Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

Spidersecu Don't Believe the Hype

Limerculer A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Kimball Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

sharky_55 Some Like It Hot may have all but dismantled the Hays Code with its rapturous drag comedy, Marilyn Monroe sashaying around with one shoulder bare and its iconic final lines, but the reception of Kiss Me, Stupid was far from warm five years later. It was denounced by critics for its smutty vulgarity, leading to the film's release under their foreign distribution subsidiary. Although Wilder was persuaded to leave a little of Zelda and Dino's tryst to the imagination, the intent is clear: she has committed adultery, and her husband has very likely done so too. Who has committed the bigger sin? Maybe Zelda didn't know whether or not Orville had already done the deed, and simply jumped the gun on a chance with her longtime idol. You could also argue that Orville's incessant jealously and actions had practically closed the door on their marriage - the night was a free for all. But all this moralising and outrage is placed into perspective when we hear it from Wilder's himself. He argues that there was just as much, if not more infidelity in The Apartment, yet little of the same complaints. He has a point; in that film, one of Wilder's several masterpieces, Lemmon's love shack was not only a major plot point but wielded for personal gain, for ascending the corporate ladder. The film handles it all with a cheery tone, and although in the end he rejects the idea, there are plenty of other apartments available. To look for logic and reason in the crazy affairs of Kiss Me, Stupid is to deny that these characters are already a little stir crazy. Audiences weren't quite prepared for the radical notion that a marriage could be put on hold, or that a night of adultery could improve it. While that may not be emphatically true, the stars certainly aligned for the Spooners. The most obvious perpetrator is Orville, who has a gorgeous wife but sees opportunities to lose her around every corner. The part was originally filmed for Peter Sellers, but Ray Walston fits it better. Even with the Golden Age standard established by ageing leading men like Stewart and Grant, he looks on the elderly side. The wrinkly Orville is so awestruck at having landed Zelda that he is forever fretting on having her stolen away. Sellers would have fluffed the role of the commoner, stole the screen from Martin, and been too good a match for Farr. One running gag sees the soundtrack whipping up a cyclone of strings and a ticking time bomb whenever he gets an inkling of infidelity - Walston matches this with the uncanny ability to suddenly gain tunnel vision, his face frozen in an agitated trance of jealousy. At every turn Wilder underlines the character's psychological impotence by turning his well-intentioned menace into pathetic fumblings; Orville is so much of a joke he can hardly even level a decent insult towards his wife. Initially he formulates a devious plan to shove a grapefruit into Zelda's face. That bit is a homage to Wellman's The Public Enemy, a pre-code gangster flick where James Cagney does the same to his girl. But Orville is not nearly as menacing, or competent. He holds the grapefruit half nervously behind his back, undecided on whether to shove it or eat it. A pious minister catches sight of it, and mistakes it for a tasty snack. Later the now eaten fruit is placed harmlessly onto the table. Wilder's winking at us - just because he can, doesn't mean he will, and all the more opportunity to tease Orville for it. Dean Martin plays himself, unimpressed by dopey baguette odes, only seeking a lecherous night out. The setting is Climax, Nevada, although Wilder has some fun by concentrating all of the title's bawdiness into one grimy bar just out of town. That's also the home of the best 'waitress' available. To say that she is a cliché is an understatement. She looks like she has just walked out of a smutty B-movie western. She's called Polly and has a matching parrot, and her television constantly replays scenes from that genre, going 'bang bang!' - no prizes for guessing that double meaning. Yet Novak manages to firstly revel in the Polly's trashiness, and then lift herself out of it (with some financial assistance from Zelda). Hitchcock's icy, alluring blonde is disarmed by a cold, and Novak hams it with her nasally dialogue, all while hobbling around in high-heels and a ridiculously tight dress. What Orville gradually realises is what we also see: no women should be treated like this, fake wife or not. Novak earns our sympathy through attempting to fit the role of a lonely, mistreated wife, slowly taking the farce at face value and being seduced by the domestic comforts she never had. The script is as densely packed as any that Wilder and I.A.L Diamond wrote together, filled to the brim with double entendres, classic misunderstandings and racy innuendos. Barney just happens to deliver the most phallic bottle of wine there possibly could be, and the centrepiece of the living room is a 'love chair' so inexplicable it must have been fashioned for that exact scene and nothing else. The house is fashioned to provide maddening barriers for Orville's maneuvering of wife and guest, and then there is that reveal of he and Polly's decision of a first impression: neither can knit or read convincingly, so they end up in some sort of lustful entanglement, him in her lap, rocking ever so slightly, lips glued together as if their lives depended on it. Kiss Me, Stupid may not be Wilder's best, but it's a good enough comedy. The film's reputation precedes it, perhaps unfairly - it's not nearly as cynical as it sounds, and there's a heart in there somewhere. The most important thing is not to take it too seriously.

dglink While the writer-director team of Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond have produced some of the greatest films of all time, their late career entry, "Kiss Me, Stupid," does not rank high among the duo's critical or box office hits. However, time has been kind to the film, and what may have seemed shocking in 1964 is relatively tame today, although controversy lingers even in this permissive age. Aspiring song writers Ray Walston and Cliff Osmond conspire to keep Las Vegas songster Dino from leaving Climax, Nevada, where his car has developed suspicious engine problems, long enough to sell him their songs. Walston is overly jealous of his luscious wife, Felicia Farr, and Dino gets headaches without daily sex. With Dino lodged in Walston's guest room, Walston must get his wife out of Dino's reach, and, with Osmond's help, replaces her with Kim Novak, a lady for hire from the local Belly Button Bar.Dean Martin effortlessly plays Dino, who is basically himself, and we hear him croon a couple of pleasant tunes during the film. However, the stand out is arguably Ray Walston, who gives a sometimes manic comic performance as the husband, who is suspicious of every man from the milkman to the dentist to a teenage piano student, who nears his wife. Walston is ably abetted by Cliff Osmond as Barney, his song writing partner and accomplice in the plot to sell Dino their songs. Kim Novak as Polly the Pistol has a part Marilyn Monroe could have played; Novak looks terrific, perhaps more than terrific, and her dumb, but endearing prostitute is memorable and among the film's major assets. Beyond the leads, Wilder has peppered the cast with a number of comic performers like Doro Merande, Alice Pearce, Mel Blanc, John Fiedler, and Henry Gibson, who add short, but amusing bits throughout.Sex comedies in the 1960's seemed daring at the time, and many have dated badly. This film understandably caused a stir by its implication that a man would sell his wife's sexual favors for a business deal. Perhaps the film has aged well because Wilder and Diamond do not cop out, and the moral compromises may still raise eyebrows. The well written script has enough amusing complications to be entertaining, although it lacks the one-liners and laughs of a "Some Like it Hot." Filmed in glorious black and white by Joseph LaShelle with an Andre Previn score and a Gershwin tune or two, "Kiss Me, Stupid," remains a comedy for adults. While no longer as risqué as originally intended, the film benefits from Walston and Osmond's comedy, Novak's astonishing beauty and vulnerability, and Wilder's sure direction. While not a comedy classic, the film is quite entertaining and worthy viewing.

gavin6942 Jealous piano teacher Orville Spooner (Ray Walston) sends his beautiful wife, Zelda (Felicia Farr), away for the night while he tries to sell a song to a famous nightclub singer Dino (Dean Martin), who is stranded in town.The Catholic Legion of Decency strongly objected to the completed film and it was condemned, the second film to get such an honor -- the first being "Baby Doll" in 1956. One can easily see why, as while there is no nudity, there is plenty of humor revolving around prostitution, adultery and and Dean Martin being a "sex maniac".A. H. Weiler of the New York Times called the film "pitifully unfunny" and "obvious, plodding, short on laughs and performances and long on vulgarity." This seems unfair. While it is not among Billy Wilder's best work, even Wilder's average films are better than many other people's greatest attempts. I can only say now (roughly fifty years after the film debuted) that while it was not perfect, it had its moments and was quite bold in its own way.

truetexian Great premise and situational comedy which feels a lot fresher than it looks. Should have been made in color but the fact that it was done in black in white does help add to the drabness of the principal players lives and town. The part of Orville went to Ray Walston when Peter Sellers suffered a heart attack and had to be replaced. One reviewer here wrote critically of Walston and Novak referring to them as the "bus and truck co." cast and imagines what a film it would have been had Sellers and Marilyn Monroe been cast. Perhaps I misread him but Monroe was never considered for Novak's character, Polly The Pistol. She was to have played Felicia Farr's part, Zelda. He also imagines Jack Lemmon in the part of Orville and although Lemmon is on my very short list of the best actors ever, at the time this film was made, he was too handsome and charismatic and would have been a distraction. I believe Monroe would have pulled the film off it's balance as well whereas Felicia Farr was absolutely perfect. Kim Novak's performance was one of her best and proves that had she been given or had taken the right opportunities she could have had a whole new career in comedy. Ray Walston and Cliff Osmond were brilliantly believable as hapless scheming buddies-n-crime. So if this film needs a "re-work", for me, it wouldn't be tinkering with any of the casting. It would be in making it look as modern as it feels. Believing in the film enough to have sprung for a budget including color film would have helped a lot. It is a comedy gem which deals with the convoluted situation that its main characters create in a not too often seen adult approach and reaction.