Do not adultery commit, Advantage seldom comes of it.
Thus wrote the 19th century poet A H Clough in "The Latest Decalogue", his satirical version of the Ten Commandments. Clough may have meant these words satirically, but they sum up fairly accurately the way in which his literary contemporaries treated adultery in their works. There was an unwritten law to the effect that writers could deal with the subject on condition that they made it clear that advantage seldom comes of it. Thus Flaubert made Emma Bovary poison herself and Tolstoy had Anna Karenina jump under a train, as a salutary warning to their readers that they disregarded their marriage vows at their peril.
This moralistic attitude to marital infidelity survived well into the twentieth century, and the advent of the Production Code meant that it found a new home in the motion picture industry. Indeed, it seemed to survive there long after it had gone into a decline in the literary world. By the 1950s, however, even Hollywood scriptwriters were starting to take a more liberal attitude towards the Seventh Commandment, the Marilyn Monroe vehicle "The Seven Year Itch" being a case in point. Admittedly, nobody actually commits adultery in that movie, but the main male character certainly considers doing so, and the subject is treated in a generally light-hearted manner, not as the occasion for some heavy-handed moralising.
"The Facts of Life" was made in the opening year of the following decade, and like a number of films from the period such as "Where the Boys Are", also from 1960, it is very much of its period, marked by a coyly suggestive attitude to sex which would have been too suggestive for 1940 or 1950 and too coy for 1970 or 1980. Even the title derives from a sexual euphemism; "Do your children know the facts of life?" is a way of asking "Do your children know the facts of human sexuality?"
Whereas "Where the Boys Are" dealt with love and sex among young single people, this film is a comedy of love and adultery (or at least attempted adultery) among the middle-aged middle classes. Three California couples, the Gilberts, Masons, and Weavers, have a long-standing agreement to go away on holiday together each year. One year fifty-something Larry Gilbert and forty-something Kitty Weaver unexpectedly find themselves alone in Acapulco after their respective spouses are unable to travel with them and the Masons are taken ill. Even more unexpectedly, Larry and Kitty, who have previously not cared for one another very much, fall in love. The rest of the film chronicles their attempts to consummate their relationship. As in "The Seven Year Itch", nobody actually ends up in bed with anyone other than their lawful partner, but in Larry and Kitty's case that's not for want of trying, and the film certainly does not take a moralistic attitude towards their antics.
As I said, the film would have started to look a bit old-fashioned even by 1970, and today, more than fifty years after it was made, its rather twee attitude to sex looks hopelessly antiquated. The plot is horribly artificial and unrealistic. The scriptwriters try to exploit that old romantic comedy chestnut- old even in 1960- about two people who start off by disliking each other and end up madly in love, but here it just does not work. In most films which rely on this plot device the initial dislike is something momentary, based upon a mistaken first impression, which is later corrected, allowing love to develop gradually. Here, however, Larry and Kitty go from hating to loving one another almost in the blink of an eyelid. Moreover, as they appear to have known each other for a considerable length of time, their mutual dislike was presumably based upon something more than a temporary misunderstanding.
Lucille Ball, in her late forties, was still attractive enough to make a convincing romantic comedy heroine. (She was actually nominated for a Golden Globe for "Best Actress – Comedy"). Bob Hope, however, comes across as a bit dull and lacking in charisma, and never makes us understand what Kitty sees in Larry. Hope was always better as a comedian than as a comic actor, and does not really shine in a film like this one which depends more upon comic situations than upon comic dialogue. The film as a whole was reasonably well received when it came out in 1960, and was nominated for five Academy Awards, but it has dated badly, even in comparison with other comedies of the era. Compared, say, with something like "The Apartment" (also from 1960, and which also takes illicit sexual relationships as its theme), "The Facts of Life" comes across like an over-extended episode from some long-forgotten television sitcom. 4/10
Thus wrote the 19th century poet A H Clough in "The Latest Decalogue", his satirical version of the Ten Commandments. Clough may have meant these words satirically, but they sum up fairly accurately the way in which his literary contemporaries treated adultery in their works. There was an unwritten law to the effect that writers could deal with the subject on condition that they made it clear that advantage seldom comes of it. Thus Flaubert made Emma Bovary poison herself and Tolstoy had Anna Karenina jump under a train, as a salutary warning to their readers that they disregarded their marriage vows at their peril.
This moralistic attitude to marital infidelity survived well into the twentieth century, and the advent of the Production Code meant that it found a new home in the motion picture industry. Indeed, it seemed to survive there long after it had gone into a decline in the literary world. By the 1950s, however, even Hollywood scriptwriters were starting to take a more liberal attitude towards the Seventh Commandment, the Marilyn Monroe vehicle "The Seven Year Itch" being a case in point. Admittedly, nobody actually commits adultery in that movie, but the main male character certainly considers doing so, and the subject is treated in a generally light-hearted manner, not as the occasion for some heavy-handed moralising.
"The Facts of Life" was made in the opening year of the following decade, and like a number of films from the period such as "Where the Boys Are", also from 1960, it is very much of its period, marked by a coyly suggestive attitude to sex which would have been too suggestive for 1940 or 1950 and too coy for 1970 or 1980. Even the title derives from a sexual euphemism; "Do your children know the facts of life?" is a way of asking "Do your children know the facts of human sexuality?"
Whereas "Where the Boys Are" dealt with love and sex among young single people, this film is a comedy of love and adultery (or at least attempted adultery) among the middle-aged middle classes. Three California couples, the Gilberts, Masons, and Weavers, have a long-standing agreement to go away on holiday together each year. One year fifty-something Larry Gilbert and forty-something Kitty Weaver unexpectedly find themselves alone in Acapulco after their respective spouses are unable to travel with them and the Masons are taken ill. Even more unexpectedly, Larry and Kitty, who have previously not cared for one another very much, fall in love. The rest of the film chronicles their attempts to consummate their relationship. As in "The Seven Year Itch", nobody actually ends up in bed with anyone other than their lawful partner, but in Larry and Kitty's case that's not for want of trying, and the film certainly does not take a moralistic attitude towards their antics.
As I said, the film would have started to look a bit old-fashioned even by 1970, and today, more than fifty years after it was made, its rather twee attitude to sex looks hopelessly antiquated. The plot is horribly artificial and unrealistic. The scriptwriters try to exploit that old romantic comedy chestnut- old even in 1960- about two people who start off by disliking each other and end up madly in love, but here it just does not work. In most films which rely on this plot device the initial dislike is something momentary, based upon a mistaken first impression, which is later corrected, allowing love to develop gradually. Here, however, Larry and Kitty go from hating to loving one another almost in the blink of an eyelid. Moreover, as they appear to have known each other for a considerable length of time, their mutual dislike was presumably based upon something more than a temporary misunderstanding.
Lucille Ball, in her late forties, was still attractive enough to make a convincing romantic comedy heroine. (She was actually nominated for a Golden Globe for "Best Actress – Comedy"). Bob Hope, however, comes across as a bit dull and lacking in charisma, and never makes us understand what Kitty sees in Larry. Hope was always better as a comedian than as a comic actor, and does not really shine in a film like this one which depends more upon comic situations than upon comic dialogue. The film as a whole was reasonably well received when it came out in 1960, and was nominated for five Academy Awards, but it has dated badly, even in comparison with other comedies of the era. Compared, say, with something like "The Apartment" (also from 1960, and which also takes illicit sexual relationships as its theme), "The Facts of Life" comes across like an over-extended episode from some long-forgotten television sitcom. 4/10