HOW TO MURDER YOUR WIFE
US, 1964, 118 minutes, Colour.
Jack Lemmon, Virna Lisi, Terry-Thomas?, Eddie Mayehoff, Sidney Blackmer, Claire Trevor.
Directed by Richard Quine.
How To Murder Your Wife is an amusing sex comedy farce of the '60s, typical of many films that Jack Lemmon made during this period e.g. Under The Yum Yum Tree, Good Neighbour Sam. He is very adept at this kind of comedy. The film introduced Virna Lisi to American audiences. However, the supporting cast of Terry-Thomas? as an English butler and Eddie Mayehoff and Claire Trevor are excellent. The screenplay was written by George Axelrod, author of such comedies as The Seven Year Itch, Lord Love a Duck, and The Secret Life of an American Wife. The film has an added bonus in its background of Lemmon being a cartoon writer and having dry runs to illustrate how well the cartoon would work. This provides a great deal of comedy as does Terry-Thomas?. The film is a little dated in its comedy of manners 60's style but is nevertheless quite enjoyable.
1. The significance and tone of the title, its irony? The relationship of the film and its title to comic strips? The personal touch and Charles' initial confidentiality? How were audiences enticed into participating in the film and its plot?
2. The importance of colour, Panavision, New York settings, the apartment, the settings for comic strips and their enactment? An environment for a comic strip writer? An environment for this kind of film? A very city film?
3. Was there a comic strip style in the film itself, the actual acting out for the comic strips? Audience response to this and its consequent artificiality?
4. The importance of Charles especially during the credits? His very personal and confidential tone? A framework for the issues of the film, especially men-women relationships and marriage? Terry-Thomas' contribution, his British clipped tone, American awe for the English butler? The character of Charles, his contribution to Stanley Ford's way of life, his participation in photographing the comic strips, his comedy style, the irony of his regretting Stanley's marriage? How credible was his own flirtation at the end?
5. Stanley as a man about town, the way this was visualised at the beginning, his not wanting a wife, the adolescent who acted out his adventures in comic strips? The creative American producing comic strips? The great following that he had e.g. the men on the building site outside? Jack Lemmon as the typical American hero?
6. How telling was the humour about marriage? The ironic dialogue and comments, the men's party before the marriage ceremony, the comments of the judge?
7. The irony of Stanley's actually getting married? The effect on his way of life? His wife redesigning his home, her emphasis on food, his need for exercise, sexuality? The effect on Stanley, the effect on Charles? The humour of their fighting? Stanley's trying to conceal his wife, and then succumbing?
8. How attractive was the wife? The irony of her coming out in the cake, the marriage? Her inability to speak English, her voluble Italian? Her background, the competition for cooking, her clothes? The transformation with new clothes, her redesigning the how, her emphasis on food and overfeeding Stanley, her continued interest in sex? Loving Stanley? Thriving on marriage? The humour of watching television to learn English? How credible a character? How much comic strip character?
9. The importance of Stanley making his hero a married man, drawing his own adventures? The satire on marriage? The plot for murder? The importance of the trial run and the way that it was photographed?
1O.The human touch with the wife being hurt and disappearing? The irony of Stanley on trial? The twisting of evidence to condemn him, especially that of his friend, especially Harold's?
11.The contribution of Harold and Edna? The irony of the middle-aged married couple? The character of each, Harold's work and support? Edna's support of Stanley's wife? The importance of their appearing in the court sequences? Harold's wishful thinking and Edna's reaction?
12. Comment on the irony of Stanley's winning the case for the wrong reason? The presentation of male chauvinism? The members of the jury, the judge etc.?
13. How credible was the wife's return? Stanley's missing her and the reconciliation? The wife's mother arriving and her bid for Charles? Was this reconciliation too sentimental for what went before? Or was it a particularly American touch?
14. The exploration of themes of men and women and their relationships, marriage, traditions and modern morality, love and selfishness? How effective when explored in comedy?
