After seventeen years of marriage, affluent Los Angeles suburban couple Richard Harmon and his wife Barbara seem to have it all, but they are constantly bickering. When they discover they can no longer communicate properly, they make an effort to salvage their relationship through counseling. But after catching each other emptying their joint bank accounts, they file for divorce. Richard finds himself living in a small apartment and trying to survive on $87.30 a week after his take-home income has been cut dramatically by high alimony. Richard meets a recently divorced man, Nelson Downes, who introduces him to ex-wife Nancy. Nelson wants to marry off Nancy to be free of his alimony burden, so that he can marry his pregnant fiancée. Nancy also wishes to marry because she is lonely. To end Richard's alimony woes, Nelson and Nancy plot to set up Barbara with a millionaireauto dealer, Big Al Yearling, and the two begin a relationship. On the night before the Harmon divorce becomes final, all three couples meet to celebrate the success of their plans. At a nightclub, a hypnotist pulls Barbara from the audience and puts her into a trance. After inducing her into performing a mock striptease, she instructs Barbara to kiss her true love. Barbara plants one on Richard, and they realize they love each other too much to go through with the divorce. An undeterred Nelson immediately tries to get Nancy interested in Big Al.
The film earned an estimated $5,150,000 in North American rentals in 1967.
Critical reception
In his review in the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert called the film "a member of that rare species, the Hollywood comedy with teeth in it" and added, "Bud Yorkin has directed with wit and style, and the cast, which seems unlikely on paper, comes across splendidly on the screen... The charm of this film is in its low-key approach. The plot isn't milked for humor or pathos: Both emerge naturally from familiar situations." Variety observed, "Comedy and satire, not feverish melodrama, are the best weapons with which to harpoon social mores. An outstanding example is Divorce American Style... which pokes incisive, sometimes chilling, fun at US marriage-divorce problems." New York Timesfilm criticBosley Crowther disliked the film, saying that "it is rather depressing, saddening and annoying, largely because it does labor to turn a solemn subject into a great big American-boob joke." Crowther criticized Van Dyke's performance, remarking that "He is too much of a giggler, too much of a dyed-in-the-wool television comedian for this serio-comic husband role." A more recent review in Time Out New York cites "Two or three very funny scenes... and a first-rate batch of supporting performances."
