Luv

I don't know why, but when a successful stage play is adapted for the screen, nine times out of ten, something usually gets lost in translation. There are noticeable exceptions such as Arsenic and Old Lace and 12 Angry Men, but a vast majority of these movie adaptations lacks that certain something that made the stage play such a success. Luv from 1967 is one such example. Taken from the Tony Award nominated play of the same name, the movie didn't grab me as I felt it should have and I'm at a loss as to why. Firstly, let's examine the cast. Jack Lemmon always delivers as does Peter Falk and they do here too so it can't be that. Elaine May is by FAR the best thing in the entire movie so it definitely can't be her. Whilst the film does have some extremely laugh out loud funny moments, the wife swapping plot line is perhaps a little too 'icky' and things sway to and fro far too quickly for us to have had any chance to build up any sentiment, and none of the four leads are particularly likeable characters anyway. Lemmon plays Harry Berlin, who we first see as a desperate man at the end of his tether about to commit suicide from a bridge over the Hudson. A timely interruption from Milt Manville (Falk), stops him. Harry and Milt were both graduates from the same college 15 years before and despite not having seen each other since, Milt treats Harry like an old and dear friend inviting him to his home for dinner. However, he has an ulterior motive. Milt is in a loveless, (and not to mention sexless marriage with Ellen (Elaine May). Milt has a mistress in the form of the sexy Linda (Nina Wayne), who won't have anything to do with him whilst he remains married. Ellen won't divorce him and Milt feels that if Ellen fell in love with another man, she will give him the divorce he wants so he can marry Linda. He chooses Harry to be the man to throw Ellen's way. At first the plan works and Harry and Ellen fall for each other and Ellen asks for a divorce to marry Harry. Once finalised, Harry moves into Milt's old house and marries Ellen and Milt Marries Linda, but it takes no longer than six weeks for the bloom to fall off the rose. Linda quits her job and Milt discovers she is nothing but a lazy slob who spends all day in bed and neglecting the housework. Linda also isn't happy with Milt due to his habit of selling their furniture to two nameless junk dealers and decides to leave him. Ellen discovers that Harry is nothing more than a neurotic bore whose constant fits and strange behaviour borders on insanity and his total lack of social skills has grated right through to her bone marrow to the point she actually despises him. After a chance meeting between Milt and Ellen, they decide that they still love each other and that the grass was in no way greener after their divorce. They then plot to get back together by trying to set up Linda with Harry, but Harry's social ineptitude soon gives that idea the deep six. Left with no alternative, they lure Harry back to that bridge over the Hudson River in the hopes that they can persuade him to jump to end his perpetual misery as well as their own. Luv is in no way a 'black' comedy, but it sure gets dark at times with all the plotting and scheming that goes on. Nina Wayne is woefully underused as the fourth wheel in this marital car wreck, as for the most part, the focus remains firmly on Harry, Milt and Ellen. The scene where Falk sells his office chair to the junk merchants and throws it out of the window only then to have to crouch at his desk to stop his boss from finding out had me in absolute fits and because we all remember him most as the immortal Lt. Columbo, it's easy to forget what a marvellous gift for comedy Peter Falk actually had and it is on fine display here. Not a bad movie, but not one I will be rushing to watch again any time soon, mainly because of that missing, intangible and unexplainable 'something'. Enjoy!

Trailer—Luv

Luv_720p(480P)

source: Luv

Though a fan, Jack Lemmon's schtick did wear really thin at times. Though Jack Lemmon, Peter Falk (big fan), Elaine May, and Nina Wayne, along with the scenery and sets (love the 60s/70s), manage to hold it together. 8 stars for good to great. 7 could be good but had some fault(s), in this case, Jack Lemmon's character quirks (not very different from the Felix Unger character).

Here's a great trivia question for your next trivial pursuit movie. What future mega star got to punch Jack Lemmon in the nose just because his car was bumped by a woman driver? The answer can be easily found by looking at the cast of this strange movie version of a forgotten Broadway play. That scene, however, is the style of humor used in this swingin' 60's farce that only got occasional laughs from me because I didn't know quite else to do than try to throw a brick through my plastic T.V. screen. Yes, this is embarrassingly bad, a misguided attempt to make timely (by 60's standards) comments on the subject of love, sex and matrimony, none of which really go together according to this film. Certainly, any film with as many New York City locations as this isn't going to be totally horrid. The Brooklyn Bridge is the opening setting for the scene where suicidal Lemmon is reunited with old college pal Peter Falk whose job it seems to be to invade the garbage cans of the city then sell the items from his basement. Totally ignoring the about to jump Lemmon, Falk grabs a lamp shade and is about to take off when he suddenly recognizes Lemmon. Bringing him over for dinner, he deals with a sexually frustrated wife (Elaine May) who is a bit wacky and ends up divorcing Falk to marry Lemmon. It's a trip to Coney Island followed by a honeymoon in Niagra Falls where their "luv" is really tested. In the meantime, Falk marries his dumber than a box of grapenuts mistress, Nina Wayne, testing how "luv and sex" don't always mix. Falk is a truly funny man, but with Lemmon having just come off his first successful pairing with Walter Matthau, you might find yourself longing for him over Falk. Elaine May manages to get laughs simply by sweeping her kitchen floor or snipping Lemmon's suspenders, causing his pants to come down right over the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. This is another one of those automatically dated mod comedies that cry for the music from Laugh In and the Loving Spoonful. The shot of Manhattan from the Brooklyn bridge also seems to be backwards with the Empire State Building and the rest of midtown facing where the financial district should be. Practically a complete miss, it should be seen once to indicate how a comedy should not be. With the team of Lemmon and Falk failing so miserably and the participation of writer Elaine May as the only bright spot, I have to refer to this comedy as the "Ishtar" of the 1960's.

Way before Woody Allen laid claim to the same people and the same territory, this 1967 film based on a 1964 play by Murray Schisgal, directed on Broadway by the young Mike Nichols (who had been Elaine May's partner in Chicago) may be the first Hollywood film ever to feature a group of highly neurotic, overly articulate, and –-although never named as such —apparently middle-class Jewish urban characters. Unfortunately, as funny and satirical as the film is at times, opening it up to the real world with naturalistic settings did not help support its weak story structure. When push comes to shove, the movie is no more than a series of sketches, the sort that Nichols & May did so brilliantly on records and stage. Irishman Jack Lemmon seems miscast; he does his best, however, to sustain the frenetic shtick, mugging outrageously at times. On the plus side, the brilliant and then beautiful Elaine May (future director and writer of many a film flop) may be the greatest crazy Jewish American Princess ever portrayed on film. Try as she might, Woody Allen's second wife, Louise Lasser, understudy in the original Broadway production, could never quite match Elaine May when it came to sheer J. A. P. nuttiness.

Although I haven't seen this film in years, it remains one of my favorites. It was goofy, quirky and an odd-ball film. Jack Lemmon wearing a paper scrub hat and hollering at the TV doctors is priceless. Peter Falk's running gag of selling things is truly a genius at work. I would love to see it again, if I can ever find it!

...and so is "Luv". What might've been a mod, madcap romantic comedy is just an exercise in shouting (you'll never forget that Jack Lemmon plays "Harry"--it's all you hear from the other performers). A suicidal man is brought down from a bridge-railing by an old school friend who has other plans for the guy: fix him up with his unhappy wife so he can marry a fitness enthusiast. The story certainly had satiric possibilities, few of which are realized. One is tempted to put the blame for this mess on Lemmon (who does some uncharacteristically sloppy slapstick here), but Clive Donner's direction should bear the brunt of it--he has no clue how to present this material. Based on the play, "Luv" has bright opening moments but soon sinks into theatrical clichés, the kind that creak and wheeze with age. Worse, it's a visual insult, with tatty color photography that only serves to expose the cheap production. What a shame! Lemmon and Peter Falk (so good together in the earlier "The Great Race") make no music together, and Elaine May struggles for dignity. I struggled through "Luv" and laughed maybe three times. *1/2 from ****

Jack Lemmon is about to end it all when an old friend he hasn't seen in 15 years saves him, well not really. Peter Falk never really noticed that in this very bizarre film. When Peter comes up with a brilliant idea to set up his wife (who he's leaving) with Jack Lemmon, things start to get a little more interesting. Elaine May and Peter Falk are great in this film, especially Elaine May. I watched this for Jack Lemmon, who is one of my favorite actors ever. But here, I never really could get into his character. Jack was his usual funny and quirky self with abrupt seizures. But all in all, I never really felt that much sympathy for his character. Outlandish movies like this either tend to end with a whimper or just don't know how or where to end, and this is no exception. While this is no "Some Like It Hot," this is not the worst film I've ever seen either. The acting of Elaine and Peter are far better than the material. Watch if you like the actors.