While the American cinema slowly inched toward more adult portrayals of modern life in the 1960s, a particular brand of winking sex comedy that straddled innocence and innuendo (made popular by Doris Day and Rock Hudson) remained popular with audiences. The 1965 film The Art of Love is one of the silliest of the genre. James Garner and Dick Van Dyke star as Americans in Paris, best friends sharing a cheap flat while following their respective muses, or at least attempting to. Van Dyke is Paul Sloane, an artist who is ready to toss it in and return to his American fiancée after failing to sell a painting. Garner is Casey Barnett, a would-be writer, and full-time lothario who schemes to keep Paul (and the financial support from his rich girlfriend back home) from leaving. The narrative gymnastics of the plot involve a fake suicide note and a scheme to use Paul's "death" to sell his canvases.
While Paul is in hiding, pursued by the sweet, lovesick beauty Nikki (Elke Sommer), Casey begins wooing Paul's girl Laurie(Angie Dickinson) and the incensed Paul takes his revenge by framing Casey for murder and sending him to the guillotine. Really. It's produced by Ross Hunter, who made the successful Doris Day comedy The Thrill of it All and reunites key member of the film's team—director Norman Jewison, screenwriter Carl Reiner, and costar James Garner—but fails to achieve the same chemistry. Garner plays the charming heel and scheming hustler living large from selling his buddy's paintings and Van Dyke indulges in slapstick gags and clownish costumes (including a hideous red wig he dons as a disguise) in scenes that play like variety show skits.
In fact, the movie resembles the over-the-top visual humor of Blake Edwards' Pink Panther movies, but without the brilliant comic choreography. What's left is a loud, convoluted farce that was a flop when released and has only become more tone-deaf with age. Ethel Merman costars as the owner of a tawdry nightclub that is practically a brothel and Reiner has a small role as Casey's French defense lawyer. Released before the rating system was launched, the film offers mild sexual innuendo and plays leering men and nude models for laughs, but there is no onscreen nudity or foul language. Features audio commentary by film historian Peter Tonguette. Not a necessary purchase.