Peter Wilson (Jack Lemmon) is a relatively successful cartoonist who is known to ruffle a few feathers, something that he doesn’t intend to change, especially not with the release of his newest book, entitled The War Between Men and Women, who features his frequent criticisms of the female sex, where women are portrayed as shapeless, overbearing beings that exist only to crucify their male counterparts’ enjoyment. Women have clearly never been something that he’s understood, mainly because his behaviour drives any self-respecting woman far away from him. This changes with the arrival of Terry (Barbara Harris), an intelligent young bookstore clerk who is instantly captivated by Peter when they literally bump into each other at the doctor’s office – and while she considers herself to be quite fervent in her beliefs, she can’t help but be allured by this mysterious man, who she genuinely believes isn’t actually the male chauvinist pig that he has adopted as his public persona. It isn’t long before they fall in love and get married, with Peter slowly changing his perspective as a result of being in the presence of someone who manages to actually show him that there is more to the opposite sex than stereotypes. However, both of them harbour deep secrets – Terry is still madly in love with her ex-husband (Jason Robards), a charming war photographer, while Peter is slowly going blind, with doctors informing him that his eyesight is rapidly deteriorating and that his only chance of keeping his sight would be experimental surgery, which even then doesn’t guarantee that he will be able to see. These secrets come to the fore after a while, and the couple are faced with the simple choice of either allowing the revelations to ruin a strong relationship, or supporting each other through these very difficult quandaries that continue to plague them and make their lives so unnecessarily difficult.

Based on the surface-level premise and a glance at the title, you’d expect The War Between Men and Women to be some cheap, mindless comedy that pits the two sexes against each other for the viewer’s entertainment, designed to provide a solid diversion. In many ways, this is exactly what director Melville Shavelson (a name not familiar to many, but who is behind some cherished comedies from this era) did when constructing this film, which is loosely based on the work of cartoonist and humourist James Thurber, who devoted a good portion of his career looking at the differences between men and women. What isn’t so clear at the start, but which gradually comes to fruition over the course of the film, is how achingly beautiful this story is. Considering the subject matter and how dated it seems, you’d be forgiven for being taken aback by how surprisingly tender this film is – but when the outrageous comedy subsides (which is remarkably fast), all we’re left with is a delicate, earnest combination of comedy and drama that feels about as genuine as any meaningful commentary on marriage, a subject that has fascinating artists for about as long as love has been the ultimate thematic muse across every conceivable medium. In short, The War Between Men and Women is a quietly brilliant film, a provocative and daring comedy that has the good sense to actually develop its ideas, rather than aiming solely for the low-hanging fruit. Meaningful, funny and unexpectedly moving, it’s a remarkable piece of storytelling that is somehow a lot better than it ought to have been. 

If you are going to cast a pair of actors to play feuding lovers who secretly adore each other, you can do a lot worse than Jack Lemmon and Barbara Harris, two performers I absolutely adore. Their work in The War Between Men and Women may not be the pinnacle of their individual careers, but they somehow manage to wrangle some decent performances out of one another, turning in solid work that reflects their endless wealth of talents. Lemmon is once again playing slightly against type, still portraying the lovable protagonist, just with the slightly more satirical edge that made his performances in films like Under the Yum Yum Tree and How to Murder Your Wife so interesting in their deconstruction of his image of the ideal everyman. Playing the character meant to represent Thurber, he’s wonderful – charming as ever, and driven by a very particular set of quirks that guide the performance rather than defining it, Lemmon is terrific and manages to develop the role far more than just a lacklustre romantic lead. Harris is as fiercely committed as ever, playing Lemmon’s feisty but steadfast paramour who proves that she is far from dependent on a man to make her feel something, and that whoever she chooses to spend her evenings with are there for her entertainment, rather than as a way of resolving her loneliness. This is essentially what The War Between Men and Women is about – two profoundly lonely individuals finding solace in one another, and both leads do exceptionally well in uncovering the deeper truths that underpin these characters, making the film an absolutely remarkable piece of acting from two exceptional actors.

There certainly exists a world where The War Between Men and Women is an absolute travesty, an overwrought and flippant “battle of the sexes” comedy that doesn’t have any meat to the story, outside of pitting two gifted actors across from each other. Luckily, it seems that every ounce of supposed zany comedy (including the title itself) was purely for the sake of marketing, since it seems almost bizarre that a film that proposes to be a mainstream comedy actually managed to be as melancholy as this. Shavelson takes the source material on which the film is loosely based, and deconstructs it into a series of episodic moments in the lives of these characters, who initially meet in a way that only a truly cliched romantic comedy could convey, and then gradually removes the veneer of artifice, revealing a raw and heartfelt story of two people trying to make sense of a world that is growing increasingly unrecognizable to them – and for Lemmon’s character, this is meant in a very literal sense, since he is slowly going blind. There’s an unexpected depth to the film that takes us by surprise, especially when it becomes clear these moments of pathos are not accidental, but essentially the basis for the entire film. It balances some very serious themes while still being quite a funny film – Shavelson had a good amount of experience in this sub-genre of deeply moving comedies, and while this isn’t the apex of his career either, he offers a distinct and meaningful perspective to the proceedings, which only deepens the impact ultimately made by the film.

The War Between Men and Women proves the value of not taking a film at face value, since had we judged this solely on the premise and first act, we’d have been well within our rights to write it off as some inconsequential, vaguely-offensive comedy about gender differences. However, as the film progresses, we see how unexpectedly honest it is, since it carries a feeling of genuinely trying to make some profound statements in between outrageous moments. It may not always succeed in the way we’d hope, especially when it seems to struggle to occasionally gain control of its tone, but it has its heart in the right place, and an even more sincere sense of earnest humour that helps situate it amongst the most moving comedies of this era. Much like Pete ‘n’ Tillie, another film from this same year, which coincidentally starred Lemmon’s good friend and frequent collaborator Walter Matthau, The War Between Men and Women is a film about a couple getting married and falling in love afterwards – and being well-equipped with a strong sense of direction and a pair of terrific performances, the film is a wonderful diversion, a deep and intricate character study with as much heart as it has humour, which only makes it even more rich and evocative, something that we’d not expect from a film that seemed to be nothing more than an excuse to make flimsy jokes about the differences between men and women. It’s not often that I delight in being so absolutely wrong about something, but The War Between Men and Women truly proves that you can’t ever feasibly judge a book by its cover, essentially the entire thesis statement of this film as a whole.