What are your opinions on the films of Richard Quine?

Now that I have seen six films directed by Quine, I have formed an initial opinion of his skills. I am afraid to say that it is not a positive or favourable one.

So far, Bell, Book and Candle is his only film which I can say I liked. It has excellent cinematography from the legend James Wong Howe, a good story and plot as well as decent acting all around. I was certainly entertained. Trivia: It inspired Bewitched.

From now on it is all downhill. The next two in my mind are Pushover and It Happened to Jane. Two diametrically opposite features, both left me with an "Eh..." feeling.

Pushover is a poor man's Double Indemnity, the main character being a lawman tempted to break the law by a femme fatale and played by Fred MacMurray who is, for all sense and purposes, reprising the character of Walter Neff in a different garb. But there isn't much tension or urgency in the plot or Quine's direction. Perhaps he realized it too for he did not direct any crime thrillers later AFAIK. It is on Youtube if you wish to give a look: www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKU8kMSAZRs

It Happened to Jane began in a manner that suggested to me that I would end up liking it. It has a crackling idea, of a small town businesswoman taking on a big business corporation head on. It had a number of good scenes like Jack Lemmon's stirring speech in the town hall. Doris Day and Lemmon had nice chemistry. It looked like it would turn out to be breezy fluff at least, Sadly, the antagonist played by Ernie Kovacs rubbed me the wrong way and soured my overall opinion of the film. The man is portrayed as a raving high-handed businessman as well as a misogynist and in all fairness, needs his comeuppance. But it turned out to be a damp squib. Why, the film even had the gall of trying to soften his character in the end so as to make him more palatable. That was the entirely wrong track to take.

Now I have got the one good and two barely passable titles out of the way, it's time to write about the awful ones.

Strangers When We Meet is a melodrama about adultery based on a novel and the screenplay is by the same person. It has got not a single original idea in it. All the characters behave illogically several times. I was dissatisfied by the explanation behind the two main characters' decision to walk down the adulterous path. It hits all the predictable notes in a adultery-centric drama and plods along to the inevitable conclusion. It made me realize that while I like Kirk Douglas as an actor usually, the man was not suited to play a suburban everyman kind of character. Kim Novak is also listless, something she wasn't in Pushover or Bell, Book and Candle. There is a subplot about a rape but it is treated too lightly and without a proper conclusion. It somehow made me think that Quine did not think highly of women as a general principle and it reflected in the subjects he chose to film.

How to Murder Your Wife: This one has got its share of fans. But I found it to be a thoroughly awful and aggressively unfunny film, soaked and steeped in misogyny. The murder plot did not make any sense at all. Was there any intention to commit a murder in the first place or was it all supposed to be only playacting? The courtroom scene was so whacked out impossible that it bamboozles me as to who watched it and still thought it was a good idea to keep as it is in the final product. Terry-Thomas was bloody terrible as the butler. I suppose the clipped British accent and one-liners are supposed to make me laugh but all they did was make me groan. Virna Lisi's character is purely a prop. If she had been developed in any way, maybe the film could have been salvaged. But I guess that it too much to ask of from the genius mind of George Axelrod that also brought us The Seven Year Itch, another mostly laugh-free and uncomfortable series of shenanigans of a buffoon.

Paris When It Sizzles: This one takes the cake as the bottom of the barrel. I suppose the central idea may have been appealing during a drunken brainstorm session, but the final product is a dire bore and a total chore to sit through. They had the good fortune to cast William Holden and Audrey Hepburn, two people who had good chemistry in real life that could have been successfully replicated on screen but neither was given anything worthwhile to do as bad subplot after bad subplot flitted one after the other on screen. George Axelrod strikes yet again!

On the closing note now... all I can write is that these are my initial opinions. I realize and admit that they are subject to change in the future, for better or worse. But I doubt I would ever rewatch any of these titles anytime soon - even Bell, Book and Candle. These are only my personal opinions, I am not intending to offend anyone, especially fans of Quine.