Norman Jewison directed Art of Love, a comedy starring James Garner, Dick Van Dyke, Elke Sommer, and Angie Dickinson.
An American artist in Paris (Van Dyke) fakes his own death in order to increase the worth of his paintings (new paintings keep “posthumously” hitting the market).
His conniving pal (Garner) sells the paintings and withholds the proceeds while the artist toils in a shabby garret.
The picture was written by Carl Reiner (story by Richard Alan Simmons and William Sackheim).
The supporting cast features Carl Reiner and Ethel Merman.
Jewison noted in his autobiography that the film’s flaw was that the script assumes that an artist’s death guarantees huge increase in the sales value of his paintings. That hurt audiences’ responses to the movie enormously.
All of the paintings used in the movie were the work of international artist Don Cincone.
