Strangers When We Meet | |
---|---|
Directed by | Richard Quine |
Written by | Evan Hunter |
Produced by | Richard Quine |
Starring | Kirk Douglas Kim Novak Ernie Kovacs Barbara Rush Walter Matthau |
Cinematography | Charles Lang |
Edited by | Charles Nelson |
Music by | George Duning |
Production companies | Bryna Productions Quine Productions |
Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 117 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $3,400,000 (US/ Canada) [1] |
Strangers When We Meet is a 1960 American drama film about two married neighbors who have an affair. The movie was adapted by Evan Hunter from his novel of the same name and directed by Richard Quine. The film stars Kirk Douglas, Kim Novak, Ernie Kovacs, Barbara Rush and Walter Matthau.
The picture was filmed in Los Angeles, with scenes shot in Beverly Hills, Brentwood, Bel Air, Santa Monica and Malibu.
Larry Coe is a Los Angeles architect who is married with two kids. He has a very bright wife, Eve. She is ambitious for him, but he wants to do work that is more imaginative than the commercial buildings that he has been designing. He meets with Roger Altar, an author, to discuss building a house that will be an "experiment" and something Coe wants to do more of, something original.
Maggie Gault is one of his neighbors; her son is friends with his. She tells Larry that she has seen some of his previously constructed houses and thinks that the more unconventional houses are the best. This encouragement is what he needs from his wife but has not been able to get.
Both Larry and Maggie are generally dissatisfied with their marriages. Larry's wife is too hard-headed and practical, and Maggie's husband is not interested in having sex with her. So they have an affair that involves meeting in secret. They both know what they are doing is wrong, and they are devoted to their children.
Felix Anders is a neighbor who snoops around and finds out about their affair. His leering and insinuations make Larry realize the risks that he is taking. He tells Maggie that they should not see each other for a while. Felix, in the meantime, makes a play for Larry's wife. In a way, Felix is a personification of the tawdriness of Larry and Maggie's affair. Eve has no interest in Felix's advances and rejects him in dramatic fashion. In the aftermath, she comes to terms with the fact that Larry has been unfaithful. After confronting him, they agree to stay together and move to Hawaii, where Larry has been offered a job to design a city.
Altar's house is finished but still empty. After Larry phones her, Maggie makes one last appointment to meet him at the newly completed home. Maggie is exploring the outside of the house and peeking through the windows when Larry arrives. They talk about how they can never be together. Larry wishes that he and Maggie could live in the house; if they did, he would surround it with a moat and never leave it. Maggie says that she loves him.
The contractor for the house arrives and thinks Maggie is Larry's wife. They both take a moment to savor the irony of his remark, and Maggie drives away.
Art director Ross Bellah elected to have a real house built for the one that Larry Coe is designing for Roger Altar in the film. Bellah, with architect Carl Anderson, designed an all-wood 3,800-square-foot house and had it built on a hillside lot in Bel Air. [2] The filming schedule had to be closely aligned with the house's construction schedule because the house was an important element of the plot, and scenes had to be filmed at various stages of construction. The house, at 930 Chantilly Road, Los Angeles, still stands.
Variety said that the film is "...easy on the eyes but hard on the intellect...an old-fashioned soap opera", and that "It is a rather pointless, slow-moving story, but it has been brought to the screen with such skill that it charms the spectator into an attitude of relaxed enjoyment, much the same effect as that produced by a casual daydream fantasy". [3] Time magazine called the movie "pure tripe". [4] "Unvaried strangulated hush" is how film critic Stanley Kauffmann, in The New Republic , described Novak's diction. [5] Craig Butler at AllMovie says that Douglas "seems a little out of place", and that the screenplay is "predictable". [6]
Walter Matthau was an American screen and stage actor, known for his "hangdog face" and for playing world-weary characters. He starred in 10 films alongside his real-life friend Jack Lemmon, including The Odd Couple (1968) and Grumpy Old Men (1993). The New York Times called this "one of Hollywood's most successful pairings". Among other accolades, he was an Academy Award, a two-time BAFTA Award, and two-time Tony Award winner.
The Shop Around the Corner is a 1940 American romantic comedy-drama film produced and directed by Ernst Lubitsch and starring Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart and Frank Morgan. The screenplay was written by Samson Raphaelson based on the 1937 Hungarian play Parfumerie by Miklós László. Eschewing regional politics in the years leading up to World War II, the film is about two employees at a leathergoods shop in Budapest who can barely stand each other, not realizing they are falling in love as anonymous correspondents through their letters.
Marilyn Pauline "Kim" Novak is an American retired film and television actress and painter. Her contributions to cinema have been honored with two Golden Globe Awards, an Honorary Golden Bear, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
The Odd Couple is a play by Neil Simon. Following its premiere on Broadway in 1965, the characters were revived in a successful 1968 film and 1970s television series, as well as several other derivative works and spin-offs. The plot concerns two mismatched roommates: the neat, uptight Felix Ungar and the slovenly, easygoing Oscar Madison. Simon adapted the play in 1985 to feature a pair of female roommates in The Female Odd Couple. An updated version of the 1965 show appeared in 2002 with the title Oscar and Felix: A New Look at the Odd Couple.
Hopscotch is a 1980 American comedy spy film, produced by Edie Landau and Ely A. Landau, directed by Ronald Neame, that stars Walter Matthau, Glenda Jackson, Sam Waterston, Ned Beatty, and Herbert Lom. The screenplay was written by Bryan Forbes and Brian Garfield, based on Garfield's 1975 novel of the same name.
Richard Quine was an American director, actor, and singer.
Blast from the Past is a 1999 American romantic comedy science fantasy adventure film directed and co-produced by Hugh Wilson, based on a story by Wilson –who co-wrote the screenplay with Bill Kelly– and starring Brendan Fraser, Alicia Silverstone, Christopher Walken, Sissy Spacek, and Dave Foley. The film focuses on Adam Webber, who was born and brought up in a Cold War-era fallout shelter built by his survivalist, anti-Communist father. After 35 years Adam emerges into the modern world, where his innocence and old-fashioned views put him at comedic odds with others.
The Odd Couple II is a 1998 American buddy comedy film and the sequel to the 1968 film The Odd Couple. It was the final film written and produced by Neil Simon, and starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. Released nearly three decades later, it is unique among sequels for having one of the longest gaps between the release of both films in which all leads return. The Odd Couple II premiered on April 10, 1998, and was a critical and commercial failure, grossing less than half than its predecessor at the box office.
William Henry Wright was an American actor. He was frequently cast in Westerns and as a curmudgeonly and argumentative old man. Over the course of his career, Wright appeared in more than 200 film and television roles.
The Odd Couple is a 1968 American comedy film directed by Gene Saks, produced by Howard W. Koch and written by Neil Simon, based on his 1965 play. It stars Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau as two divorced men – neurotic neat-freak Felix Unger and fun-loving slob Oscar Madison – who decide to live together.
Lawrence Keating was an American actor best known for his roles as Harry Morton on The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show, which he played from 1953 to 1958, and next-door neighbor Roger Addison on Mister Ed, which he played from 1961 until his death in 1963.
A Guide for the Married Man is a 1967 American bedroom-farce comedy film directed by Gene Kelly and starring Walter Matthau, Robert Morse and Inger Stevens. It features many cameos, including those by Lucille Ball, Jack Benny, Terry-Thomas, Jayne Mansfield, Sid Caesar, Carl Reiner, Joey Bishop, Art Carney and Wally Cox. The title song, performed by the Turtles, was composed by John Williams with lyrics by Leslie Bricusse.
The Notorious Landlady is a 1962 American comedy mystery film starring Kim Novak, Jack Lemmon, and Fred Astaire. The film was directed by Richard Quine, with a script by Blake Edwards and Larry Gelbart based on the short story "The Notorious Tenant" by Margery Sharp.
Peacock is a 2010 American psychological thriller directed by Michael Lander, written by Lander and Ryan Roy, and starring Cillian Murphy, Elliot Page and Susan Sarandon.
The Wedding Night is a 1935 American romantic tragedy film directed by King Vidor and starring Gary Cooper and Anna Sten. Written by Edith Fitzgerald and based on a story by Edwin H. Knopf, the film is about a financially strapped novelist who returns to his country home in Connecticut looking for inspiration for his next novel and becomes involved with a beautiful young Polish woman and her family.
Ross Bellah was an American art director, primarily for Columbia Pictures. He was nominated for an Academy Award in the category Best Art Direction for the film The Solid Gold Cadillac. He also worked on most if not all television series produced by Screen Gems, the television subsidiary of Columbia Pictures such as The Donna Reed Show, Dennis the Menace, Hazel, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie and The Partridge Family. Bellah appeared as himself in the 1960 short film A New Star in Hollywood documenting his design and construction of the all-wood Bel Air house featured in the film Strangers When We Meet.
The Christmas Shoes is a 2002 American-Canadian made-for-television drama film based on the song and novel of the same name which was broadcast on CBS on December 1, 2002. It was shot in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It is the first part in a trilogy of films, followed by The Christmas Blessing (2005) and The Christmas Hope (2009).
A Private's Affair is a 1959 American musical comedy film directed by Raoul Walsh. It stars Sal Mineo and Christine Carère. The film was nominated for a Golden Globe in 1960.
Murder in a Small Town is 1999 American television mystery crime thriller film produced and broadcast by A&E. The period film stars Gene Wilder as Larry "Cash" Carter, a stage director, theater manager, former actor, and unofficial consulting detective for the police department in 1930s Stamford, Connecticut. Wilder also co-wrote the film, which was the first A&E Original Movie. High ratings led A&E to plan a Cash Carter franchise, but only one sequel, The Lady in Question (1999), was produced.
Incarnate is a 2016 American supernatural horror film directed by Brad Peyton and written by Ronnie Christensen. It stars Aaron Eckhart, Carice van Houten, Catalina Sandino Moreno, David Mazouz, Keir O'Donnell, Matt Nable, and John Pirruccello.