Kiss Me, Stupid

Dino (Dean Martin) , the good looking and lecherous Las Vegas singer, stops for gas on his way to Hollywood in Climax, Nevada. The oily gas station attendant is Barney Millsap (Cliff Osmond) , a would-be lyricist who writes pop songs with Orville Spooner, the local piano teacher. By disabling Dino's car, Barney contrives a scheme to have charming Dino sing one of their songs on an upcoming TV special. Possessively jealous piano teacher Orville Spooner (Ray Walston) , a local songwriter, wants Dino to hear his tunes but knows the cad will seduce his pretty wife, so he hires a floozy (Kim Novak) to pose as the tempting spouse. Meanwhile, Barney sends his beautiful wife (Felicia Farr) , Zelda, away for the night while he tries to sell a song to famous nightclub singer Dino, who is stranded in town. There Was This Girl in Climax, Nevada!. It happened in Climax, Nevada !. Dino...he came to dinner...Polly the Pistol - she stayed for breakfast...Beethoven - he cooked up the whole mess...This picture is for adults only !.

An enjoyable film with funny, amusing script by the compelling tandem LAL Diamond and Billy Wilder. A roguish, vulgar and thorny issue at the time by passing off a local prostitute as the complacent wife of one of them. Chance and infidelities mix in this uninhibited sitcom, one of the director's best. The attack on 'good customs' and the dominant puritanism in broad sectors of North American society complicated the dissemination of the film at the time. It gets better as it goes along, but the whole thing suffers from staginess, being an adaptation of an Italian play ¨L'ora della fantasia¨by Anna Bonacci. However, one condemned as smut, this lesser Wilder effort now seems no worse than a TV sitcom. Rightly agreeable with plenty of sly bits of business and fun-filled , milestone comedy which neatly combines humor , mirth , entertaining situations , a feeling romance and bitterness . Notable direction render this stunning story more funny than usual. Giving a jaundiced vision leavened by a tender sympathy for the frailty of human motives. Dean Martin basically plays himself as a horny Vegas crooner stranded in the boondocks. Drawing heavily on Martin's offscreen persona, this sees him as a sex-crazed, arrogant crooner stranded in a remote Californian town and feigning interest in a songs composer -nicely played by Ray Walston who steals the show- in return for the sexual favours of the latter's wife -attractively played by Felicia Farr.

The motion picture was well directed by Billy Wilder who includes several punchlines . Being one of Wilder's most inventive and furious screen adaptations .Billy was one of the best directors of history . In 1939 started the partnership with Charles Bracket on such movies as ¨Ninotchka¨ , ¨Ball of fire¨ , making their film debut as such with ¨Major and the minor¨ . ¨Sunset Boulevard¨ was their last picture together before they split up . Later on , Billy collaborated with another excellent screenwriter IAL Diamond . Both of them won an Academy Award for ¨Stalag 17¨ dealing with a POW camp starred by William Holden . After that , they wrote/produced/directed such classics as ¨Ace in the hole¨ , the touching romantic comedy ¨Sabrina¨ , the Hickcoktian courtroom puzzle game ¨Witness for the prosecution¨ and two movies with the great star Marilyn Monroe , the warmth ¨Seven year itch¨ and this ¨Some like hot¨. All of them include screenplays that sizzle with wit . But their biggest success and highpoint resulted to be the sour and fun ¨The apartment¨. Subsequently in the 60s and 70s , the duo fell headlong into the pit , they realized nice though unsuccessful movies as ¨Buddy buddy¨ ,¨Fedora¨ , ¨Front page¨ and ¨Secret life of Sherlock Holmes¨, though the agreeable ¨Avanti¨ slowed the decline . The team , Wilder-Diamond , had almost disappeared beneath a wave of bad reviews and failures . Rating : 6.5/10 . Above average , essential and indispensable watching ; extremely funny and riveting film and completely entertaining .It's the kind of movie where you know what's coming but , because the treatment , enjoy it all the same .