Marriage on the Rocks is a 1965 American romantic comedy film directed by Jack Donohue.
Dan Edwards (Frank Sinatra) is boss of an advertising company (no, not Sterling Cooper). He is a workaholic who is so Married to the Job that his wife Valerie (Deborah Kerr) is seriously considering divorcing him. In fact, Dan seems to have lost all interest in his lovely wife; when he isn't working he prefers hanging out with his old buddy and chief subordinate Ernie Brewer (Dean Martin). Ernie for his part is a lifelong bachelor who is more interested in drinking and having sex with the secretaries than he is interested in work. Ernie was a suitor for Valerie's hand back in the day and sometimes she wonders if she should have married him instead.
Ernie, who for all his hard-partying ways is a good friend to both Dan and Valerie, urges Dan to take his wife on a second honeymoon to reconnect. They do, going to a Mexican town where they meet one Miguel Santos (Cesar Romero), a local lawyer who specializes in both quickie weddings and quickie divorces. Dan's stick-in-the-mud bad attitude in Mexico does in fact lead to him and Valerie getting a quickie divorce. This of all things leads to Dan and Valerie reconnecting and renewing their love, but Dan is called back to the USA on business before they can get remarried. Dan sends Ernie to Mexico to explain this to Valerie, but, through plot contrivances, Ernie winds up married to Val instead.
Seventh and last film together for Rat Pack members Sinatra and Martin, if one doesn't count their cameo together in The Road to Hong Kong or their cameo 19 years after this film in Cannonball Run II. Frank Sinatra's daughter Nancy appears as Dan's daughter Tracy in the only film they made together. Kathleen Freeman plays Miss Blight, the un-sexy secretary (Ernie can't help but compare her to his Sexy Secretary Lola). DeForest Kelley, one year away from getting a gig on Star Trek, appears as the auto executive who is the biggest account for Dan's advertising firm.
Tropes:
- As You Know: "You know, of course, that this final preparation has to be finished in two weeks," says Dan to his team regarding the advertising campaign for the automobile company. This establishes why Dan later has to cut his Mexican vacation short.
- Call-Back: On their anniversary, Valerie forces a reluctant Dan to go out to a nightclub, where a go-go dancer dances in a cage. Near the end, Valerie and Ernie go back to the nightclub, where Valerie is horrified to see Dan in the cage dancing with the go-go dancer.
- The Casanova: Ernie, the swinging bachelor who, when he isn't making dates with married women on the phone, is bedding a series of hot secretaries. The joke is that when Ernie winds up accidentally married to Valerie, he becomes a boring drip just like Dan was.
- Comedy of Remarriage: Valerie and Dan finally get back together at the end, with Valerie revealing that she's pregnant.
- Creative Closing Credits: Creative opening credits. The opening credits have the names accompanied by chalk drawings of all the people concerned. Dean Martin's name is accompanied by a drawing of a guy holding a martini. The credit for director Jack Donohue has a drawing of Donohue shouting "Action" through a megaphone.
- Description Cut: Dan dismisses Ernie's recommendation that he pay more attention to Valerie, saying "That's why today Valerie is a happy, contented wife!". Cut to Valerie with the family lawyer saying "I want to divorce Dan!". (She still loves him but she's tired of being neglected.)
- Divorce in Reno: Or divorce in Mexico, with Miguel Santos running a business that advertises "Divorce your loved ones with dignity." You can do it with the stroke of a pen!
- Establishing Character Moment: In his first scene Ernie is drinking at the office and making dates with two different women on the telephone. In that same opening scene, Dan has Ernie pick out some jewelry for Valerie, and Dan can't remember how long he's been married (19 years).
- Everything's Louder with Bagpipes: Valerie's mother Ginny dislikes her son-in-law Dan. And Ginny, being a Scot, deliberately irritates Dan by playing the bagpipes in the home.
- Fainting: A rare gender flip of this, as Dan, when he finds out that he's just been married to Valerie (the mayor read the ceremony in Spanish), faints.
- Lingerie Scene: Valerie, flailing about for a way to make Dan pay attention to her and wanting some sex, gets a frilly black nightie. She looks great in it but to her fury, Dan doesn't care.
- Navel-Deep Neckline: Ernie's first two secretaries flounce about his bachelor pad in bikinis, but Bunny, the third, instead wears a dress with cleavage down to her navel.
- Obnoxious In-Laws: Valerie's mother Ginny, who lives with the family and refuses to recognize that Val and Dan are actually married, since they were married by a justice of the peace instead of in a church. Val pesters Dan about getting her a color TV and plays the bagpipes (she's Scottish, as is Valerie) to annoy Dan.
- Operation: Jealousy: Sure, Valerie could just get a quickie divorce from Ernie just like she did from Dan, but she gets the bright idea to not get divorced in order to make Dan jealous. This backfires, as Dan instead moves out of their home and into Ernie's bachelor pad, where he lounges around with all three of Ernie's Sexy Secretaries.
- Pun-Based Title: "Marriage on the rocks" is both a reference to a marriage in trouble or a cocktail on ice.
- Sexy Secretary: Ernie's secretaries. His first and second secretaries, Kitty and Lola, interview with him in his home, while they're wearing bikinis. His third secretary, Bunny, settles for Navel-Deep Neckline. Kitty and Lola can't even type but Bunny can type and take dictation and cook...but she's married. (It's implied that she still puts out, though, and that her husband knows!)Ernie: How many words a minute did you say you can type?
Kitty: Oh, does the job require typing? - Shotgun Wedding: A throwaway gag has Miguel Santos arranging a wedding for a Mexican man and woman, with the woman's shotgun-toting family members right behind.
- Slip into Something More Comfortable: Ernie suggests Lola do this. She asks what to slip in to, since she's already in a bikini. He says something for "midnight swimming".
- South of the Border: Mexico, a land where you can get a divorce with the stroke of a pen and get remarried almost as quickly. This all happens in a grubby, dirty little town where Dan gets diarrhea from the water. The Mexican government was so offended by this film that it banned Frank Sinatra from entering the country.
- Spelling for Emphasis: Valerie says "I want to divorce Dan! D-I-V-O-R-C-E!".
