Almost totally unseen now this comedy/musical/ western is I feel an ambitious failure. I wonder if Universal wanted to make another ' daring ' film to compete with the charm and success of ' Seven Brides For Seven Brothers ' and despite all the singing and dancing, plus a number of mediocre songs it sadly falls flat. The story is simple and is based very loosely on Aristophanes ' Lysistrata ' where women go on a sexual strike when their men are more fond of warring instead of loving. The problem is the lack of any sexual chemistry among the cast to make this plausible. The former ' Seven Brides For Seven Brothers ' had a randiness about it that made it work, and the film shows its sexual frustration well, but this film does not. An example is an annoying teenager who goes around asking what sex means and what it is like, and not for a minute do you believe he does not know. George Nadar does his best and so does Jeanne Crain in the lead roles, but neither shine and although they try, perhaps George Marshall the director, did not work on them enough. Mamie Van Doren's attraction towards Keith Andes as an unlikely minister is amusing, and something could have been made of that but isn't. The copy I saw was not in Cinemascope and the colour was murky, but I doubted if a pristine copy would have changed my opinion. The reason for reviewing this lost film is because I have never worked out how and why a film is excellent, and why those which have good casts and high ambitions do not. This mystery is at the core of all cinema, and the secret of magic on screen can never be predicted. The answer is perhaps quite simple; we will never know and that is why watching film is so exciting and full of expectancy. I give it a 5 for a good idea that did not quite make it.
Review of The Second Greatest Sex
