Kiss Them for Me (1957)

I watched most of this 1957 film on Turner Classic tonight. I had never heard of it. It promised to be a "four Navy buddies on shore leave and assorted pranks" flick, particularly with the thought that it featured Jayne Mansfield. I figured that Cary Grant really needed to pay alimony. However, two things about the film kept me from turning it off. The first was Suzy Parker. The second was very much unexpected and it was a ribbon through the screenplay which began to shine in Grant's lines telling off the ship building tycoon played by Leif Ericson. While I realize that the film was made twelve years after the close of the Second World War, this was no sentimental script which appealed to an audience's passions for a war in progress. Grant's Navy aviator was sick and tired of the war, of combat, of the blood and gore, of picking up after the guy next to him is blown into twelve pieces. Grant's character again displays a cynicism about the war when he tells a whopper to an inquiring reporter in a nightclub.The screenplay was even more remarkable when you realize that this movie was released in 1957....just on the late fringe of McCarthyism and the Second Red Scare. It is a tepid film at best, but a tip of the hat to Cary Grant for portraying a realistic warrior who conveys that he is sick and tired of the gore of war.

A comedy with some serious overtones best describes 1957's "Kiss Them for Me."It's basically the story of 4 naval guys on leave in San Francisco. They've about had it with flying and are ready to get out of service. This includes Ray Walston running for a congressional seat in a special election.You would think it would be about their escapades in S.F. during those days, but the film turns into one or two parties at a posh hotel and then the serious stuff comes across.They're reminded of the serious stuff when they encounter one of their guys who is terminally ill and at the film's end, when their ship is blown to bits. It's time for them to reevaluate their situation and face the music.Even Jayne Mansfield, who really provides the comic relief here, has one serious moment in the film.Cary Grant, the movie stalwart, was beginning to show his age here in the same year he costarred with Deborah Kerr in "An Affair to Remember."The picture is wholesome and reminds us of our patriotic duty.

Three Pacific war heroes Cary Grant, Larry Blyden, and Ray Walston, are flown to San Francisco for a furlough with the implicit understanding that they will do some public appearances for the war effort. Implicit to us the viewer, but our three naval fliers have something else in mind. Despite being terribly miscast, Cary Grant does the best he can with the material given. This is the kind of role that Kirk Douglas should have had, he'd have played the role effortlessly. When the dapper Mr. Grant finally has had enough of blowhard industrialist Leif Erickson and hauls off and belts him, you just don't quite believe it.I like very much what another reviewer wrote in saying we can see the beginning of the military industrial complex. Werner Klemperer as the Navy publicity ensign is trying first to curry favor with Erickson and later with the less obnoxious, but still annoying Richard Deacon. It's a world that Grant and Blyden don't feel a part of.Though he's with them in spirit, Ray Walston's carving his own career out by running for Congress. Some did that in World War II and in previous USA wars, most prominently in the Civil War. Two American presidents, Rutherford B. Hayes and James A. Garfield won seats in Congress while both were on active duty. Garfield left the army, but Hayes stayed and didn't take his seat until Appomatox.When this film was out Larry Blyden was appearing on Broadway in Flower Drum Song. No doubt that helped the film's popularity for Blyden got excellent reviews. And of course the pulchritudinous presence of Jayne Mansfield also helped a great deal.Even with a miscast Cary Grant, Kiss Them For Me is still enjoyable.

I wanted to love this movie. How could I not love it? Cary Grant, Jayne Mansfield, Stanley Donen; all icons in their own way. However, the train wreck that was Suzy Parker ruined the entire experience for me. Her acting was so appalling that I sat there with my jaw hanging open, not believing my eyes or ears. I could barely make it through one viewing, THAT'S how hideous she is in this.Cary? Gorgeous and in fine dramatic form. Jayne? Adorable, endearing, and obviously having a ball. The supporting cast does alright, and the city of San Francisco is captured in all its stunning, retro elegance.Then you see Suzy Parker attempting to speak her lines with a woodenness, a deadness, a cluelessness that simply defies belief. Who told this creature she could ACT?? Oy VEY, people.