Kiss Me, Stupid (1964)

KISS ME, STUPID  (1964)  ¢ ¢
    D: Billy Wilder
    Dean Martin, Ray Walston, Kim Novak,
    Felicia Farr, Cliff Osmond, John Fiedler,
    Barbara Pepper, Mel Blanc, Henry Gibson
This movie starts out with Dean Martin wrapping up a performance at the Sands, with the leer, the booze, the cigarette, the chorus girls and everything, so right away you're wondering: Is this supposed to be, like, a satire on Vegas-style entertainment, or are those jokes actually supposed to be funny? Your worst suspicions are confirmed when Dean gets stranded in Climax, Nevada, (you go through Happy Valley to get to Climax, get it?) where a would-be songwriter (Ray Walston) gets caught up in a mad scheme to sell the crooner a tune by hooking him up with a prostitute posing as the songwriter's wife. Does that make any sense at all? No? Then you get the idea. It's a movie that aims for daring and risqué but lands on sleazy and smug, the cinematic equivalent of a crude Rat Pack routine. Which is too bad, really, because it wastes a winning comic performance by Kim Novak as the hard-luck floozy. Martin's willingness to portray himself as a vulgar, womanizing bastard is curious, but might not be far from the truth, and Dino was somebody who probably didn't give a shit, anyway. A definite low point in the career of Billy Wilder, who summed it up perfectly years later: "We don't bury our dead. It's just going to stink 50 years from now on television."