Main Cast: Dean Martin, Kim Novak, Ray Walston, Felicia Farr, Cliff Osmond
Release Year: 1964
Country: US
Run Time: 126 minutes
Plot
The Catholic League of Decency gave Billy Wilder's Kiss Me, Stupid! a "condemned" rating. The Moral Majority charged the picture with debauchery and movie theaters across the nation discontinued its run. The bed-trick comedy had America's panties tied in a knot; one could not imagine a story so distasteful. Dean Martin is Dino, a Las Vegas crooner, alcoholic, and celebrity playboy. Dino requires women like oxygen -- a companionless night leaves him with a headache. Ray Walston is Orville, a provincial piano teacher, aspiring songwriter, and jealous husband. Orville violently obsesses over his wife Zelda's (Felicia Farr) fidelity -- any man she encounters becomes his sworn enemy. When a chance detour brings Dino to Orville's hometown of Climax, NV, it is the perfect opportunity for the piano teacher and his songwriting partner, Barney (Cliff Osmond), to pitch their tunes. Yet, Orville predictably fears the possible combination of Dino's libido with Zelda's childhood crush on the singer. Before the two can meet, Orville deceitfully bullies Zelda out of their house and Barney hires local roadhouse prostitute Polly the Pistol (Kim Novak) to pose as Orville's wife. Zelda turns to drink for solace, ending up at the exact bar where Polly plies her trade and, eventually, in the call girl's empty trailer. By the next morning, Orville is with Polly and Dino (looking for a prostitute) finds his way to Zelda -- and husband, wife, hooker, and Barney will all reap the benefits of infidelity. This tale may be tasteless, but Kiss Me, Stupid! is now a cable favorite. Its modern rating? PG. ~ Aubry Anne D'Arminio, All Movie Guide
Review
Kiss Me, Stupid is one of several critical and commercial disappointments that tarnish Billy Wilder's later career. Reviewers chastised its reliance on stereotypes, as well as its archaic indoor scenery and filtered black-and-white photography. Audiences resisted the film's guileless approach (such as casting Dean Martin as a boozing rat packer) and cynical moral (that a couple may revive its love and its finances through infidelity). But it is the simplicity and coarseness of this picture that have left it memorable and even commendable. Kiss Me, Stupid is a precursor of such American films as Todd Solondz's Happiness and Neil LaBute's Your Friends & Neighbors -- movies that exploit paper-thin characters and unadorned filmmaking to develop an honesty often celebrated for being unpleasant. With Kiss Me, Stupid, Wilder does not hide behind the attractive fallibility of William Holden or Jack Lemmon. They may have been praised as appealing to the "everyman," but Martin and Ray Walston are every man -- a little too typical and a little too familiar. Their characters react predictably to each plot turn, and are thus too uncomplicated to have their behavior excused. They inhabit the unforgiving real world -- a fact emphasized by Wilder's drab living room backgrounds and his decision not to glamorize them in Technicolor. Kiss Me, Stupid is necessarily abrasive, understandably painful to watch, and brilliantly ahead of its time. ~ Aubry Anne D'Arminio, All Movie Guide
Robert Luthardt - Art Director, I.A.L. Diamond - Associate Producer, Doane Harrison - Associate Producer, Lynn Stalmaster - Casting, Wally Green - Choreography, Wes Jeffries - Costume Designer, Bill Thomas - Costume Designer, Charles C. Coleman, Jr. - First Assistant Director, Billy Wilder - Director, Dan Mandell - Editor, Andre Previn - Composer (Music Score), Emile LaVigne - Makeup, Loren Cosand - Makeup, Alexandre Trauner - Production Designer, Joseph La Shelle - Cinematographer, Allen K. Wood - Production Manager, Billy Wilder - Producer, Edward Boyle - Set Designer, Milt Rice - Special Effects, Clem Portman - Sound/Sound Designer, I.A.L. Diamond - Screenwriter, Billy Wilder - Screenwriter, George Gershwin - Featured Music, Ira Gershwin - Featured Music, Anna Bonacci - Play Author
