Kiss Me, Stupid (1964)

Get past the setup, and you're golden. Film is hit-and-miss during its first forty-five minutes with too much emphasis on smug sitcom-level humor and too much time spent getting its elaborate premise to take flight. Once Kim Novak shows up, though, the film not only gets much funnier but also belatedly reveals the heart that makes Billy Wilder's films stick like they do. (For a guy normally known as a cynic, there's an awful lot of emotion in his films.) Dean Martin is hilarious in sending up his own image (he's sorely missed during the majority of the film's first half, too); Felicia Farr proves so adept at playing this kind of farce that it makes me wonder why she didn't turn up in more movies.

Grade: B