Customer Reviews

How to Murder Your Wife

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"How To Murder Your Wife" is a very entertaining comedy, directed with his usual aplomb by Richard Quine, that provides another excellent vehicle for multi-talented Jack Lemmon. It certainly gives us a snapshot of the mid-sixties--cars, clothes, furniture and, of course, attitudes. Perhaps I should add that the "snapshot" also reflects the affluent lifestyle of someone who can afford a luxurious townhouse in New York City !

Mr. Lemmon plays Stanley Ford, a successful cartoonist and "confirmed bachelor". He wakes up one morning after a crazy bachelor party to find a blonde in his bed ( drop-dead gorgeous Virna Lisi ) , and a wedding ring on her finger--it seems that, while intoxicated, he managed to marry this young woman. To add to his befuddlement, she is Italian and speaks no English. His "very British" butler ( scene-stealing Terry-Thomas ) is "shocked and appalled" and threatens to leave this severely-compromised masculine environment. The rest of the film is dedicated to our hero's attempts to unload the new wife--by legal means or otherwise--and return to the playboy lifestyle that he champions. There is much more to the plot but, unlike at least one other reviewer, I subscribe to the theory that potential viewers do not wish to be told every scene, plot development and situation in advance.

The witty script is accompanied by an excellent cast. I have already mentioned the priceless Terry-Thomas, who also serves as the film's "narrator". Virna Lisi is extremely beautiful and seductive--the scene where she "pops out of the cake" at the bachelor party will still quicken the pulse of any red-blooded male ( and gives rise to the one central flaw in the film--why would any sane guy want to "dump" Ms. Lisi ! ? )! Eddie Mayehoff is hilarious as Mr. Lemmon's not-overly-clever lawyer, sympathetic to his client's plight, but also under the thumb of his domineering wife ( Claire Trevor, adding a fine comic performance to her distinguished film career ). Sidney Blackmer also shines in a small role as a judge who is anything but sober ! Finally--there is Mr. Jack Lemmon ( I still miss him )--having a ball as Stanley Ford, a paranoid, insecure, adolescent guy who only thinks he knows the key to true happiness.

I found the picture quality to be excellent--the sound pretty much what you would expect for a forty-plus year old film. There are no extras, except the trailer. Neal Hefti contributes a nice, jazzy score, reminiscent of his "Odd Couple" music--or perhaps vice versa !

Hopefully, people will not be discouraged by the "politically incorrect" title. This satirical comedy still has more than enough amusing scenes to entertain a modern audience, and the cast is perfect. Try it--you'll like it !

This film will keep you laughing until it hurts. Jack Lemmon at his best with an outstanding supporting cast like they can't find any more. Accused of the murder of his wife, Lemmon fires his lawyer to defend himself - his star witness: the fired lawyer (Eddie Meierhoff). Witness a cross examination to end all cross examinations. The jury had no choice but to acquit! This is the movie that gave us the "gloppita gloppita" machine. Don't miss it - see it as a couple.

This is one of those films that start out seeming to be about one thing, but turn out at the end to be about something else entirely. Jack Lemmon is a confirmed (?) bachelor, living in a town house with his valet, Terry-Thomas, when one morning, after a liquor-soaked bachelor party for a friend the night before, he wakes to find himself married (gulp) to the dazzlingly beautiful Virna Lisi. Trapped in a no-win situation, he cooks up a plot for her murder (only on paper, of course); but, when she disappears, he finds himself on trial for her actual murder. One of the great comedic courtroom scenes follows. When the [spoiler] at the end of the film, you realized that you've been duped -- the film, which seemed to be about the joys of woman-hating, turns out to be about one of the great themes of cinema - "love conquers all". Eddie Mayehoff and Claire Trevor are marvelous in supporing roles.

Although the movie begins saying that "we are gathered here to learn and so you shall and so you shall" at the end of the movie you come out wiser but not of what you expect. I do not want to elaborate as I should not ruin the movie for those who have not seen it. However I am going to say this: it is one of the funniest movies ever that deals with the battle of sexes and you can watch it over and over and overagain . It is that funny. The casting could not have been better while the script is magnificent. Buy it.

A perfect Sunday morning movie, and one that is on my "best movies" list. The characters have been perfectly selected. When one looks around, one sees similar faces, with similar desires, problems and lives. Jack Lemmon portrays a character that many men relate to, admire, and perhaps long to be. His lifestyle is the perfect bachelor's lifestyle. Virna Lisi fits her role perfectly, her being pretty, sexy, innocent and on the road to the "promised land". Lemmon's manservant, Terry-Thomas, is right on the spot, and delightfully displays the bond between the knight and his right-hand man. But my favorite character is Edna. She is real, and she does what the Edna's in this world do. A bold new way to look at "the marital relationship". The "happy ending" appears to be politically correct, decades before that term has been forced down our throats. However, it cleverly "appears to be so", and the director succeeds in giving the message that the movie is meant to actually end at the conclusion of Jack Lemmon's trial. Viewers should pay particular attention to the "gym" and the "gentlemen's club". Many will draw parallel lines to their own environments. Some will re-consider their own lifestyle, and acknowledge what went wrong and where.

This wicked little comedy could never be filmed today, and not merely because the dilemma that Stanley Ford (Jack Lemmon) finds himself in has been all but eliminated by "no fault" divorce laws. As Stanley's butler, Charles Burbank (Terry-Thomas), gleefully announces at the beginning, this is a movie for men only. Women will not appreciate it at all unless they have a good sense of humor; stereotypical feminists would be well advised not to bother.

Stanley Ford, a successful syndicated newspaper cartoonist, is living the perfect Playboy lifestyle: luxurious townhouse, proper manservant, exclusive male only club membership, and, of course, plenty of no-strings-attached sex with beautiful women. The gimmick that makes his comic strip stand out is that Stanley never asks its hero, Bash Brannigan, to do anything he hasn't already done. In practice this means that he personally acts out his various capers with the assistance of hired actors while being photographed by his butler and uses said photographs as guides when drawing his strip.

However, at a funereal bachelor party for a friend that turns into a wild celebration after the bride calls the wedding off, an intoxicated Ford proposes to the lady hired to jump out of the cake, the always stunning Virna Lisi. He wakes up married to her. Divorce is out of the question because she is Italian (Roman Catholic) and hopelessly in love with him. Charles storms out, and Stanley's playboy lifestyle is swept away as Mrs. Ford plies him with delicious cooking and sex. Various misadventures follow to both Stanley and the now also married Bash Brannigan as Edna Lampson (Claire Trevor), battleaxe wife of Stanley's lawyer and friend, Harold Lampson (a hysterically henpecked Eddie Mayehoff), takes Mrs. Ford under her wing and teaches her how to be a full fledged harpy.

After an Edna-inspired Mrs. Ford costs Stanley his club membership he announces that Bash Brannigan at least isn't going to take it anymore. What follows is Stanley acting out the various parts of his alter ego's murder plans, but when Mrs. Ford reads the final comic strips and guesses that they reflect Stanley's true feelings, she takes off her wedding ring and disappears. Stanley gets arrested for his missing wife's murder, and a hapless Lampson gets nowhere in defending him. What follows is one of the funniest courtroom scenes in movie history as Stanley takes over his own defense and launches a last desperate ploy to stave off certain conviction. A few final twists round out this dated but delicious little comedy that turns out to be a lot less subversive than you might have thought.

This is one to own! Lemmon doesn't miss a beat as the professed batchelor/cartoonist trying to figure out how he got married and what to do about it. I have watched this movie countless times and never get tired of it.

Another masterpiece written by George Axelrod (Lord Love A Duck, 7 Year Itch, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?), this film is the penultimate sex comedy of its day. This was made when Hollywood actually made films about adults, before youth culture erased that demographic, never to return. The scenes of the war between the sexes have never been funnier, culminating in the great courtroom scene where a juror is goaded by Lemmon to push an imaginary button that would erase his wife, and the juror yelling at his wife, "Shut up, you old bat!," as he gleefully pushes it. The scenes of Lemmon's bachelor pad are priceless, if only that's how comic artists really lived!This is essential viewing, next ot A Guide to the Married Man.

There is absolutely nothing like good-natured satire for escape from the pressures of the workaday world, which insists on everyone being reasonable and restrained in their ire toward others. In the genre of high satire, "How to Murder Your Wife" takes one poke after another at the guys AND their ladies, both of whose unrealistic expectations toward one another periodically drive each other to the brink of ... could it be MURDER? This is STRICTLY for laughs -- and of course, paradoxically the best laughs come when a good moral results from the logical playing out of the perfectly orchestrated tomfoolery in this classic film.

We need satire -- much more than we think -- to remain good-natured, even sane. It alone gives us the perspective to let down our self-righteous hair and laugh at ourselves. One is only certain that he has a friend when his friend isn't afraid to insult him once in awhile! Remember the profound psychological function of the Medieval court jester, alone of the King's subjects who could ridicule the King mercilessly ... and so keep him human in aspect. The Marx Brothers knew themselves to be Society's collective court jesters with a holy mission to insult the upper classes, who were taking themselves so perilously seriously in the '20s and '30s.

So, may our insecurities of male and female social prerogatives vanish in a cloud of wholesome laughter in this ingenious stroke of good will -- and may we benefit from more and more good satire in future productions. For it is the perfect irony of this film that its theme is actually the passionate pursuit of harmony between the sexes, and not their mutual demise. Ah, give us a second helping of wit, Sir Terry Thomas!

I've seen this movie at least 6 times. When channel surfing, this movie will win out over almost any other movie or program. The witty dialog, engaging characters and wonderful sets really make this a great movie. Watch it alone or with friends. You won't be sorry!