Main Cast: Tony Curtis, Rosanna Schiaffino, Lionel Jeffries, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Nancy Kwan
Release Year: 1966
Country: US/UK
Run Time: 100 minutes
Plot
This uneven black comedy went into production as My Last Duchess. It then went through three title changes, representing, in the words of historian Leslie Halliwell, "a descending order of wit": Arrividerci, Baby, Drop Dead, Darling, and You Just Kill Me! Tony Curtis plays a charming contemporary Bluebeard who murders a succession of wives in order to fatten his bank account. At the beginning of the film, the 42-year-old Curtis, decked out in Buster Browns, does in his own stepmother. The remaining murders alternate between moderately amusing and just plain silly; our favorite scene is the disposal of Zsa Zsa Gabor, but that's just on basic principles. Curtis finally meets his match in a much-married widow who plots his demise (a plot point which, incidentally, was planned and abandoned for Chaplin's far superior Monsieur Verdoux). Director Ken Hughes and Ronald Harwood based their screenplay upon the Richard Deming novel The Careful Man. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Drop Dead Darling could have been a great little movie, if the writer/director had ever decided what kind of a movie he wanted to make (or if he had the truly exceptional skills required to bring off a movie that mixes as many tones as this one). At heart, Darling wants to be a very black comedy, the story of two serial spouse-killers who end up married to each other. Unfortunately, it also wants to be a zany sex comedy, a romance, a mod '60s adventure, a satire, and anything else it can get its hands on. The pieces come nowhere near blending, a face which is exacerbated by Ken Hughes let's-try-anything approach to directing this one. Hughes also made a major miscalculation in casting Tony Curtis. He is certainly at home playing a ladies' man in countless mindless sex comedies, and the quality he brings to these roles -- and which often works very well to his advantage -- is of a sexual hunter; he's appealing to women, but only after he wears them down first. In Darling, Curtis is instead supposed to be the kind of stand-offish figure whose presence inspires women to want to chase him, rather than the reverse. Fortunately, Darling has a very fine supporting cast. Nancy Kwan has nothing to do but does it well, Rosanna Schiaffino looks gorgeous, and Lionel Jeffries is sterling throughout. Even better are Zsa Zsa Gabor, turning in an surprisingly amusing performance, and Anna Quayle, whose brief turn in the first part of the film is simply hilarious. There are some other isolated moments in Darling that are quite amusing (although the ending is not one, even if it thinks it is); it's a shame that Hughes couldn't bring the disparate parts together and make an incisive, dark look at love and money. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Fenella Fielding - Lady Fenella Fawcett; Anna Quayle - Aunt Miriam; Warren Mitchell - Conte de Rienzi/Maximilian; Mischa Auer - Romeo; Noel Purcell - Daniel O'Flannery; Alan Gifford - American Brasshat; Joseph Furst - German Brasshat; Monte de Lyle - Butler; Bernard Spear - French Inspector; Eileen Way - Italian Dressmaker; Bruno Barnabe - Head Waiter; Gabor Baraker - Gypsy Baron; Eunice Blalck - Matron; John Brandon - Radio Engineer; Windsor Davies - Radio Engineer; Franco Derosa - Romano; John Fordyce - Boy in Orphanage; Henry Vidon - Priest; Raymond Young - Photographer; Jacqueline Bisset; Miki Iveria - Second Maid
Credit
Elizabeth Haffenden - Costume Designer, Ken Hughes - Director, John Shirley - Editor, Dennis Famum - Composer (Music Score), Denys Coop - Cinematographer, Ken Hughes - Producer, Ken Hughes - Screenwriter, Richard Deming - Book Author
