Strangers When We Meet (1960)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

Richard Quine

Writers:

Evan Hunter (screenplay)
Evan Hunter (novel)

Release Date:

6 October 1960 (West Germany)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Tagline:

"I LOVE YOU BABY, BUT MY WIFE JUST REFUSES TO UNDERSTAND!"

Plot:

Architect Larry Coe has a wife and family, but becomes embroiled in an affair with beautiful Maggie Gault...

Plot Keywords:

Neighbor | Architect | Affair | Beautiful Woman | Bus Stop

Cast

Kirk Douglas	...	Larry Coe
Kim Novak	...	Margaret 'Maggie' Gault
Ernie Kovacs	...	Roger Altar
Barbara Rush	...	Eve Coe
Walter Matthau	...	Felix Anders
Virginia Bruce	...	Mrs. Wagner
Kent Smith	...	Stanley Baxter
Helen Gallagher	...	Betty Anders
John Bryant	...	Ken Gault
Roberta Shore	...	Linda Harder
Nancy Kovack	...	Marcia
Carol Douglas	...	Honey Blonde
Paul Picerni	...	Arthur Gerandi
Ernest Sarracino	...	Frank Di Labbia
Harry Jackson	...	Bud Ramsey

Runtime:

117 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Canada:PG (Ontario) | USA:Approved (PCA #19591) | South Africa:13LS | UK:12 | Finland:K-16

Filming Locations:

100 N. Kenter Avenue, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Bryna Productions

Trivia:

Kim Novak reportedly enjoyed a lot of latitude on the set because she was involved with director Richard Quine and used that latitude to make unsolicited suggestions to various crew members. However, when Novak tried to make suggestions to Kirk Douglas on how he should be acting, he took offense and the result was a chilly relationship between them off-set.

Goofs:

Continuity: When she's getting ready to leave the party at Larry's house, Maggie goes to their bedroom to pick up her coat (all of the partygoers' coats had been laid out there on the bed). There is at least another coat or jacket by the pillow area of the bed when she comes in, but a moment later after she has looked around the bedroom and peeked into their bathroom, when Maggie walks by the bed to leave, the other coat or jacket by the pillow is missing. It is "possible" another guest "could have" have reached in and grabbed it, but it is highly unlikely since Maggie was only in the bedroom for a moment and she was never surprised by anyone coming in and catching her kind of snooping around.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in El crack II (1983)

Soundtrack:

Strangers When We Meet

This is Europa.

Richard Quine seems here very different.This is not exactly an entertaining movie but rather a middle-class group study focusing on Novak and Douglas ' characters.Absolutely unmelodramatic,with no spectacular scenes -except for two fightings- .Novak's memory of her affair with a trucker could have been treated as a flashback;but she simply tells it to her new lover Douglas,and the camera shows her mouth in close shot.Except during the party,the characters brush against each other more than they really meet.

Actually it's closer to European ,particularly Italian cinema of the same era:Antonioni comes to mind,'l'avventura"(1959)and chiefly "la notte"(1960).Delicacy,painful frames of mind,wistful looks,in a muffled atmosphere,with more whispers than cries:Quine proves that a scandalous topic such as adultery can be handled gracefully.Unlike further works as "the world of Suzy Wong"(1960) or "sex and the single girl"(1964),this is true psychological drama.