Kiss Me, Stupid (1964)
Country: US
Technical: bw/scope 124m
Director: Billy Wilder
Cast: Ray Walston, Kim Novak, Dean Martin, Felicia Farr
Synopsis:
A pair of songwriters in a two-horse Nevada town jump at the opportunity to sell some numbers when famous crooner Dino passes through on the way to L.A. The problem is that one of them is a pathologically jealous husband and the singer a noted lothario, so the duo spirit the wife away and employ a cocktail waitress to be seduced in her place.
Review:
This minor example of Wilder's sonata form approach to comedic narrative also finds him settling into the Indian summer of his career and choosing increasingly broad treatments of the sex comedy formula. Here he and writing partner Diamond trade heavily on Martin's offscreen personality (booze and women) and recycle ideas and performance styles from The Seven Year Itch. It's a neat idea, based on an Italian play, L'ora della fantasia, which weaves unexpected variations on the jealous husband/chaste wife scenario to satisfyingly queasy effect, with some great Gershwin/Porter pastiches in the song-writing and witty scoring from Andre Previn. The casting is patchier, with Novak a poor Marilyn substitute, but Farr more than makes for her relative lack of comic timing, and Walston seizes at a career-best opportunity.
Country: US
Technical: bw/scope 124m
Director: Billy Wilder
Cast: Ray Walston, Kim Novak, Dean Martin, Felicia Farr
Synopsis:
A pair of songwriters in a two-horse Nevada town jump at the opportunity to sell some numbers when famous crooner Dino passes through on the way to L.A. The problem is that one of them is a pathologically jealous husband and the singer a noted lothario, so the duo spirit the wife away and employ a cocktail waitress to be seduced in her place.
Review:
This minor example of Wilder's sonata form approach to comedic narrative also finds him settling into the Indian summer of his career and choosing increasingly broad treatments of the sex comedy formula. Here he and writing partner Diamond trade heavily on Martin's offscreen personality (booze and women) and recycle ideas and performance styles from The Seven Year Itch. It's a neat idea, based on an Italian play, L'ora della fantasia, which weaves unexpected variations on the jealous husband/chaste wife scenario to satisfyingly queasy effect, with some great Gershwin/Porter pastiches in the song-writing and witty scoring from Andre Previn. The casting is patchier, with Novak a poor Marilyn substitute, but Farr more than makes for her relative lack of comic timing, and Walston seizes at a career-best opportunity.
Country: US
Technical: bw/scope 124m
Director: Billy Wilder
Cast: Ray Walston, Kim Novak, Dean Martin, Felicia Farr
Synopsis:
A pair of songwriters in a two-horse Nevada town jump at the opportunity to sell some numbers when famous crooner Dino passes through on the way to L.A. The problem is that one of them is a pathologically jealous husband and the singer a noted lothario, so the duo spirit the wife away and employ a cocktail waitress to be seduced in her place.
Review:
This minor example of Wilder's sonata form approach to comedic narrative also finds him settling into the Indian summer of his career and choosing increasingly broad treatments of the sex comedy formula. Here he and writing partner Diamond trade heavily on Martin's offscreen personality (booze and women) and recycle ideas and performance styles from The Seven Year Itch. It's a neat idea, based on an Italian play, L'ora della fantasia, which weaves unexpected variations on the jealous husband/chaste wife scenario to satisfyingly queasy effect, with some great Gershwin/Porter pastiches in the song-writing and witty scoring from Andre Previn. The casting is patchier, with Novak a poor Marilyn substitute, but Farr more than makes for her relative lack of comic timing, and Walston seizes at a career-best opportunity.