Kiss Me, Stupid (1964)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Billy Wilder

Writers:

Anna Bonacci (play)
I.A.L. Diamond (writer)

Release Date:

25 December 1964 (Finland)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Plot:

A jealous piano teacher Orville Spooner sends his beautiful wife, Zelda, away for the night while he tries to sell a song to a famous nightclub singer Dino, who is stranded in town.

Plot Keywords:

Piano | Singer | Piano Teacher | Nightclub | Gas Station

Cast

Dean Martin	...	Dino
Kim Novak	...	Polly the Pistol
Ray Walston	...	Orville Jeremiah Spooner
Felicia Farr	...	Zelda Spooner
Cliff Osmond	...	Barney
Barbara Pepper	...	Big Bertha
Skip Ward	...	Milkman (as James Ward)
Doro Merande	...	Mrs. Pettibone
Bobo Lewis	...	Waitress
Tom Nolan	...	Johnnie Mulligan (as Tommy Nolan)
Alice Pearce	...	Mrs. Mulligan
John Fiedler	...	Reverend Carruthers
Arlen Stuart	...	Rosalie Schultz
Howard McNear	...	Mr. Pettibone
Cliff Norton	...	Mack Gray

Runtime:

125 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Spain:T | Sweden:15 | UK:PG | USA:Approved (original rating) | USA:GP (re-rating) (1970) | USA:PG-13 (re-rating) (1994) | West Germany:6

Filming Locations:

Aquarius Theatre - 6239 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Mirisch Corporation, The

Trivia:

Production began with Peter Sellers in the role of Orville. Sellers suffered a heart attack several weeks into production, so filming had to start over with Ray Walston in the role (after Tony Randall, Bob Hope, Danny Kaye and Tom Ewell were all considered).

Quotes:

Orville J. Spooner: [reminiscing about his wife's dentist] "Tender gums". That's a hell of a thing to say to a married woman.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Pink Panther Story (2003) (V)

Soundtrack:

'S Wonderful

The souring of the American Dream

This is a low and deeply cynical comedy even by Billy Wilder's standards. It's about the American Dream and says a man would sell his wife to achieve it. Ray Walston, (brilliantly cast; nobody played sharper or more venal in comedy than he did - remember, he once even played the devil?), is the small-town songwriter who tries to sell some of his songs to a visiting superstar called Dino, (Dean Martin, parodying himself as a womanizing, hard-drinking piece of scum). The way he does it is to pass his wife off as a piece of bait for Martin to sleep with and hopefully take his songs. But being the all-American hypocrite that he is, he can't bring himself to use his real wife so he packs her off to a motel and hires the local floozie Polly the Pistol (Kim Novak) to take her place.

The film is very funny in the way it undermines our conventional sense of morality. It's like a French Farce full of dirty American gags and in some ways is one of Wilder's best (though under-valued) films. The only 'nice' character in the whole picture is Polly and Novak brings to the part the same kind of touching naiveté we associate with Monroe. (It's a very Monroe-like performance). And this is probably the best acting Novak has done outside of "Vertigo" and possibly "Picnic"; (her Polly is like an older, more sullied version of the character she played in "Picnic"). A lot of Americans found this film deeply offensive, (it was a bigger success in Europe), and it was condemned by the Catholic Legion of Decency.