The frustrating loop-de-loops of an uncertain love relationship between a Greenwich Village kook-dancer and a Midwestern suit-and-tie lawyer on the verge of divorcing his wife of 12 years. Though highly entertaining, this light-drama obviously derives from a play, as the lines of dialogue have not been reworked for the screen. It gets awfully pedantic at times; for instance, we know the characters' names, they know their names, so why do they keep saying to each other, "Jerry?", "Yes, Gittel?" "I'm sorry, Jerry." "I know, Gittel." The performances by Shirley MacLaine and Robert Mitchum are excellent (we like them even before their self-doubting, insecure characters take shape),but this stage-vehicle hasn't been turned into a star-vehicle. The leads banter back and forth in a curiously under-populated vacuum, however their increasingly tense conversations contain the startling ring of truth. Ted McCord's black-and-white cinematography provides a terrific compensation for the film's minor weaknesses; André Previn's "Apartment"-like score is rapturous as well. *** from ****

Robert Mitchum lays a lawyer whose marriage back in Nebraska has just dissolved. Now, he's moved to New York and is very lonely. So lonely that he calls a woman (Shirley MacLaine) he barely knows. They go out and have a few laughs, then they go to her apartment. There, things move very quickly for a 1962 movie--surprisingly quickly, as he tries to get her to let him stay. At first, she's a bit put off--then she decides to sleep with him. At this point, however, he decides to leave--it's just moving too fast. Throughout the film the two are very open about sex and the dialog is quite gritty and realistic as well. Later, they even cohabitate--something you NEVER would have seen in the 1950s.

Now these two people seem very, very different. Mitchum is well-spoken and a professional man from the Midwest. MacLaine is more a head-in-the-clouds Bohemian who is a Jewish New Yorker. Can two people THIS different fall in love and have it last? As you watch this film, you naturally assume the answer is no, as they just seem so unlike each other, argue an awful lot and what brings them together is difficult to put into words. In many ways, this odd relationship that defies the odds seems very reminiscent of THE WAY WE WERE (and you probably know how that film ended).

Unfortunately, because the chemistry seems so odd in this film and the film is quite talky and stagy (it was originally a very successful Broadway play--and it shows),it's not a great film. Most of the problem is that although the dialog seems realistic, the combination of the two characters isn't. Why were they together in the first place other than they were lonely? And why did the movie seem to go on so long? So overall is it worth seeing? Perhaps, though this sure isn't a glowing recommendation.

By the way, in a very disturbing scene, eventually Mitchum slaps MacLaine pretty hard. And, the way the film is made, it seems as if SHE drove him to it. Not exactly an enlightened scene and something that just seems wrong. And, not to be outdone, late in the film, she hits him as well!

Two For The Seesaw as a two character play by William Gibson ran for 750 performances in the 1958-1959 season and starred Henry Fonda and Anne Bancroft as the uptight Nebraska lawyer and the Greenwich Village bohemian who find each other in New York. Why they didn't wait to get the two leads for this film version is beyond me. Both certainly are movie names and Henry Fonda certainly had the Nebraska twang to play the part. As for Bancroft, she was just coming off her Oscar for The Miracle Worker.

When it comes to playing kookie people you can't do much better than Shirley MacLaine. She does a fabulous job, though in a few years the public might have demanded Barbra Streisand for the role. She holds her end up far better than her co-star.

In the Lee Server Robert Mitchum biography, Robert Wise said that this was one of the few times he ever directed a film where the casting was already set before he was hired. Mitchum is much too unconventional in his way to ever really be believable as a family values Republican type lawyer from the midwest. It was mentioned in the book that such folks as Glenn Ford or Gregory Peck would have been more believable.

However one thing did come out of it, a not so secret affair with Mitchum and MacLaine that did threaten the Mitchum marriage for a while. Lee Server also tells a story where both Malachy McCourt and Frank Sinatra visited the Two For The Seesaw set and went off on one fabulous drunk. You're talking about three professionals in that department.

For the screen a few side characters were added to flesh it out. What interest there is in Two For The Seesaw comes from the interest MacLaine and Mitchum had for each other.