The Wheeler Dealers [Separate Beds] *** (1963, James Garner, Lee Remick, Phil Harris, Chill Wills, Jim Backus, Louis Nye, John Astin) – Classic Movie Review 5991

The friendly, glossy 1963 satirical romantic comedy film The Wheeler Dealers stars James Garner as a stock-market mogul who storms the business world with an imaginary product.

Even changing the title for the UK from The Wheeler Dealers to Separate Beds, there is nothing like a glossy Sixties comedy to remind British audiences that American films can seem as foreign as, say, Japanese ones.

Director Arthur Hiller’s 1963 satirical romantic comedy stars James Garner as a stock-market mogul who storms the business world with an imaginary product. Subjects for satire include Wall Street, Texans, action painters, advertising, and New York taxis.

The talented, appealing and estimable Garner and Remick manoeuvre themselves with stylish ease through Hiller’s ferocious direction, lavish sets and George J W Goodman and Ira Wallach’s frantic script, Charles Lang Jnr’s Metrocolor widescreen photography and Frank DeVol’s score. But, friendly as it is, it still seems like a report from an alien planet.

The Wheeler Dealers is based on a 1959 novel by George J W Goodman.

The cast include several of the most notable character actors of the era: Phil Harris, Chill Wills, Jim Backus, Louis Nye, John Astin, Elliott Reid, Patricia Crowley, Pat Harrington Jr, John Marley, Robert Strauss, William Fawcett, Percy Helton and Walter Burke.

It is produced by Martin Ransohoff for Filmways and distributed by MGM.

Garner recalled the film as ‘a broad comedy in which my character is a lot like Bret Maverick’. He was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.

The cast are James Garner as Henry Tyroon, Lee Remick as Molly Thatcher, Phil Harris as Ray Jay Fox, Chill Wills as Jay Ray Spinelby, Jim Backus as Bullard Bear, Louis Nye as Stanislas, John Astin as Hector Vanson, Elliott Reid as Leonard, Pat Harrington Jr as Buddy Zack, Joey Forman as Buster Yarrow, Patricia Crowley as Eloise Cott, Charles Watts as J R Martin, Howard McNear as Mr Wilson, Don Briggs as Len Flink, Vaughn Taylor as Thaddeus Whipple, Robert Strauss as Taxi Driver Feinberg, John Marley as Achilles Dimitros, Peter Leeds as Arthur Watkins, William Fawcett, Percy Helton and Walter Burke.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5991

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