Two years later, he accepted an even smaller role in Head (Columbia, 1968), with the singing quartet called the Monkees. Co-produced and co-scripted by Jack Nicholson, the feature deals with pot and its affects. In his brief film sequence, Victor appears as a giant named The Big Victor whose dandruff problem is caused by The Monkees inhabiting his scalp!
Adrienne Joy Urwick Mature sued for a divorce on February 6, 1969, on the standard ground of "extreme cruelty." Twentieth Century-Fox publicist Johnny Campbell, a friend of Victor's for thirty years, has said, "These gals marry him and think they're going to change his lifestyle, and they don't. He stays the same and they get disillusioned." In interviews, Mature has never made any specific comments about his marital experiences or about any of his ex-wives in particular.
Soon after Joy departed the Mature scene, Victor met former model, Yvonne Huston, a thirty-four-year-old brunette divorcee, the mother of three children. He has called her "the key to my happiness," although he has refused comment on the possibility of a fifth marriage. "Look," he told newsmen, "there are some personal things I don't like to discuss and this is one of them. But I do think every man should have a woman." Miss Huston's uncle, a Pasadena, California restaurateur, said, "I think it is very serious. He wants to get married, but she doesn't. I'm not sure why."
In 1971, Victor again came out of retirement for the comedy, Every Little Crook and Nanny (MGM, 1972). Yvonne accompanied him to location shooting in Los Angeles, London, and Naples. Of his acceptance of the role in the film, he told writer Aljean Harmetz, "It just so happened that they caught me when I felt like saying,'Yeah.' If they'd only got me two weeks later, I'd have said, 'No.'" Of his preparation for the role of Carmine Ganucci, an underworld czar, he said, "I find myself prowling around the house at two, three A.M. thinking about the script and raiding the icebox."
Under the direction of Cy Howard, Ganucci in Every Little Crook and Nanny heads for a vacation in Italy, leaving a nanny (Lynn Redgrave) to care for his precocious twelve-year-old son (Phillip Graves). The son is kidnapped on the order of the nanny, and a demand for his safety is made to the tune of $50,000. The nanny eventually takes off with the money, with further intentions of muscling in on the underworld's smuggling operations. Kevin Thomas (Los Angeles Times) gave the best obituary for this film and perhaps for Mature's acting career: "With each occasional new picture, Victor Mature, who doesn't need the money, threatens permanent retirement, which would be a crying shame at a time when there are so few authentic movie stars in the grand manner still active. But nobody, neither Mature nor the many other proven actors involved in the hapless Every Little Crook and Nanny, needs a picture like this one."
