Tout commença par un baiser

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!

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.

I saw this film with my parents at a drive-in in 1959, and I was mesmerized by the fabulous Lincoln Futura, the best of the 1950s "dream cars".

As a devoted sci-fi fan, this car was the very essence of the "future". The Futura implied predictions of a future similar to those presented in movies like "Forbidden Planet". It was an example of the kind of superior technological design which I eagerly anticipated in the decades to come.

Predictions like this were why I loved to watch Disney shows like "Mars and Beyond", "Tomorrow the Moon", and "Magic Highway USA".

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.

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 ****