L'extravagant M. Phillips

This isn't a good movie to watch if you are the type that is annoyed by plot holes or silly and contrived situations. The basic story is pretty hard to believe, but in spite of this, the film is a lot of fun to watch due to the wonderful acting of this ensemble cast. In other words, it's a great example of the sum total of the film being better than the individual parts. Taking JUST the plot, the film is pretty dumb and contrived. After all, David Niven plays a neurotic and persnickety concert pianist who has become an absentee landlord of a high-rise apartment complex. Okay,....but when he then agrees to leave his posh home and visit the complex and then gets pulled into the giant family-like atmosphere that exists there, the film throws believability out the window. BUT, I strongly advise you not to give up on the film. Sure, it's contrived but the bit characters and leading characters' parts are written and performed so well, you will likely quickly forget about how silly the film is and get sucked into the comedy-romance of the film.

David Niven is just wonderful as the pianist who ultimately falls for sweet and perky Jane Wyman. Both are excellent and the chemistry actually works--even though common sense might have you think "David Niven AND Jane Wyman,....NO WAY,...it'll never happen!".

As for the rest of the cast, they are a motley group of bit characters and supporting actors that give the film a nice, sweet homey atmosphere. In particular, Victor Moore as the sweet but daffy 'Mr. Willoughby' was a delight--so cute and nice--you just can't help but like him.

Special mention should also be given to the director, Delmer Daves. Considering how stupid the plot was, he got the absolute most out of the material and the cast.

So, my recommendation is that despite the score of 6 (it just didn't merit more due to the plot), it is well worth seeing--especially if you love old films and are a softy at heart. Enjoy.

David Niven is an isolated concert pianist who is swept into the lives of apartment house residents in "A Kiss in the Dark," also starring Jane Wyman. Niven is excellent as a man who knows no other world than that of the concert stage and the practice room, and his handlers like it that way. When an apartment manager visits him, Niven learns that one of his investments is The Cleopatra Apartments. One look at Jane Wyman in her shorts and Niven decides not to be an absentee landlord.

This is a very entertaining comedy, and I agree with previous posters that there are laugh out loud scenes. Some of the comedy is provided by, of all people, Broderick Crawford as a subletter who works at night and sleeps -- or tries to -- all day. It's a different role for Crawford, and he does it very well.

Wyman is very pretty and vivacious as an apartment dweller who falls for Niven, and the two have wonderful chemistry. Handsome Wayne Morris is her insurance salesman boyfriend. This isn't the most fabulous film you'll ever see, but it's a fun one.

David Niven, a concert pianist, has just acquired a new property, that of a hotel building called Cleopatra Arms. I forget the details of how or why, but the place turns out to be anything but normal. He goes to see the place, after getting a visit from the hotel manager Victor Moore about getting repairs fixed for the building inspector. David winds up inspecting Jane Wyman, a tenant in her short shorts, and they instantly hit it off, despite the fact she already has a boyfriend, played by Wayne Morris. Broderick Crawford is a tenant who works by night, so he must sleep by day, and is very obnoxious about everyone making too much noise. There is a very funny bit about David practicing his piano playing next door to Crawford's room in an attempt to get the brute to move. In fact, I enjoyed the whole film, as it was very lighthearted and fun, with David being put in the position of Boy Scout leader, when he takes a group of boys on a hike and David, of course, knows nothing about such outdoor techniques of building a lean-to shelter. A sweet and satisfying little winner this is with Jane and David and a kiss in the dark....

In A Kiss In The Dark David Niven is cast as a concert pianist whose business manager Joseph Buloff handles his many diversified investments which among other things a brownstone apartment building called The Cleopatra Arms. Acting as superintendent of the place and also one of the tenants is Victor Moore. When Moore comes calling one day Niven finds out about his ownership and gets to meet some of the many tenants there including perky model Jane Wyman.

It isn't too long before Niven is involved throughly with the lives and fortunes of all the tenants there. Among others are Wyman's boyfriend Wayne Morris and an irascible Broderick Crawford who has a problem getting to sleep.

We're never told what his job is, but Crawford works a graveyard shift job and comes home and wants a little shut eye. The comedy around him centers on his irascibility due to sleep deprivation. I'm not sure how funny that is, I had sympathy for the guy. Nevertheless all the other tenants want him out and Niven finds a way to oblige.

With Victor Herbert's melody weaving in an out of the soundtrack and serving as title and theme for the film, A Kiss In The Dark is a slight but amusing comedy that in the hands of a director better suited for comedy might have worked better. Certainly David Niven has gotten worse material and managed to make it work.

A Kiss In The Dark was the farewell film of Maria Ouspenskaya who plays Niven's original piano teacher. Maria whose career went back to the Russian Art Theater was killed in a house fire the same year A Kiss In The Dark came out.

One hopes that David Niven held on to the Cleopatra Arms. What it would be worth today is incalculable. A lot more than the film.

A Kiss in the Dark isn't a very nice movie. How can a movie not be nice, you ask? It makes fun of an intellectual because he doesn't know his way around the great outdoors like a boy scout. A character works the graveyard shift and wishes his neighbors to be quiet during the day so he can sleep, and instead of sympathy, the neighbors purposely make as much noise as possible to drive him away. Infidelity is brushed under the rug, and if the main character's lines were said by someone other than David Niven, he'd probably come across as callous.

In the film, David Niven is a world-famous concert pianist, but after twenty-one years of performances, he wants a break. Somehow, he finds out he's accidentally purchased an apartment complex, and the manager, Victor Moore, asks him to help fix the shabby place. The physical structure is in tatters, it's out of money, and the tenants don't get along. But, since David Niven meets Jane Wyman during his first visit, and since he can't stop staring at her lovely legs, he agrees to put his normal life on hold and devote all his time and energy to the apartment's problems.

Jane actually looks pretty cute in this movie, and has much more energy than she usually does. The Niv is always darling, but his talents are wasted in this silly romantic comedy. There are a couple of cute jokes, sprinkled in among the eye-rolling slapstick gags and rather mean-spirited main plot points. Jane baulks that The Niv thinks he's better than everyone else; she says, "He's not the President of the United States!" which, if you remember who she used to be married to, will make you laugh. And, in my favorite part of the movie, David Niven shows her his travel keyboard, saying when he travels without it he doesn't know what to do with himself. Jane looks him up and down, smiles, and tosses the keyboard aside.

All in all, this one's very silly. Jane fans can watch Three Guys Named Mike, Niv fans can watch Happy Go Lovely, and Victor fans can watch Swing Time instead.