Começou Com um Beijo

I'll admit, the main reason I watched this was for the car. As is mentioned in the Trivia Section, the car in question is a Lincoln dream car from the mid 1950's. Very rarely do these cars make appearances in the `real world', as most don't really function. They usually have no engine, or are made from some material that would be ruined if actually driven. These cars spend their life on a turntable at an auto show with fashion models in, or on them. After they serve their purpose, they get destroyed, or stored. Few, if any turn up in movies, as this Lincoln did, and then go on to TV stardom, as well! Ford later sold the car to custom car designer George Barris, and it became the basis for the Batmobile in the TV series "Batman". And if you were a kid like me at the time, IT was the star of the show. Sorry Batman and Robin!

This is what was best described as a `Bedroom Comedy'. Rock Hudson, and Doris Day made movies like this, with a light amount of `sexual tension' sewn into a light comedy movie. You never saw 'anything', it was left to the viewers imagination, what happened.

The film itself is decent enough. I like most anything that Glenn Ford did, and Debbie Reynolds turns in another good performance here. The supporting cast is peppered with plenty of folks who, like the car, went on to fame on TV, Eva Gabor, Harry Morgan, Edgar Buchanan, and of course, Francis Bavier.

The country side of Spain is beautiful, the acting is competent, so I'll give it a 6 out of 10.

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.

The main attraction going for this film is the futuristic car shown in it, which for 1959 looked way ahead of its times. The comedy, as directed by George Marshall tries to be a movie exploiting the sexual tensions between the two stars. The same premise was achieved with better results in other films of the era, notably, "Pillow Talk".

The mere idea of a young married couple putting such a barrier between their sexual life is risible, at best. The two stars, Debbie Reynolds and Glenn Ford try their best, but are bogged down because of the screen play.

As someone has already noted, the film shows in minor roles actors that went to better careers in television. Eva Gabor, Harry Morgan, Edgar Buchanan, Frances Bavier, among them.

The basic excuse for watching the film is the car and some views of Spain, as it looked in the late fifties. In fact, a woman in slacks, as we see Ms. Reynolds at the beginning of the film, as she arrived in Madrid, was a big no-no in the Spanish society of the time. Things have changed since then!

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!

Glenn Ford is 43 and has been a sergeant for approximately twenty-five years. What is wrong with him?

Again, young female talent is paired with much older male talent at MGM -- a pattern that is so often repeated that it is the norm.

This could have been something that stood out, but instead follows the MGM pattern circumspectly. Reynolds is good in her role; why not give her a young male star to play off? Instead, MGM gives her a daddy, just like in most all other musicals they produced.

This is a waste of Debbie Reynolds' talent, although she does sparkle when she is alone and can sing.