What are your opinions on the films of Richard Quine?
Jul 20, 2021 15:57:26 GMT
london777 and Hurdy Gurdy Man like this
Post by Isapop on Jul 20, 2021 15:57:26 GMT
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.
Just a few thoughts here. Yes, soaked in misogyny, and even fairly late (1965) to be excused as simply a product of its time.
I don't think there was any intended murder. He was just acting it out, as always, for the sake of his comic strip.
Anything funny? I'd say Eddie Mayehoff as Lemmon's friend and attorney was funny.
And about The Seven Year Itch: It would have had some laughs and far less discomfort if the studio had allowed Billy Wilder his preference to cast (the unknown) Walter Matthau in the lead. Wilder wanted him, and Matthau would have been perfect. His comic abilities and appeal would have improved the movie immeasurably (and made him a star eleven years sooner).