Billy Wilder's Kiss Me, Stupid

Billy Wilder's Kiss Me, Stupid (1964) was both ahead of its time with its bawdiness and behind it with its elegant widescreen black-and-white cinematography (by Joseph LaShelle, who worked with everyone from John Ford to Gerd Oswald).  Whether one thinks the movie is funny or not is subjective but no doubt its theme of aspirations for success at the price of infidelity are as American as only the Austrian Billy Wilder can be.  I found much of its rampant bawdiness both vulgar and funny -- "she's going to take me outside and show me her parsley" -- and rather like Shakespeare in its changing of partners and constant attempts at deception.  I think that the casting is key in this film, with Kim Novak as Pollie the Pistol (she has a cold and a dubious New Jersey accent), Dean Martin playing with his rat pack image.and Ray Walston as Orville Spooner the schlub piano teacher who is trying to sell songs.  Wilder originally wanted Jack Lemmon in the Walston role and then filmed for several weeks with Peter Sellers, who fell ill.  Walston is most effective as the jealous husband in the small town of Climax, Nevada, where he suspects even the milkman.

As I have said many times, the best comedies are the most serious and Wilder is most interested in social roles, how people and families interact with each other.  When Mrs. Spooner (Felicia Farr) goes home to her mother and father (Dora Merande and Howard McNear) Wilder shows them together on the porch in one uncut shot, as her mother denounces her daughter for who she married when she had so many other choices.  It's funny, sad and painful, just as it is when Mrs. Spooner sleeps with Dino so he will buy some of her husband's songs. Wilder, like other great directors who worked in widescreen black-and-white (Preminger, Fuller, et al.) knows how effective it is to let the actors interact in a scene without cuts. In spite of its bawdiness (or, perhaps, because of it) Kiss Me, Stupid is as corrosive a film about success and celebrity in America as Wilder's Ace in the Hole (1951) and The Apartment (1960)