Wives and Lovers *** (1963, Janet Leigh, Van Johnson, Shelley Winters, Martha Hyer) – Classic Movie Review 12,163

Janet Leigh in Touch of Evil.

Good stars Janet Leigh, Van Johnson and Shelley Winters enliven the offbeat Sixties sex comedy Wives and Lovers (1963).

Director John Rich’s 1963 Hal Wallis Productions/ Paramount Pictures black and white comedy film Wives and Lovers stars Janet Leigh, Van Johnson, Shelley Winters, and Martha Hyer.

The happy married life of Bill and Bertie Austin (Johnson and Leigh) is threatened by the sudden success of Bill’s novel. Bill and Bertie move to a lovely house in Connecticut where their neighbours are Fran Cabrell (Shelley Winters) and Wylie Driberg (Ray Walston). The once happy married couple then face twin threats from a predatory lady, Bill’s glamorous agent, Lucinda Ford Lucinda Ford (Hyer), and from film star Gar Aldrich (Jeremy Slate).

Wives and Lovers is a smooth, neatly written and slickly performed sex comedy, with Winters stealing every scene as the sharp-tongued friend, Fran Cabrell. Its stage origins (in a play called The First Wife by Jay Presson Allen) show in its small cast (basically of just 10 characters) and talky nature, but not too badly.

The title inspired Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s hit song for Jack Jones the same year, but it is never heard in the movie.

Also in the cast are Claire Wilcox as the couple’s seven-year-old daughter Julie, Jeremy Slate, Lee Patrick, Dick Wessel, Dave Willock, George Bruggeman, and Marianna Hill.

What Janet Leigh’s best movies? Psycho, The Manchurian Candidate, Touch of Evil, The Naked Spur (1953), The Black Shield of Falworth and The Vikings maybe.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,163

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Janet Leigh in The Naked Spur.