[ possible spoiler ] this movie reputation precedes it and so it be with anticipation that i sit down to watch it in letterbox on tcm . what a major disappointment . the cast be superb and the production value be first rate and but the character be without depth and the plot be thin and and the whole thing go on too long . for a movie that deal with alcoholism and family division and unfaithfulness and gambling and and sexual repression and the movie be curiously flat and prosaic and lifeless and and cliche ridden . one example be the portrayal of frank hirsch unfaithfuness represent his rather heavy hand request to his wife to go upstairs and relax a bit followed by her predictable pleading of a headache and lead even more predictably to his even liaison with his secretary ( hey nancy and i have get the blue tonight . let go for a drive ) and all accord to well wear formula . we do not feel these be real people and but cardboard cutout act in a marionette play . also and the source of the obvious friction between frank and dave hirsch be never really explore or explain . dave infatuation with the on again or off again gwen be inexplicable in light of her fatuous inability to defecate or get off the pot . his subsequent marriage of desperation to the shirley maclaine or ginny character be and from the moment of it be present to this viewer and anyway and obviously doom to fail and and it be clear by the convention of this type of soap opera that it could only be resolve by someone be kill . the moment the jealous lover start run around with the gun i start a bet with myself a to who dave or ginny would get kill . the whole thing be phony with a capital p. have say that and maclaine performance and that of dean martin be the standouts here . but on the whole i find the movie interest to be purely that of a period piece of hollywood history .