THE FACTS OF LIFE

US, 1960, 103 minutes, Black and white.
Bob Hope, Lucille Ball, Ruth Hussey, Don De Fore, Louis Nye.
Directed by Melvin Frank.

The Facts of Life is a rather adult comedy in theme for 1960. It is a story about two married people falling in love with each other, beginning an affair, contemplating divorce. However, the moral of the film is that their infatuation is not long-lasting and they have not given any thought to the consequences of what separation and divorce could mean.

The film is written by Melvin Frank and Norman Panama. They had a very good track record for amusing films, often very witty, often very comic. Melvin Frank had directed a number of small MGM films like The Reformer and the Redhead but then broke through with Danny Kaye’s Knock on Wood and The Court Jester. He also made Li'l Abner before The Facts of Life. He worked with various top actors in the 1970s, twice with Glenda Jackson in A Touch of Class and Lost and Found as well as Anne Bancroft and Jack Lemmon in Neil Simon’s The Prisoner of Second Avenue.

This film is a more serious vehicle for the two stars. Lucille Ball has the opportunity for some wisecracks. Bob Hope retains his characteristic persona, with the one-liners and jokes, but has to be far more serious in his character. Ruth Hussey and Don De Fore play the respective other husband and wife?

The film is interesting in its look at the approach to these issues in 1960 and the use of popular stars for exploration of these themes.

1. The impact of the film? Serious? Comic? Moral issues? Marriage relationships, breakdown, separation and divorce, remarriage? Consequences?

2. The use of black and white photography, Los Angeles and a middle-class and affluent society and neighbourhood? The contrast with Acapulco? The contrast with Monterey and the Sierra Mountains in winter. The musical score? Johnny Mercer’s theme song? Saul Bass’s stylish credits?

3. The title, the reality of marriage relationships and breakdown?

4. The introduction to the characters? Kitty’s voice-over? The awards ceremony? Larry and his jokes, Kitty bored, finishing his lines? The reactions? The fact that the three couples went on holidays together, the usual thing, every year? The tedium, the monotony?

5. Kitty and her relationship with Jack, Jack and his inveterate gambling, his excuses? Going on holidays? Kitty and her being weary with Jack? The conversations with Larry, the company, their behaviour in Acapulco, deceit?

6. Larry, his relationship with Mary? His wandering eye? The reaction to Kitty? In Acapulco, his attraction towards her, the romance, their behaviour?

7. The return home, Kitty and her voice-over, the comments on whether she would respond to Larry or not? Their going out together, the danger of discovery, at the drive-in, the horn blowing, the drycleaner seeing them, his behaviour at the Gilbert house the next day?

8. The possibility for the weekend away? Kitty deciding whether she would go? Flying to Monterey? Leaving the note for Jack that she was leaving? Meeting Larry? The drive, the car, the roof, the rain, the house and the leaks? Her not being able to cook? The difficulties, her references to Jack, her impatience, Larry and his reactions? Finishing up in the water?

9. The change in weather, Monterey airport shut, having to go to San Francisco? The irony of the false names, at the check-in desk, Hamilton finding her, her having to deal with this, losing the ticket? Jack and his running into Myrtle, the repetition of the same routine? Their losing their tickets?

10. Larry, the quick thinking, Hamilton and his eye on the girls? Getting Kitty the ticket, staying with Hamilton, pretending the girls were sick?

11. Kitty getting home, Jack and the family already home, his saying he had not read the note, her going in to her daughter, her being upset about the teenage romance, asking Jack to put the note in the fire, the fact that he had read it?

12. Larry, coming home, reconciliation with Mary?

13. The New Year’s party, Mr and Mrs Washington and the memories of the episode at the motel, their being together, Kitty being sick, needing the coffee, the motels all looking alike, Larry driving around, the wrong motel, Kitty leaving the taxi, the reaction of the motel clerk? Larry and his having to go home?

14. The families staying together? The importance of the dialogue in the film in the scenes where the couple started to clash, see their differences rather than the infatuation, thinking through the consequences about lawyers, money, where the children would live…?

15. The treatment of these themes in the light of more permissive and open films in later decades?