Film

The Marriage of a Young Stockbroker

Name: The Marriage of a Young Stockbroker
Genre: Comedy
Released: 1971
Cast: Richard Benjamin, Joanna Shimkus, Elizabeth Ashley, Adam West, Patricia Barry

Dark comedy

A 1971 comedy about a bored stockbroker seeking escape from his grey marriage and greyer job through voyeurism and affairs. It's a frank, uncomfortable look at suburban ennui and masculine restlessness that swings between satire and exploitation. For viewers curious about how cinema handled adult anxiety before it became prestige TV fodder.

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like bleak, deadpan portraits of a middle-class man coming unstuck, where the jokes come from embarrassment and a detached eye rather than set-piece gags.

Skip it if you want the comedy to be broad or the pace brisk; this is slow, sour and unpleasant to sit with, and its main character is hard to root for.

What it asks of you: Settle in for a short, unhurried stretch in which little happens on purpose, and be willing to stay with a man you may not like while he drifts.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Graduate1967

Captures the same suffocating suburban malaise and sexual confusion of young men trapped in expected lives. Dustin Hoffman's anxiety feels like a spiritual predecessor to this film's central crisis.

But Nearly 60 years old, and the pacing reflects it. The famous scenes overshadow everything else; watching the whole thing can feel like hitting greatest hits.

Carnal Knowledge1971

Released the same year and wrestling with identical themes: how men construct sexual fantasies to escape emotional emptiness. Mike Nichols examines the same voyeurism of desire with darker comedy.

But It's bleak in ways this film isn't. Jack Nicholson's despair is relentless, and the film offers no relief or lightness whatsoever.

Five Easy Pieces1970

Jack Nicholson as another restless man unable to settle into any life—marriage, career, family—that's been chosen for him. The same yearning discontent, but with more empathy for everyone involved.

But Slower and more contemplative. If you want comedy, this tilts toward drama. The famous diner scene is great but the film asks patience.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Marriage of a Young Stockbroker

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Contempt1963

Both examine how men use work, sex, and distraction to avoid intimacy in marriage, but Godard asks why while this film mostly documents the evasion.

Godard's film about a marriage destroyed by a film producer's infidelity and ego. Marriage as a collaboration that collapses under masculine selfishness. Visually and philosophically exquisite where the main film is crude.

But Deliberately static. Godard prioritizes composition and sound over narrative momentum. Requires patience and rewards philosophy.

Klute1971

Paranoia and sexuality intertwine as a detective investigates a murder involving a call girl. Jane Fonda's performance is extraordinary, and it shares this film's willingness to sit with discomfort.

But It's a thriller first, not comedy. Tone shifts can be jarring, and the sexual content feels more serious and less satirical.

Taking Off1971

Milos Forman's comedy about middle-class life disrupted, with a documentary-like eye for how ordinary people rationalize bizarre behavior. Absurdist in a way this film aspires to be.

But Very strange and uneven. Some bits land as genius, others feel like inside jokes from 1971 that didn't age well.

The Killing of a Chinese Bookie1976

Cassavetes explores masculine anxiety and shame through a man trying to prove something through increasingly foolish choices. Raw, unflinching, genuinely funny in its tragedy.

But Deliberately rough and repetitive. It's an art film dressed as crime drama, and it demands active watching.

Alfie1966

Michael Caine's charming cad uses women as distractions from existential dread, talking directly to the camera about his emptiness. The template for the likeable-but-hollow protagonist.

But Feels dated in its attitudes. The film doesn't punish Alfie enough for some viewers, and his charm can wear thin.

A Serious Man2009

Coen Brothers riff on suburban crisis: a man's life systematically collapses while he seeks meaning and sex. Funnier and more stylish, but the same anxiety about masculine purpose.

But Deliberately strange and Jewish-specific in ways that may alienate. The ending will frustrate anyone wanting resolution.

Husbands1970

Cassavetes documentary-style observation of three married men's friendship tested by mortality and restlessness. Messy, improvised, deeply empathetic to male confusion.

But Three and a half hours of men arguing and drinking. No plot to speak of. Testing endurance is part of the point, which is exhausting.

In the Soup1992

Both are about men fantasizing their way out of their actual circumstances; this one explodes the suburban setting into urban chaos and makes the fantasy explicit.

A struggling screenwriter gets entangled with a petty criminal in a fever dream of NYC desperation. Black-and-white, formally inventive, funny and tragic. Urban ennui pushed into surrealism.

But Deliberately low-budget and scrappy. Image quality is rough. The narrative spirals rather than resolves, which frustrates linear thinkers.

A Lizard in a Woman's Skin1971

Both explode a marriage from infidelity and masculine anxiety, but Polanski treats it as horror while this film tries comedy—an inversion of register that illuminates both approaches.

An Italian psychodrama about a man's twisted jealousy and desire destroying his marriage. Surreal, visually hypnotic, scored by Morricone. Same year, same subject, approached as Freudian nightmare rather than comedy.

But Deliberately ambiguous about what's real. The dream sequences can feel self-indulgent. Patience required; payoff is psychological, not plot-based.