Começou Com um Beijo

Besides being a slightly better-than-average romantic comedy, this movie features several very familiar television supporting stars -- if you're an old coot like me anyway! -- including Eva Gabor ("Green Acres"), Edgar Buchanan ("Petticoat Junction"), Harry Morgan ("Dragnet" and "M*A*S*H"), Frances Bavier ("The Andy Griffith Show"), Richard Deacon ("The Dick Van Dyke Show"), Marion Ross ("Happy Days"), and last, but not least, the Batmobile!

All in all, a mildly entertaining time capsule of days gone bye, bye; the "good old days" when couples married so they could have "legitimate" sex.

Debbie Reynolds, a chorus line cutie is at her perky peak, and Glenn Ford, an Air Force sergeant, is his usual dull-as-dishwater leading man.

This genre of bedroom farce popular with 1950s' audiences is full of contrived complications, titillating juvenile sexual innuendo but is overall wholesome movie fare.

If the Catholic arbiters of morality objected to this movie upon its release, I wonder how the fiery red futuristic car passed condemnation? It's the sexiest thing in the movie. What a babe to ride! Ford's commanding officer tells him the State Department deems the car too "splendiferous." This Lincoln concept car certainly had star power; it went on to be cast as the infamous Batmobile.

As the backdrop for the film is Spain, how could the cultural trope of the heroic bullfighter not be included? So that's inserted into the high jinks too. Olé!

I missed this one when it was released, being warned away by mostly negative reviews and the objections of the Catholic censorship body of the time. (I believe some facsimile had replaced the dreaded Legion of Decency by 1959, the year of its release.) The prudes objected to the generally "suggestive" tone of the proceedings and, after watching it on a Turner Classic Movies broadcast recently, I can see why their knickers got into a twist. Even by today's much more relaxed standards, its situations and its treatment of marriage are pretty sleazy.

It's a rather lame "bedroom farce" that makes poor use of the talents of nearly everyone involved and its main redeeming assets are the location shots of several Spanish cities and its countryside and the gorgeous Lincoln Futura concept car (which lost its eye-popping fire engine red paint job when it was transformed into the Batmobile for the campy Batman TV series).

For some reason M-G-M brass at the time thought that the chemistry between Glenn Ford (dull as dishwater, as usual, and sporting one of the worst and greasiest-looking haircuts on a leading man ever) and a very pert and pretty Debbie Reynolds was worth exploiting. Their second co-starring vehicle, "The Gazebo," was rushed into production and released just four months after this one. Debbie was soon free of her M-G-M contract and went on to appear in somewhat worthier enterprises at virtually all the other major Hollywood studios, with an occasional return to her launching pad at Metro.

Half-price showgirl in New York, pining for a millionaire husband, marries lovestruck, underpaid Air Force sergeant on the eve of his departure for peacetime duty in Madrid; she follows, bringing misunderstandings, comic embarrassments and a "car from the future" with her. Sex-based shenanigans for stars Glenn Ford and Debbie Reynolds is pleasant enough, particularly for the first 45mns or so; after that, it deflates. Debbie, thinking she and Ford married for the wrong reason (sex), decides they should be platonic for a month--leaving Glenn to sleep on the sofa (after taking a cold shower). Movies based on misconceptions between characters have to be awfully smart to keep our interest (and keep us laughing), but this script by Charles Lederer, based on a Valentine Davies story, seems about 10 years out of touch. Ford thinks Debbie means she's pregnant when she writes that she has a big surprise, even though they've only been married for a month. When he meets her at the airport, she tells him the surprise could arrive the next day...and he STILL thinks she's talking about a baby! It's all in good fun, but these actors are much too smart to palmed off as dummies. ** from ****

Air Force staff sergeant Joe Fitzpatrick (Glenn Ford) meets showgirl Maggie Putnam (Debbie Reynolds) at a charity. She's trying to find a rich man, but he won't take no for an answer. He plants a magical first kiss on her and she falls head over heels.

I'm sure that back in the day, Joe is seen as playful and romantic. That's how I choose to see him. Debbie Reynolds remains endearing even as a gold-digger. She's not a gold-digger for that long anyways. The meet-cute is definitely eventful. This is fine as a rom-com. For comic book fans, the car's first appearance would immediately strike you dead. It's the Batmobile. For that, this will go down in cinematic history.