The plots for this film are VERY unusual and very confusing. It all starts with Richard Widmark insulting an idiotic Mexican guy (Topol of all people) and then marrying a nympho with a strange family curse. She is super-rich but also super sex-crazed. There are LOTS of strange subplots involving the children of the various characters--and all of it seems, well, confusing.
"A Talent for Loving" is like a train wreck--a terribly unfunny train wreck. I have rarely seen a film try so very hard to be funny and fail at it so miserably. It's a sex spoof-comedy-western--and does a lousy job in all three categories. As a sexy film, it never really delivers and provides lots of innuendos but nothing that is terribly sexy. As a comedy, it's just not funny and tries in a shotgun manner to get laughs. In other words, throw enough silly situations and vignettes into the film and PERHAPS one of them will make you laugh...or not! As a western, it's not entertaining--especially with a lot of non-Indians playing the Indians (sort of like Mel Brooks playing an Indian in "Blazing Saddles"). It's terrible and I can see why it was never released theatrically. And, in many ways, it reminds me of the 1967 version of "Casino Royale"--another sex comedy that simply is unfunny and rarely sexy.
A bad film is practically every way and I am sure that this was a big source of embarrassment for all those involved.
