Kiss Them for Me

I would like to second the opinion of that stalwart minority who appreciate the beautiful and vastly underrated performance of Suzy Parker. The majority opinion is that she was stiff, wooden, unapproachable, or simply incompetent as an actress. But one must consider the character she was playing: a beautiful, almost aristocratic young woman who suddenly finds herself carried away by a world-weary, war-weary, bitter, yet still idealistic Cary Grant. What would one expect her do in this situation: instantly fall into Grant's arms? Anyone watching this movie with an open mind and an open heart will see Ms. Parker slowly getting used to Grant's poignant style, and slowly readjusting her view of life just enough to fall in love with him. Parker eventually leaves her fiance in the movie because Grant is everything her fiance is not, and because he is willing to live his navy life as fully and as idealistically as he can; Parker's beautiful face reflects, even without words, the total impact that Grant's personality is having on her. Hers is a wonderful performance, one that was, alas, scarcely appreciated by the critics.

Kiss Them For Me has a lot to offer - Cary Grant, Stanley Donen (Singin' in the Rain, Charade) as director, and Julius Epstein (Casablanca, Arsenic & Old Lace) as screenwriter - but it never really lives up to its potential. There are some funny moments here and there, but the film is more of a drama with comic elements, and the balance doesn't always work well. Viewers expecting one of Cary Grant's great comedic romps will be disappointed. Still, it's not a bad film, just an uneven one.

The story is about three Navy fliers, each considered a "war hero," who embark on a four-day leave in San Francisco. They secure the "Ambassador's Suite" in a fine hotel and order up tons of liquor for their large, rowdy parties, where there are three women for every man. In the end, however, they don't get to relax and momentarily forget the war as much as they have to deal with the awkwardness between the civilian world and their own. They also have to confront the reality of life after the war. Grant, in particular, realizes that he's good at what he does (flying planes), and he's giving himself to a worthy cause that's bigger than himself, neither of which he may be able to do outside of the Pacific theatre. He's offered more than one chance to turn his reputation as a war hero into a cushy job, but he sees the emptiness and boredom that waits for him in the normal American lifestyle. Instead of talking with the powerful owner of a shipbuilding company who could help him with his financial future, he sits on the floor listening to jazz and flirting with the owner's fiancée.

Unfortunately, Donen and Epstein don't seem to trust these dramatic elements and inject a poorly developed romance into the film, which undoes some otherwise good writing and leads, finally, to a flat ending. Maybe if they'd found a suitable female lead to play off Grant, the romance would have worked better, but Suzy Parker is stiff and wooden on screen, and her character grows wearisome after a while. The best that can be said for her is that she provides a little relief from the grating presence of Jayne Mansfield, who is described in the original 1957 NY Times review of the film as, "grotesque, artificial, noisy, distasteful - and dull." And that pretty much sums it up. In the original play on Broadway, in 1945, these two women characters were evidently blended into one, played "with brilliance" by a young Judy Holliday. Oh, for a woman of her grace, wit and energy in this film version. (As a side note, Judy co-starred in the play with Richard Widmark, who played Crewson.)

In the end, though, there is still Cary Grant. He saves the film from being a total waste of time. And Epstein's script has some wonderful gems scattered here and there. Also, the camaraderie between Grant and his two Navy buddies, one of them played by Ray Walston, works well most of the time. For those interested in a 50's drama about Navy fliers, you're better off watching The Bridges at Toko-Ri, with William Holden and Grace Kelly. If you want a great Cary Grant comedy, try his much better effort with Julius Epstein - Arsenic & Old Lace. If you've seen just about everything else with Cary in it, and you want something different, this one will do in a fix.

Three Pacific war heroes Cary Grant, Larry Blyden, and Ray Walston, are flown to San Francisco for a furlough with the implicit understanding that they will do some public appearances for the war effort. Implicit to us the viewer, but our three naval fliers have something else in mind.

Despite being terribly miscast, Cary Grant does the best he can with the material given. This is the kind of role that Kirk Douglas should have had, he'd have played the role effortlessly. When the dapper Mr. Grant finally has had enough of blowhard industrialist Leif Erickson and hauls off and belts him, you just don't quite believe it.

I like very much what another reviewer wrote in saying we can see the beginning of the military industrial complex. Werner Klemperer as the Navy publicity ensign is trying first to curry favor with Erickson and later with the less obnoxious, but still annoying Richard Deacon. It's a world that Grant and Blyden don't feel a part of.

Though he's with them in spirit, Ray Walston's carving his own career out by running for Congress. Some did that in World War II and in previous USA wars, most prominently in the Civil War. Two American presidents, Rutherford B. Hayes and James A. Garfield won seats in Congress while both were on active duty. Garfield left the army, but Hayes stayed and didn't take his seat until Appomatox.

When this film was out Larry Blyden was appearing on Broadway in Flower Drum Song. No doubt that helped the film's popularity for Blyden got excellent reviews.

And of course the pulchritudinous presence of Jayne Mansfield also helped a great deal.

Even with a miscast Cary Grant, Kiss Them For Me is still enjoyable.

Kiss Them for Me (1957)

"Funny how everybody picks him out first." Ah, they are talking about Cary Grant, still charming and handsome and far outclassing this funny, slightly simple comedy about G.I.s on leave in San Francisco.

Not that this is exactly dumb--the screenplay is even by one of the Epstein brothers (of "Casablanca" fame), and it has a few real dingers of jokes. I was laughing in stitches--sometimes. It's silly stuff but the acting is decent. The photography is by Milton Krasner, who had a long career in the black and white years and then took to widescreen color with classic taste, just finishing "An Affair to Remember" (with Grant) the same year. The credits go on, from makeup (Ben Nye) to music (Lionel Newman) to of course the director, Stanley Donen, who had a whole string of brightly colored 1950s hits, little things like "Singin' in the Rain" and "Charade."

What I mean by all this is that there is no reason this movie isn't terrific, except maybe a weak as licorice story idea. Maybe, just maybe, this had resonance in 1957 with the millions of ex-soldiers still going to the movies, but I have a feeling even they were wanting something more, over a decade after it had all ended. It also doesn't help that one leading female star is Jayne Mansfield playing an embarrassing Marilyn wannabe. "It's natural," says Mansfield in one moment. "Except for the color."

The other leading woman is quite the opposite in nature, a stately, restrained woman played by Suzy Parker. Parker has a short resume, mostly known as a model (with Avedon as her partner in crime), and her acting reveals more knowledge of photography than movie-making. That is, she looks good. (She was actually an accomplished photographer for awhile, too.)

So, why watch this movie? For a glimpse of the times, perhaps (a kind of 1957 version of 1944, I think), including lots of great sets and some shots of San Francisco. But mostly it's Cary Grant's show, even if you aren't a fan. He's actually really good as an actor, not just as a handsome fellow. He plays his part with surprising bite, too.

So what rescues this movie from its fault lines? For one, there's a steady, subtle anti-war thread that must have been relatively new to this kind of movie. There's no disrespect to soldiers or the country, but there's disdain for wallpapering over the truths of war, the use of slogans, the aggrandizing. It's refreshing still, and coming from Grant it has special bite. For another, there is a steady peppering of witty lines from all kinds of characters (not just Grant, though he leads). I'm guessing this is where Epstein shows. And then there is the love story, which isn't so convincing, but it's still a nice addition to the bright color and busy scenes that dominate the movie. In fact, as much as Parker is a weak actress, she and Grant alone together make for some of the best parts of the film.

Grant says, "True love almost always fades, but money stays green forever." And it's his sarcasm, his not believing the slogan, that is the theme of the movie.

A good cast (with one major exception) pushes its way through Epstein's smart light satire. Mansfield was never better, or funnier, than she is here paired with Walston, who's a veteran who's determined to become a congressman to get out of the war. He and his buddies -- including suave con-artist Grant -- head to San Francisco on leave and start the city's swinginest party while conniving to escape the service altogether through industrial speaking tours. The only thing about this movie that's not delightful is Suzy Parker's one-note performance as Grant's love interest, which takes up too much of the film's time and slows down the pace in the second half. Walston and Mansfield have good chemistry; the gimmick is that she's set on making love to every serviceman (to do her duty for the war effort, of course) but he's a married man who, nonetheless, loves his wife. They steal the movie with little trouble from Grant (who's amusing here in the first part of the film, when not paired with his non-actor co-star.