Main Cast: Kirk Douglas, Kim Novak, Ernie Kovacs, Barbara Rush, Walter Matthau
Release Year: 1960
Country: US
Run Time: 117 minutes
Plot
Sexual misconduct in white-collar suburbia is the topic of this routine melodrama involving two neighboring couples. Architect Larry Coe (Kirk Douglas), unhappy with his wife Eve's (Barbara Rush) fixation on their bank balance, starts taking an interest in Maggie Gault (Kim Novak), whose husband has been losing interest in her. The two steal several illicit moments together, but this activity has not gone unnoticed. Good ol' neighbor Felix (Walter Matthau) figures that Eve might be feeling a little neglected, so he decides to move into the picture. Richard Quine's direction is an asset to an otherwise clichéd tale. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
Review
Strangers When We Meet is a fairly routine "domestic melodrama," but it does have a number of interesting aspects. Chief among these is its cast, which is rather top-loaded with talent. Indeed, one wants to ask what Kirk Douglas -- more recently seen in the likes of Spartacus and Last Train From Gun Hill -- is doing in this little soaper. Douglas is very good, mind you, but he seems a little out of place; the audience keeps waiting for him to be given a really great scene to sink his teeth into. But though the movie keeps flirting with such a scene, it never really gets there, leaving the viewer feeling shortchanged. Kim Novak, more at home in this genre, does quite well (even though the camera occasionally captures her in some surprisingly unflattering angles), and she and Douglas have a great chemistry together. There's also a quirky but solid turn from Ernie Kovacs, a delicious and finely shaded contribution from Barbara Rush, and a wonderful pre-stardom Walter Matthau performance that's delightfully free of the later Matthau "persona." Credit goes to director Richard Quine for these performances; though the director can't be blamed for not being able to overcome the clichéd and often annoying script, he can be criticized for the unimaginative use he makes of the "unusual" house that Douglas is designing, which might have added some flavor. Strangers' predictable screenplay keeps it from being a better film, but the cast makes it worth viewing. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Virginia Bruce - Mrs. Wagner; Kent Smith - Stanley Baxter; Helen Gallagher - Betty Anders; Roberta Shore - Linda Harder; Nancy Kovack - Marcia; Carol Douglas - Honey Blonde; Paul Picerni - Gerandi; Ernest Sarracino - Di Labbia; Harry Jackson - Bud Ramsey; Bart Patton - Hank; Robert Sampson - Bucky; Ray Ferrell - David Coe; John Bryant - Ken Gault; Dick Crockett - Charlie; Betsy Jones-Moreland - Mrs. Gerandi; Sue Ane Langdon - Daphne; Audrey Swanson - Mrs. Baxter; Charles Victor; Ruth Batchelor - Waitress; Joe Palma; Lorraine Crawford - Redhead
Credit
Ross Bellah - Art Director, Jean Louis - Costume Designer, Richard Quine - Director, Charles Nelson - Editor, George Duning - Composer (Music Score), Morris W. Stoloff - Musical Direction/Supervision, Ben Lane - Makeup, Charles B. Lang - Cinematographer, Richard Quine - Producer, Louis Diage - Set Designer, Evan Hunter - Screenwriter, Evan Hunter - Book Author
Larry Coe is a Los Angelesarchitect who is married with two kids. He has a very bright wife, Eve. She is ambitious for him, but he wants to do work more imaginative than the commercial buildings he's been designing. He meets with Roger Alter, an author, to discuss building a house that will be an "experiment" and something Coe wants to do more of, something original.
Maggie Gault is one of his neighbors whose son is friends with his. She tells Larry she has seen some of his previous houses and thinks that the more unconventional houses are the best. This encouragement is what he needs from his wife but hasn't been able to get.
Both Larry and Maggie grow dissatisfied in their marriages. Larry's wife is too hard-headed and practical and Maggie's husband isn't interested in having sex with her. So they have an affair that involves meeting in secret. They both know what they're doing is wrong, and they are devoted to their children.
Felix Anders is a neighbor who snoops around and finds out about their affair. His leering and insinuations make Larry realize the risks he's taking. He tells Maggie that they shouldn't see each other for a while. Felix, in the meantime, makes a play for Larry's wife. In a way, Felix is a personification of the tawdriness of Larry and Maggie's affair.
After her near-rape by Felix, Eve wises up and realizes that Larry has been unfaithful. She confronts him. They agree to stay together and move to Hawaii, where Larry has been offered a job to design a city.
Alter's house is finished but still empty. Maggie drives up to take a look at it. Larry shows up and they talk about how they can never be together. Larry wishes he and Maggie could live in the house and if they did, he would dig a moat around it and never leave it. Maggie says she loves him.
The contractor for the house shows up and thinks Maggie is Larry's wife. They both take a moment to savor the irony of his remark and Maggie drives away.
Variety said that the film is "...easy on the eyes but hard on the intellect...an old-fashioned soap opera", and: "It is a rather pointless, slow-moving story, but it has been brought to the screen with such skill that it charms the spectator into an attitude of relaxed enjoyment, much the same effect as that produced by a casual daydream fantasy".[1]TIME called the movie: "pure tripe".[2] "Unvaried strangulated hush", is how film critic Stanley Kauffmann, in The New Republic, described Novak's diction.[3] Craig Butler at Allmovie says that Douglas "seems a little out of place", and that the screenplay is "predictable".[4]
