For Love or Money (1963)

In the early 60s, there were big widescreen epics like Spartacus, and then there were much smaller productions like this, meant just to provide audiences a pleasant diversion. Kirk Douglas was mainly seen in the bigger movies, but here he takes a bit of a break playing a comedic role as the single playboy lawyer Deke Gentry. The film opens with him relaxing on a yacht with friends in the San Francisco Bay, then rich widow client Chloe Brasher (Thelma Ritter) arrives overhead in a helicopter with a bullhorn to summon him to an assignment.

Meeting with her later, she discusses a matter about the trust fund of her three daughters, all of whom live in separate apartments in a building their mother owns. The daughters haven't been happy with the person their mother put in charge of the trust funds from their late father, and are about to sue her. She wants Deke to meet with them and hopefully make them want him to take on that role.

Chloe also doesn't approve of any of the men her daughters have been seeing- she has more suitable men picked out for each of them, and wants Deke to play cupid, getting them together. While she keeps all of this a secret, she stresses that the daughters won't receive any of the money if they end up marrying anyone other than these chosen men. Deke will get a nice cash bonus if things do go the way their mother wants. A rather unrealistic but typical situation for a comedy like this.

Deke visits the building and meets the three daughters. Bonnie (Julie Newmar) is a bodybuilder and aspiring fitness guru with a local exercise show on TV. Jan (Leslie Parrish) is an artist into the beatnik scene, while Kate (Mitzi Gaynor in her final screen appearance) is in the marketing field. After they agree for him to be the new trustee of their inheritance, he then sets up dinners and other situations to make them run into and eventually marry the chosen suitors. As typically happens in this type of comedy, there are many missed connections and misunderstandings that result. The most humorous is how Deke sets up Bonnie with stuffy IRS auditor Harvey (Dick Sargent, billed here as Richard)- he first uncovers some funding for Bonnie to start her own fitness studio, and then makes an anonymous phone call to Harvey to investigate the ethics of this funding.

The story, however, mainly focuses on Kate. Her mother wants her to marry Sonny (Gig Young), the head of a baby food company who uses his own old photo on the labels and advertising. Sonny also happens to be one of Deke's best friends. Deke arranges a few meetings which end up falling apart- when he invites the two of them to dinner in his apartment, Sonny cancels after Kate has already shown up, leaving Deke to entertain her on his own. In another attempt, Sonny clumsily injures himself, and Deke has to carry him around over his shoulder. Inevitably, Kate starts to get attracted to the wrong man. The narrative soon becomes a series of door buzzers and phones ringing (causing me to jump at each occurrence) as Deke juggles things, often trying to avoid being seen by some people while also trying to connect with others. He also finds himself attracted to Kate, but he also wants to fulfill his end of the deal and get his money.

Three years after Spartacus, Kirk Douglas plays this almost like a paid vacation. He certainly looks like he's having fun in this role that doesn't demand nearly as much from him. The atmosphere remains lighthearted throughout, even when things get a bit complicated and sometimes jarring to the audience. The time period is rather kitschy viewed today as well; one can't help but laugh at some of the styles of the time and also the near lack of sexual suggestiveness, which was a big no-no then but no doubt would have been prevalent if this were made today.  

Vital Disc Stats: The Blu-ray
For Love or Money makes its home on Blu-ray thanks to Kino Lorber Studio Classics. Pressed on a Region A BD50 disc, the disc is housed in a standard blue case and loads to a static image main menu with basic navigation options. 

For Love or Money looks immaculate in this Blu-Ray presentation; having never been issued on any of the prior analog video formats there's no telling how it might have looked previously. It's presented in the proper 1.85 aspect ratio from very clean elements- film grain is intact and there are no compression issues to be seen. It possibly looks better than intended, the transfer gives critical viewers a good view of imperfections of the production- many of the views outside windows are obviously paintings, and even the wall of book in Deke's office is actually a painting.

The mono audio is adequate although nothing special; sound simply wasn't a big priority for this type of movie in the early 1960s. It's presented here in 2-channel DTS-HD-MA, staying properly centered. The fidelity is only a bit lacking by today's standards, with little to no noise. Frank DeVol's playful music score adds to the bright atmosphere of this film.

Kino includes a commentary track with film historians Howard S. Berger and Steve Mitchell. Typical of tracks from this label, they talk about the stars, director and studio but not a whole lot about the actual movie. They do humorously point out that much of the movie wasn't actually shot in San Francisco (a city I'm familiar with).

• Audio Commentary featuring Howard S. Berger and Steve Mitchell 
• Theatrical Trailers
• KLSC Trailer Gallery:
• A Lovely Way to Die
• Bedtime Story
• The Art of Love
• What's So Bad About Feeling Good?
• Strange Bedfellows
• Irma La Douce

For Love or Money is one of those movies that definitely left me with mixed feelings. On one hand the time period was great to look at in high quality, but on the other the story was a bit hard to follow on first viewing, had a number of moments with constantly ringing phones and doorbells that often kept me on edge, and also just ran too long. It wasn't highly regarded enough to be issued on home video prior to the era of burned-on-demand DVDs, and before that I'd never seen it on any lists of older movies that people felt needed to be put out. Still, I feel that every movie should be preserved well and available and this release fills that need. Fans of this will certainly be pleased by the high-quality presentation, and newcomers might enjoy this more than I did also. Worth A Look