Kiss Them for Me

This film is interesting for only one reason - Cary Grant - he is the star and he stands head and shoulders above everyone in this film - even if you dont believe him in the character he is portraying here. As for the story - it focuses on what it must have like to be on shore leave in San Fransisco during World War II. This was based on a popular play in its day - but 20th Century Fox needed something to do with their new sex symbol - Jayne Mansfield - so they dumped her in these party scenes showing off her figure.(not bad) but it seems misplaced. The big tragedy of this film is gorgeous Suzy Parker - who wasn't that bad in this but didn't have much of a career after this apparently. Thats a tragedy.

Three heroic naval aviators, led by LCDR Cary Grant, wangle four days leave in crowded wartime San Francisco. They are very happy, having spent several years in the Pacific shooting down enemy planes, being wounded, and contracting malaria. Their only goal is "to get drunk and chase girls." Their warder in the city is Werner Klemperer -- also known as Colonel Klink and as the son of famed conductor Otto Klemperer -- who wangles them all sorts of perquisites including a suite at the Fairmont, where loud parties are often in progress.

It's fun. All of us like to see those we approve of having fun. But one irritating obstacle after another threatens to trip them on the hedonistic treadmill. First, there is Suzie Parker, model, who insinuates herself into Grant's affections. Then there is the manager of the Fairmont, whose objections grow more emphatic and who winds up locked in the closet. Then there is the Shore Patrol, regularly nattering them for being in summer kakhis instead of blues. There are solemn encounters with old friends now dying in hospital. Finally, there is poor Lief Erickson, owner of a ship yard, who tries to persuade the trio to tour his plants and make pep speeches to the employees to boost morale, meanwhile removing them from combat duty and seeing that they're properly rewarded. "I know how much money you boys make," bringing a sour expression to Grant's face.

The pace is pretty fast. Episodes and gags follow one another pretty quickly except for some lugubrious dialog involving Suzie Parker, her lost love, and her gradual yielding to the advances of Grant. When you get right down to it, Suzie Parker looks the part of a model out of Vogue or the New York Times Magazine but as an actress she's not convincing. Jayne Mansfield and the bust that precedes her by a quarter of a mile brings more life to the party.

There's something a little troublesome about Grant's character too. As an extremely accomplished and brave pilot he is given a good deal of moral authority and he sometimes misuses it to politely and ironically humiliate those who pay some tribute -- minor or otherwise -- to his status. In a bar he spills a civilian's drink and the victim compliments him on his uniform. "My, civilians are so sensitive these days," says Grant. An intelligent and honest reporter for the Chronicle tries to get a few words from him and Grant treats him with disdain. The blustering and ever importuning Lief Erickson gets a belt in the chops for his trouble. The viewer is always on Grant's side, but still ---

A good cast (with one major exception) pushes its way through Epstein's smart light satire. Mansfield was never better, or funnier, than she is here paired with Walston, who's a veteran who's determined to become a congressman to get out of the war. He and his buddies -- including suave con-artist Grant -- head to San Francisco on leave and start the city's swinginest party while conniving to escape the service altogether through industrial speaking tours. The only thing about this movie that's not delightful is Suzy Parker's one-note performance as Grant's love interest, which takes up too much of the film's time and slows down the pace in the second half. Walston and Mansfield have good chemistry; the gimmick is that she's set on making love to every serviceman (to do her duty for the war effort, of course) but he's a married man who, nonetheless, loves his wife. They steal the movie with little trouble from Grant (who's amusing here in the first part of the film, when not paired with his non-actor co-star.

Kiss Them For Me has a lot to offer - Cary Grant, Stanley Donen (Singin' in the Rain, Charade) as director, and Julius Epstein (Casablanca, Arsenic & Old Lace) as screenwriter - but it never really lives up to its potential. There are some funny moments here and there, but the film is more of a drama with comic elements, and the balance doesn't always work well. Viewers expecting one of Cary Grant's great comedic romps will be disappointed. Still, it's not a bad film, just an uneven one.

The story is about three Navy fliers, each considered a "war hero," who embark on a four-day leave in San Francisco. They secure the "Ambassador's Suite" in a fine hotel and order up tons of liquor for their large, rowdy parties, where there are three women for every man. In the end, however, they don't get to relax and momentarily forget the war as much as they have to deal with the awkwardness between the civilian world and their own. They also have to confront the reality of life after the war. Grant, in particular, realizes that he's good at what he does (flying planes), and he's giving himself to a worthy cause that's bigger than himself, neither of which he may be able to do outside of the Pacific theatre. He's offered more than one chance to turn his reputation as a war hero into a cushy job, but he sees the emptiness and boredom that waits for him in the normal American lifestyle. Instead of talking with the powerful owner of a shipbuilding company who could help him with his financial future, he sits on the floor listening to jazz and flirting with the owner's fiancée.

Unfortunately, Donen and Epstein don't seem to trust these dramatic elements and inject a poorly developed romance into the film, which undoes some otherwise good writing and leads, finally, to a flat ending. Maybe if they'd found a suitable female lead to play off Grant, the romance would have worked better, but Suzy Parker is stiff and wooden on screen, and her character grows wearisome after a while. The best that can be said for her is that she provides a little relief from the grating presence of Jayne Mansfield, who is described in the original 1957 NY Times review of the film as, "grotesque, artificial, noisy, distasteful - and dull." And that pretty much sums it up. In the original play on Broadway, in 1945, these two women characters were evidently blended into one, played "with brilliance" by a young Judy Holliday. Oh, for a woman of her grace, wit and energy in this film version. (As a side note, Judy co-starred in the play with Richard Widmark, who played Crewson.)

In the end, though, there is still Cary Grant. He saves the film from being a total waste of time. And Epstein's script has some wonderful gems scattered here and there. Also, the camaraderie between Grant and his two Navy buddies, one of them played by Ray Walston, works well most of the time. For those interested in a 50's drama about Navy fliers, you're better off watching The Bridges at Toko-Ri, with William Holden and Grace Kelly. If you want a great Cary Grant comedy, try his much better effort with Julius Epstein - Arsenic & Old Lace. If you've seen just about everything else with Cary in it, and you want something different, this one will do in a fix.

This movie comes off as a half-baked Jane Mansfield / Cary Grant vehicle, but there are some reasons not to immediately turn it off. The plot meanders and the chemistry between the characters is practically non-existent, particularly between Grant's Crewson and Suzy Parker's Gwinneth. It feels as if even the 'war buddies' had just met when shooting began (the movie, not the war). If you've ever wondered why Jane Mansfield was considered the poor-man's Monroe, this film says it all. She has not half of the charm, comedic instinct, or for that matter sexual magnetism of Marilyn.

Having said all that, I found myself actually chuckling out loud at some of Cary Grant's slick lines. Would that we were all as quick-witted and smooth. For younger viewers, it's fun to see Ray Walston (Mr. Hand from "Fast Times at Ridgemont High"...aloha!) in his very first big-screen role. And it is my understanding that Suzy Parker was universally panned for this performance; call me unsophisticated, but I didn't think she was that bad (although her voice was later dubbed out). What do you think?