For Better, for Worse

Almost comforting in its snug predictability, this adaptation of Arthur Watkyn's stage play is now more noteworthy for its unworldly, sit-comic depiction of young bourgeois marriage than its actual entertainment value. There's a definite rapport between impoverished Dirk Bogarde and his bride, Susan Stephen, but the reliance on disapproving in-laws, nosey neighbours and dodgy tradesmen for laughs could easily have worn thin were it not for the effortlessly accomplished support from the likes of Cecil Parker, Dennis Price and Eileen Herlie. Comedy wasn't really director J Lee Thompson's forte, but he keeps things pottering along nicely.