The High Cost of Leaving

Divorce American Style is a slick, cynical film that paraphrases Comedian Ed Wynn's definition of divorce as a hash made of domestic scraps.

In this marital split the protagonist is a suburbanite businessman played by Dick Van Dyke. The antagonist is his wife (Debbie Reynolds), who, although surrounded by a faithful husband, two handsome, happy children and a $49,000 house, nonetheless feels that her marriage is a snore and a delusion. As the two duel downstairs, their boys, who have heard it all before, listen upstairs, giving each parent points on a chart. The marriage game continues in the presence of the couple's lawyers. Debbie fights dirty, and in no time at all, Dick is taken to the cleaners. She gets custody of the house, the children, the car. "The uranium mine to her," he sighs, "and the shaft to me."

Each mate discovers that freedom is, as the existentialists claim, a dreadful burden. Van Dyke is taken in tow by a fellow survivor of a divorce (Jason Robards), who hobbles around with a bad knee he is too alimony-poor to fix. In a devious scheme, Robards proposes to marry off Van Dyke to his ex-wife and get a leg to stand on. In return, the two find a candidate to marry Debbie: Van Johnson, a chipmonkish used-car salesman. Up to here, the infighting and jabbing are worth watching. But in the final rounds, Writer Norman Lear and Director Bud Yorkin pull their punch lines. The result: an unconvincingly happy finale.

For Debbie Reynolds and Dick Van Dyke, the film represents a new direction. Together they provoke laughter whenever they should, but for the first time both are unafraid to appear unattractive and even unsympathetic in roles that show them at play and at bay. Like them, Divorce American Style is flatteringly made up, but around the vivacious smiles are the lines of tension and the occasional haggard look of truth.

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