Der Krieg zwischen Männern und Frauen (1972)

Der Krieg zwischen Männern und Frauen: Directed by Melville Shavelson. With Jack Lemmon, Barbara Harris, Jason Robards, Herb Edelman. A sarcastic near-sighted cartoonist, averse to commitment, falls for an eye-catching brunette, a single mother of three and the only woman who can stand his strong anti-feminist opinions, and eventually proposes and moves in with her.

“One of Jack Lemmonu0026#39;s most innocuous pictures. He plays a professional humorist in New York City, a cynic and confirmed bachelor quickly losing his eyesight, who thinks very little of marriage, women and dogs. How soon do you think it will be before bookstore manager (and marriage-minded divorcée) Barbara Harris gets him to the altar? Sheu0026#39;s got the dog, plus three kids and a puppy dog-like former husband, but whatu0026#39;s in it for Lemmon? We are never sure what motivates him to take on this brood, to attempt winning over the children, to compete for attention with the ex-spouse. It isnu0026#39;t incredible that Jack should fall for Miss Harris (sheu0026#39;s winsome and a little daft, despite an ugly hairdo), but it is fairly difficult to believe Lemmonu0026#39;s character would take this plunge–and thereu0026#39;s nothing in the script to convince us otherwise. The production is colorful, the animation interesting (if not amusing) and the acting very fine (particularly by young Lisa Gerritsen), however the essence of a plausible story is missing. Based on the writings of James Thurber, screenwriters Danny Arnold (who also produced) and Melville Shavelson (who also directed) shift from satire to the more outré, silly kind of TV comedy without grounding the scenario in a bittersweet style of realism. As such, the movie is one-part comedy (with satirical inflections), one-part drama (with pathos) and one-part character study (disguised as a familyu0026#39;s journey). It isnu0026#39;t any wonder the end results are cute, yet iffy. Shavelson, Arnold and Gerritsen had all previously tackled Thurber on the short-lived television series u0026quot;My World and Welcome To Itu0026quot;. **1/2 from ****”