source: Two for the Seesaw

Trailer—Two for the Seesaw

Two for the Seesaw

These days women have names like Jennifer or Ashley, but Shirley MacLaine's memorable character in this film is named "Gittle". A Jewish girl in early '60s New York, she becomes involved with Jerry Ryan, (Robert Mitchum) an introspective, self loathing mid-western lawyer. The relationship becomes a bit complicated, and the two find their love cannot survive the rough seas of romance. Critics in 1962 complained about the lack of on screen chemistry between Shirley MacLaine and Robert Mitchum, even though they began a real life romance directly after this film.

If you only know Robert Wise from "West Side Story" and "The Sound of Music", you might be surprised to learn that he directed other types of movies, among them "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and "Star Trek: The Motion Picture". In between the aforementioned musicals, Wise directed an Academy Award-nominated adaptation of William Gibson's "Two for the Seesaw". Shirley MacLaine plays an eccentric New Yorker and Robert Mitchum plays an Omaha transplant who are in a relationship. The movie feels very much like a play. Since I've never seen the play - and most likely never will - I can't compare this adaptation to it. MacLaine and Mitchum both put on intense performances, but the movie itself drags at times. Not a bad movie, it's just that some parts could've moved a little faster. It'll probably be of interest to film buffs, but not to other audiences.

A divorcing man from Nebraska comes to NYC and falls in love with a Jewish woman named Gittel. This drama is based on a two-character play that was a big hit on Broadway, which is surprising because this has to be one of the most dreary plays ever written. Wise, in this follow-up to the energetic "West Side Story," does nothing to enliven the proceedings here. The film is little more than a filmed stage play where the two characters talk and talk and talk non-stop. And very rarely do they say anything profound or witty. Given the vintage of the film, it's surprisingly frank in terms of sexual mores. Mitchum and MacLaine do the best they can with the boring dialog.

There are no special effects, no graphic sex........just GREAT ACTING. I could watch movies like this all day and night. Shirley McLaine is at her best.......Robert Mitchum is........well...Robert Mitchum............did you know he smoked pot quite a bit? Anyway, give me two excellent actors and a great script over blowing up buses and the latest and greatest computer graphics any day. (ie; SHREK) I was home sick and forced to watch this, which is how i see many of my movies. two thumbs up. I think she(Shirley McLaine) was nominated for an Oscar for this or did she win an Oscar? I love good black and white movies. It engaged me from the beginning to the end.

The post-beatnik / pre-hippie party scene is truly spectacular as a snapshot of a time/place rarely caught on film. While most of America was still living a black & white Eisenhower existence, this film shows the cutting edge NYC scene that had already moved beyond bebop and Kerouac and was just about to stumble full tilt into the Warhol Factory. The party scene probably seemed about as weird to middle America as the alien bar scene in Star Wars, fifteen years later. But one kid in every high school across the country changed their plans to attend 'State' and filled out last minute applications to NYU; they knew that they would grow old waiting for that world to reach their hometown. A little known treat for anyone into the early days of "alt".

Recently got a chance to see this movie and thought the performances by Robert Mitchum and Shirley MacLaine were great. Especially like the part that Shirley MacLaine played. I am not to used to seeing Robert Mitchum in roles like this but thought he did well. He plays a man going through a divorce who meets a younger woman played by Shirley Maclaine. Having both different life experiences they somehow try to make their new relationship work. I gave this film an 8 out 10 and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was this good. Read in another post that at the time of this films release critics didn't think that Mitchum's role was believable enough because of perhaps the age difference. I had no problem with buying into this story and the actors that portrayed the characters. Good Movie!

Robert Mitchum and Shirley MacLaine are well-cast in this engaging love story set in NYC and shot in gritty, atmospheric black and white. Mitchum's wonderfully-modulated performance as a middle-aged lawyer on the rebound, and MacLaine's as the effervescent young dancer he becomes involved with, mesh very appealingly. The Broadway-caliber dialogue is more sophisticated, and the emotional level more intimate, than the films the two were typically making at the time. If "The Grass is Greener", a Mitchum (and Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr!) film from the same period and also an adaptation of a stage play, is a tepid example of how *not* to bring a play to the screen, "Two for the Seesaw" is a vibrant example of how to use film to endow a play with an intimacy that would be impossible to achieve onstage. Major kudos to Mitchum, MacLaine, and the director, Robert Wise.