Kiss Me, Stupid

In a small Nevada town, two amateur songwriters try to keep a famous singer around after his car breaks down. To get their songs heard they plan to host him for a night. The jealous husband, afraid for his wife, puts a bar girl in her place in the house instead. Billy Wilder directed and wrote with I.A.L. Diamond. Dean Martin plays the singer, Kim Novak the bar girl, Ray Walston the husband. The part was written for Peter Sellers. He suffered a series of heart attacks during filming and had to leave the production; Walston came in afterwards. The film caused a morality row on release. The Catholic review board in America condemned it, and the studio moved distribution from its main label to a subsidiary. It became one of the most severely criticised works of Wilder's career; it was reassessed years later and gained defenders. The humour is still uncomfortable, and the film means it to be. Who it is for: viewers who like Wilder's dark comedies. Who it is not for: anyone with no tolerance for the period's sexual humour.