The 1960s saw Hollywood make a lot of comedies dealing more or less with sexual mores. Some of them seemed to be trying to appeal to the younger generation with the inclusion of new young names, while others just seemed to be established actors making something that felt new to Hollywood. An example of the latter, to me, would be Not With My Wife, You Dont!.
The movie starts off with the sort of animated sequence you might think of in a subversive Frank Tashlin movie of the 1950s, with the green-eyed monster of jealousy introducing various forms of animal jealousy, until the scene shifts to the main action of the story. Tom Ferris (Tony Curtis) is a colonel in the United States Air Force, currently serving as adjutant to General Parker (Carroll O'Connor). Parker is coming to London for a conference, and it's Col. Ferris' job to do all the advance legwork. At the meeting at the US Embassy, whom does Col. Ferris see but Col. Tank Martin (George C. Scott). It turns out that the two had a past together. And then that night at the ball for all the bigwigs, Col. Ferris and his wife Julietta (Virna Lisi) kind of get into it, which isn't exactly the best thing. But it turns out that Martin's presence is part of what's wrong.
This gives us the obligatory flashback, which tells us how Col. Ferris met Julietta quite a few years back in Korea. Julietta was serving as a nurse for the Italian Army, and she, Ferris, and Martin all meet together one night at the base watering hole, where the two men compete for the affections of Julietta since she's so pretty. Eventually, there's a big fight between the Americans and some Australians, and it's Ferris who winds up with Julietta. This extends to when Ferris is shot down and winds up in hospital where Julietta, being a nurse, tends to him, while Ferris tries to keep Martin from seeing her. Apparently their friendly rivalry is no holds barred. It extends to Ferris lying to her when Martin gets shot down as well and is at first presumed lost; Ferris destroys the telex revealing that Martin is in fact alive so that Julietta won't find out.
With that in mind, Martin sets about pursuing Julietta again once she sees that he hasn't died. And she might seem a bit receptive, in part because Ferris seems much more focused on his career than on his marriage. He's got a little black book that he uses to keep all the information on just what Gen. Parker wants, and there doesn't seem to be anything in it for a woman like his wife. So Martin convinces Gen. Parker to have Ferris transferred to "survival training" in Labrador, giving Martin a chance to start putting the moves on Julietta. Ferris discovers the ruse, but is he going to be able to get back to Julietta in time?
To be honest, this wasn't my favorite movie. The more I see 1960s comedies, the more I'm finding that there's a lot here that's not my favorite genre as a whole. A lot of them feel like they haven't aged very well. I've kind of talked about that regarding what I've referred to as the "generation gap" movie, which is the sort of movie I had in mind when I mentioned the movies movies with new stars in the introduction to this post. The cast here all try, and I think they do the best they can with the material they're given. But the material isn't the best. It's not anywhere near as bad as some of the comedies of this era (see Doctor, You've Got to Be Kidding for one particularly dire example). But it's certainly not one of my favorites.
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