend she was no good. He sets his plan in motion but in a case of mistaken identity, he targets the wrong girl (Stella Stevens). By 1968, Doris Day was getting too old to play in these sort of romantic sex comedies and Stella Stevens fits her pumps very nicely with Martin substituting for Rock Hudson. It's a lightweight offering but so attractive and amiable with likable performers that it's hard to resist and I wasn't even trying. Stevens was one of those actresses whose career never really caught fire but she was luscious and quite talented in both comedy and drama, the girl next door or the brassy blonde. She carries this movie on her sexy shoulders. Fielder Cook (PATTERNS) isn't necessarily a director you'd associate with material like this but he gives it the fizz needed to follow through. The melodic underscore is by Michel Legrand (can that man write!). With Betty Field, Jack Albertson, Katharine Bard and George Furth.