Why so much hype?

Sadly Over-hyped

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

The separate talents of James Garner and Dick Van Dyke should have guaranteed a better film than The Art Of Love. Still the considerable legion of fans both those guys have should be pleased. Not to mention that Angie Dickinson and Elke Sommer are along for the girl watchers.The guys are roommates in a Paris flat Garner an aspiring writer and Van Dyke an aspiring painter, neither of whom has made their mark. But in Van Dyke's case as is pointed out painters only become legends after their demise.Which while both are in a drunken stupor gives Garner a brilliant idea, especially when Van Dyke jumps into the Seine. He sells whatever he can find for a bundle and then when Van Dyke shows up they keep the fiction going. After that romantic complications set in and other kinds of complications set in as the gag goes way too far.I really expected better. Garner's charming conman gets a bit hard to take. Van Dyke's gift for physical comedy and pantomime are served better in The Act Of Love. Ethel Merman has a part as a brothel madam and she's about as French as Anna May Wong. And what were a husband and wife pair of Jewish Delicatessen owners Irving Jacobson and Naomi Stevens doing here. More suggestive of Flatbush than the Left Bank.Not the best work for any of the quartet of stars.

Simply stated, I enjoyed this movie decades ago when it rain on TV, and I cannot believe it has yet to be released on DVD. Look at the cast. It's quirky, funny and mostly sweet with great location shots. I don't even recall seeing it on TCM, which is really strange. Does anyone out there know if it was ever even released on VHS? James Garner and Dick Van Dyke play off each other beautifully. The female characters are colorful and endearing to say the least. If you love the sixties, and crave a comedy that is original and just a little risqué, this movie is for you. Please! The DVD! Does anyone know what entity to contact to get this movie out there for fans to experience again?

I was just talking to my wife about this hilarious movie from the mid-sixties and decided to look it up on the web. I first saw it on an afternoon movie show, "Dialing for Dollars" from the Bay Area of California.The premise is nothing short of genius - an artist (Dick Van Dyke) pretends to commit suicide in order to make his paintings more valuable. His best friend (James Garner) helps him pull it off, but horns in on Van Dyke's girl. When Van Dyke finds out about it, he decides NOT to surface after his disappearance starts to look like a murder. His buddy is implicated and Van Dyke decides to let his "friend" sweat it out through a trial (where Van Dyke shows up in an "old man" disguise" a la his old man character from Mary Poppins) where Garner is sentenced for murder.Others on this forum seem to remember the old lady who likes to watch be-headings murmur "Guillotine. GUILLOTINE!" while Garner is being led to his execution.My favorite scene, though, is where Van Dyke is trying to make it to the execution in time to reveal he is not really dead in order to save his friend at the last minute.He's riding in a cab and there is a traffic jam in a small town on the way there. Van Dyke nervously tells the cab driver to hurry because he has to get to his best friend's execution. The driver pulls the cab to a sudden stop, exits the cab, pulls Van Dyke to his feet by the lapels exclaiming, "What kind of a ghoul are you?", throws him on a dirt pile and drives off.The hilarity of this scene is Van Dyke running around with his long lanky legs trying to find a way to the prison where Garner is about to be executed.Kudos to the writer, director and actors in this madcap, scream of a movie!

Although I haven't seen this film in many years, it was so funny that 99% of it is still in my mind and I look forward to the day it is put on video-though I don't know why it isn't out now, as funny as it is. If you get a chance to see it-DO IT! You won't be sorry!!!