Two for the Seesaw (1962)

An action-packed slog

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Many good reviews of this film here already. I'm just going to focus on the similarities to my personal favourite film The Apartment and make one other observation. Clearly since Two For The Seesaw was made by the same company, the Mirisch Corporation just two years after Wilder's film this was an attempt to follow up (cash in?) on the success of that one. Shirley Maclaine stars in both but now playing a rather less idealised character. I wonder if Jack Lemmon turned down the chance to play the male lead because Robert Mitchum is not conventional enough to be really convincing. The soundtracks of both films are very similar and that can't be a coincidence even allowing for the tastes of the period. Even some of the sets look almost identical. Would they still exist from The Apartment? I'm not sure.Someone obviously saw possibilities in the original stage play to transfer it to film as The Apartment 2. In my view however because the tone of Two For The Seesaw is different from The Apartment it might have benefited from being handled differently rather than accentuating the similarities. And my other observation is this: At one point Mitchum whacks Maclaine across the face, knocking her to the floor and she hardly objects. It was probably shocking at the time but is beyond disgusting today. It means the film and no doubt the play will likely remain period pieces for ever more. Contrast that to the sunnier tone of The Apartment when Lemmon gets clobbered. It's funny and touching because we know he didn't deserve it, although in the context of the film he has it coming to him.

Aside from the occasionally ridiculous dialogue, the claustrophobic sets, and Mitchum's stone face, this is a very pretty B/W experience. The Dance sequence is especially nice. Unfortunately, the male/female dynamic is horribly dated. This was intended to be the meeting of 50s conservatism with 60s licentiousness. And although that dynamic still exists in our society, the attitudes that drove these characters are long gone.The bare story is about two people who need to have other people depend on them. The power in the relationship shifts back and forth between the two characters, never actually being equal. This is an interesting idea, and there are some interesting passages. The script is peppered with some nice exchanges and some really weird "huh?" moments. However, as is most important for a closed-room movie of this type, the two leads don't really have much chemistry. You never get the sense that they believe the words they're speaking.

Very unexpected gem... but you gotta like them talky to love this one.Based on a play and that really shows. But LOVE the way it examines the nooks and crannies of a relationship.Its about two people who have something to learn from each other, and not in an obvious way either. Who is hanging their hope and dreams on who here...? And completely disagree with those who find Mitchum too deadpan for this... he is completely his character, a old school guy of another generation (compared to Gittel, or MacLaine for that matter)... but enough of an off-beat to head to New York to live with some bed bugs once his marriage goes south. The phone calls between him and his wife are painful, Mitchum who himself had a long suffering wife who he had married young and ultimately stuck by (despite, apparently being super unfaithful), I think gives a very brave performance, possibly inspired by the cheer chutzpah of MacLaine's talent. He really shows the complex emotional ties that come with a very long marriage....for the generations who really, without a second thought, thought they married for life.The emotional tables are turned on them both several times, and you always think its completely true.There are a couple of clunky moments, and you must honestly also just take it on the chin (pun) that this was made in an era when a "slutty" woman could expect to be slapped for flaunting her "lack of morality". Here its all part of her problem though, the way she accepts how others treat her, much too readily.Great, very little known film that seems to fit no genre what so ever.Maybe its closest relatives are some french new wave relationship dramas. And those it beats, hands down. Because, unlike the Le French, its not about Women and Men but about people...

Two For The Seesaw as a two character play by William Gibson ran for 750 performances in the 1958-1959 season and starred Henry Fonda and Anne Bancroft as the uptight Nebraska lawyer and the Greenwich Village bohemian who find each other in New York. Why they didn't wait to get the two leads for this film version is beyond me. Both certainly are movie names and Henry Fonda certainly had the Nebraska twang to play the part. As for Bancroft, she was just coming off her Oscar for The Miracle Worker.When it comes to playing kookie people you can't do much better than Shirley MacLaine. She does a fabulous job, though in a few years the public might have demanded Barbra Streisand for the role. She holds her end up far better than her co-star.In the Lee Server Robert Mitchum biography, Robert Wise said that this was one of the few times he ever directed a film where the casting was already set before he was hired. Mitchum is much too unconventional in his way to ever really be believable as a family values Republican type lawyer from the midwest. It was mentioned in the book that such folks as Glenn Ford or Gregory Peck would have been more believable.However one thing did come out of it, a not so secret affair with Mitchum and MacLaine that did threaten the Mitchum marriage for a while. Lee Server also tells a story where both Malachy McCourt and Frank Sinatra visited the Two For The Seesaw set and went off on one fabulous drunk. You're talking about three professionals in that department.For the screen a few side characters were added to flesh it out. What interest there is in Two For The Seesaw comes from the interest MacLaine and Mitchum had for each other.