Not prime Wilder, somehow, but easily tops most people's films. The notion that the star (Dean Martin) can come in and take a wife and that she is treated purely as a sex object, is rather hard to take, (the objection finally voiced in protest by Ray Walston) though of course the path of Wilder and Diamond's screenplay is not straight and all wrongs are redressed. The source is a 1944 play 'L'Ora della Fantasia' by Anna Bonacci, also filmed as Wife for a Night with Gina Lollabrigida in 1952. The ending is a beaut, the beginning has a great visual joke, and there are some fabulous props such as a bottle of buttermilk in the piano, and a ridiculous chianti bottle. Plus a parrot that is a TV addict.
Ray Walston and Cliff Osmond are the budding playwrights, Mrs Lemmon Felicia Farr is superb as the wife and of course so is Kim Novak as 'Polly the Pistol' - it's her enjoyment at being Mrs Walston for the night that gives the film its heart. And the move in which she avoids having her bum slapped twice is beautifully choreographed.
Music Previn, art direction Trauner, photography La Shelle (Panavision). Funny songs from George and Ira Gershwin too.
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