Kiss Me, Stupid (1964)

When it comes to this 1965 film's title - "Kiss Me, Stupid" - I really don't get the "Kiss Me" part of it - But - The "Stupid" part of it pretty much says everything that needs to be said (in a nutshell) about this ridiculously contrived rubbish.And, speaking about this film's 3 principal actors - Dean Martin, Kim Novak, and Ray Walston - I really can't decide which one of this terrible trio put in the most cringe-worthy performance of all.Was it Dean? - Who was basically just playing himself - (But he just couldn't do it convincingly)Was it Kim? - Who (once again) was playing a cheap, white-trash tart. (Yawn!)Was it Ray? - Who (as the annoyingly eccentric Orville Spooner character) was chewing up the scenery, left, right, and centre.Anyway - It really doesn't matter much who was the worst - 'Cause, unfortunately, as a combined trio they, literally, tore this film's unfunny story right up into absolute shreds.

2:34:29 An excessive time length, few characters, too much and empty dialogue to tell few things and with little grace. The songs of George & Ira Gershwin along with the performance of Ray Walston are the best of the film. Incatalogable as musical or pure comedy. Kim Novak shows up too much in everything but interpretation. Maybe this review is like the waiter at the beginning. Everyone laughs but him.

Kiss Me Stupid was condemned, that is right, condemned when it was released ( now it gets a PG rating) and thus this fine film was released via a small subsidiary of United Artists called Lopert Pictures and forgotten on its initial release. Seen today Kiss Me Stupid is a daring and brilliant film.One should read both 'Kim Novak On Camera' and also 'Conversations With Wilder' concerning this movie. Kim Novak at the time was a huge international box office star and had a rough time with Henry Hathaway on "Of Human Bondage". MGM had to decide who to side with and MGM went with Novak and Mr. Hathaway was either fired or quit from 'Of Human Bondage'. Wilder offered the female lead in 'Kiss Me Stupid' to Novak but read Kim Novak the riot act saying if anyone left this film due to temperament it would be Kim Novak not Billy Wilder. What resulted was a mutual love fest and Wilder declaring in Crowe's book that Novak along with Audrey Hepburn were his two favorite actresses. (Ginger Roger, Jean Arthur, Shirley MacLaine, Paula Prentiss etc take note!) In the coffee table book 'Kim Novak on Camera' Wilder noted Novak's ability saying Kim was "Gorgeous to the Camera and read her lines like music." One wishes Kim Novak and Mr. Wilder would have worked together again for example Wilder was unhappy with Marthe Keller on 'Fedora', a part perfect for Ms. Novak.Kim Novak on Larry King Live said the picture would have worked better with Peter Sellars who left due to health, and the film had to re-shoot the Sellars footage. Wilder had to get a replacement quickly so after Danny Kaye, Bob Hope, turned the film down Wilder went with Ray Walston. Jack Lemmon a Wilder favorite was working elsewhere. Walston simply did not have the star charisma to work with real movie stars Dean Martin and Kim Novak.This film is a good film that should have been a great film. Wilder did a good job and Novak gives a great performance.

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.