| Watched movie version of play "Kiss Them for Me" - Cary Grant and lots of theater names in cast | |
| Last Edit: PlayWiz 06:45 pm EST 11/27/24 | |
| Posted by: PlayWiz 06:30 pm EST 11/27/24 | |
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| This 1957 version of 1940s play is seldom discussed, and it's actually a fun movie, with some very distinct assets for the most part. Set during 1944, 3 enlisted men who are heroes have been in hospital and get an opportunity for a 4-day pass in San Francisco. Playing these guys are Cary Grant, plus Ray Walston (off of "Damn Yankees" on Broadway) and Larry Blyden, just before getting his gig from the let-go Larry Storch in "Flower Drum Song". Along with Werner Klemperer who's sort of their chaperone, they start partying at the Fairmont Hotel. The guys pass out cards in the street advertising nylons for sale (a very in-demand and hard to find commodity during wartime) and tons of ladies and then gents show up. Among them is 2nd-billed Jayne Mansfield, in a probably somewhat recalibrated role that on stage won Judy Holliday a Clarence Derwent award (and which led to her being remembered when she was called in to replace Jean Arthur out of town in "Born Yesterday" and Broadway stardom). Mansfield's fun, doing her kind of verbal shtick (exhaling in high tones down) and looking like, well, prime Jayne Mansfield. Also joining in the fun is Nathaniel Frey, the original Sipos of "She Loves Me", who's on your OCRs of "Damn Yankees", "Fiorello!", "Goldilocks" and others as well. Later on, we get some cameos from --- hey, it's Kathleen Freeman! And Frank Nelson as the hotel manager, playing a role he's played on "I Love Lucy" and in tons of things, maybe without intoning the word "YeeeeeeeeeS!" The film is in widescreen format and in color and directed by Stanley Donen. The film is a comedy with some tragic overtones at times. It's a lot of fun. The only real fly in the ointment is Suzy Parker, as the fiancee of rich man Leif Erickson ("Tea and Sympathy"). She falls for Cary Grant (looking very tan, with makeup not blended in at his hairline) and he for her. Parker, playing really the main woman's role, is absolutely gorgeous, as a famous model of the day would be, but she's also not a very good actress; it goes to show how good an actor Cary Grant is with a scene partner who is not too much above just saying her lines. (OK, she IS a bit better than Sofia Coppola in "Godfather 3 ", but not by that many degrees.) She's too much of an eye candy/sundae to ruin things, but fortunately this film is on the whole a lot of fun. Richard Widmark played the lead on Broadway, and apparently as soon as Cary Grant expressed interested in the film, the role was his. I'm curious to read the play and also to see how Judy Holliday's role evolved. Ray Walston is a delight (as usual -- well, maybe excepting "Kiss Me, Stupid" which he's kind of last-minute miscasting), as a sailor who is happily married, running for Congress and kind of giving mixed signals to Jayne Mansfield, who has her eyes on him. Larry Blyden is enjoyable in a rare film role, playing a version of a fun-loving, but none too bright Mississippi recruit. If you want to see some stage folk in a fun film with Broadway origins, you could do a lot worse. It's actually a lot of fun and genuinely touching at times, especially Cary Grant. |
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