For Love or Money

Kirk Douglas made a career of playing square-jawed gritty heroes in films like Spartacus, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Paths of Glory but, in For Love or Money, he was cast well against type as a Cary Grant-esque character in his only romantic comedy role. Douglas plays DK 'Deke' Gentry, a lawyer who is taken on by rich widow Chloe Brasher to play matchmaker to her three daughters, with the incentive of $100,000 if they all marry her choices.
 
The three women are all very different and offer unique challenges to Deke, with Bonnie as a ditzy health addict, Jan a bohemian artist and Kate a headstrong socialite. Each is paired with a dull and/or badly matched man from a tax inspector to a prison rehabilitation expert and a wealthy playboy.
 

Deke uses all his skill and wiles to try and see that Chloe's plans come to fruition but is thwarted by the unpredictable sisters falling for him instead.
 
For Love or Money was directed by Michael Gordon, responsible for other similar films like Pillow Talk, starring Doris Day and Rock Hudson. In this he assembles an all star cast including Thelma Ritter, Mitzi Gaynor, Julie Newmar and Leslie Parrish. As with many other films from the 1960s, this is a predictable and jaunty comedy that you go along with and enjoy the ride even thought the destination is never in doubt. There are some very well orchestrated comedic set pieces and Douglas is incredibly adept as a romantic lead - it is a 'Cary Grant' role and there's even a little joke about one of his films playing at the cinema - and it's strange he didn't do more of them.
 
This isn't my sort of film by any stretch of the imagination and if I wasn't reviewing it I wouldn't have chosen to watch it on a Sunday evening but I found it enjoyable and quite funny. I was really surprised by Kirk Douglas whose comedy timing and on screen chemistry with Mitzi Gaynor makes the film.
 

The Disc

 
The Picture
Presented in the OAR of 1.33:1, this looks pretty good for its age but either the source material wasn't great or there has been no remastering as far as I can tell. However the colours are bright and it isn't a film that is particularly demanding as many scenes are stagey without any need for expansive visuals or special effects.
 
The Sound
The disc comes with a Dolby Digital 2.0 mono track that seems to come purely from the left speaker when Pro Logic II is active, but switch to mono and it's perfectly fine. The tempo is maintained very well by the upbeat score (which is almost cartoonish) and the dialogue is clear and audible.
 
Final Thoughts
For Love or Money apparently makes its worldwide DVD debut here and, with perfectly adequate sound and visual quality, is worth the low asking price. It's a shame there are no extra features, but for aficionados this is a welcome release.