The Notorious Landlady

Kim Novak was a Columbia star and went from a supporting role in Jack Lemmon's great Phfft to co star in Bell Book and Candle to lead and top billed over Jack Lemmon in this wickedly funny comedy mystery directed by Richard Quine.

This was the last movie Kim Novak made at Columbia and ended a legendary relationship between studio and star where Kim made Picnic, Pal Joey, Bell Book and Candle, Strangers When We Meet among others and her declared favorite film Middle Of The Night. Looking at times like the fabled Jean Harlow Ms. Novak reaches the top of the stardom ladder in this film.

To me Kim Novak was what a movie star looked like!

Kim Novak was a Columbia contract star and thru a series of films such as Pushover, The Eddy Duchin Story, Jeane Eagles and her big hits Picnic, The Man With The Golden Arm,* Pal Joey, Vertigo*, Middle Of the Night, Strangers When We Meet become the biggest star at Columbia.

Kim was the subject of the TCM Summer Under The Stars 2021 with some of her classics Vertigo, Picnic, Bell Book And Candle, Middle Of The Night and the Man with the Golden Arm as well as Billy Wilder's Kiss Me Stupid. Two Films that should have been omitted was a slight comedy from WB The Great Bank Robbery, and the truly mixed up Legend of Lyle Clare. I would have substituted The Amororous Adventures of Moll Flanders and The Mirror Crack'd with Kim trying bros with Liz Taylor with Rock Hudson , Angela Lansbury co starring.

Blake Edwards fashioned a wonderful screenplay sort of a comedy mystery set in London but filmed at Columbia in Hollywood. Jack Lemmon was a star of Phftt a fun comedy with the great Judy Holiday with Novak in a supporting role. Bell Book And Candle saw Novak with her fave leading man James Stewart with Lemmon billed after Novak, in this film her sign off at Columbia Novak is first billed over Lemmon and the great Fred. Astaire. Richard Quine loved Novak and I feel he is most responsible for the "Kim Novak" look so popular in the late 50's and early 60's with her films Bell Book And Candle, Strangers When We Meet and this delightful movie. Kim Novak was what a movie star should look like. Kim's clout was so great she designed her own wardrobe for this film and also for MGM's Boys Night Out. Both films were released in the summer of 62 giving audiences a chance to see this lovely star in 2 big movies.

Kim was rarely more beautiful than she appears in Notorious Landlady.

See this movie for a fun relaxing time and admire the work of film masters Edwards, Quine, Lemmon, Astaire (all now gone to Heaven) and Kim Novak.

In her great career Novak worked with Billy Wilder Alfred Hitcock, Otto Preminger, , Richard Quine, Mark Robson, Terence Young, Delbert Mann all of whom loved her. Co star in a her great career with Elizabeth Taylor, Jack Lemmon, Rita Hayworth, James Stewart. Judy Holiday, Ben Kingsley, Roz Russell, Frank Sinatra, Jane Wyman, Dean Martin, Rock Hudson, Angel Lansbury, Eleanor Parker, Fred. Astaire, Frederic March, Fred McMurray, Ty Power, James Garner, and Richard Johnson whom she would wed. Her co starring with William Holden in Picnic was electric and made Kim Novak a worldwide superstar. One star I wished Novak co starred with was Cary Grant. The combo of Novak and Grant would have been a rocking box office success. Kim however worked at Columbiand Grant at Universal.

*Preminger loved working with Kim..He had a habit of treating some players brutally for example Tom Tryon in both "The Cardinal" and "In Harms Way" but Superstars like John Wayne, Frank Sinatra, and Ms. Novak he was very very kind.

I just bought this video from a reputable company. I was quite surprised to see that it was available - it has been out of circulation for years. One person told me long ago that it had never been put on video. That person was obviously misinformed.

The video itself is not in the best condition. The film is in black and white and there are several moments of white glare, followed by excessive darkness. There are some breaks and pops, just like my old LP's.

These visual defects, strangely enough, added to my enjoyment, for they gave the movie a vintage quality. Indeed, one has the feeling that this movie could have been made in the 1930's or 1940's.

This film is a direct descendant of earlier screwball comedies and screwball mysteries such as the Thin Man. Kim Novak looks at times like Jean Harlow and the scenes of London are a wistful reminder of how very British the city once was.

The clever plot revolves around the question of Mrs. Hardwicke played by Kim Novak. Is she or is she not guilty of murder? Briefly Bill Gridley wrestles with himself over this issue, but his attraction to her gets the upper hand. Hey, what's one dead husband when you're in love?

An unexpected event leads to a zany trial and last but not least to a madcap chase straight out of a Buster Keaton comedy. Lovely Kim really has trouble keeping her hat on as she tears through the fields in pursuit of poor Estelle Winwood.

I found Jack Lemmon in top form, contrary to one commentary posted here. He is completely natural, without the slightest hint of effort. But he usually is this way.

Casting Fred Astaire was a stroke of genius - his presence adds even more vintage, and I mean vintage in the most complimentary sense. He is a real asset and I wish he had just danced a little.

All in all, great fun.

Kim Novak is "The Notorious Landlady" in this 1962 Columbia film starring Jack Lemmon, Fred Astaire, Estelle Winwood, and Lionel Jeffries.

William Gridley (Lemmon) is a junior diplomat assigned to London who comes to look at rooms for rent by one Mrs. Hardwicke (Novak). As soon as Gridley lays eyes on her, he wants the room. At first she says she's the maid and can't rent to him, but she drops the pretense and allows herself to be talked into giving him the rooms, though she preferred a couple.

When his boss, Franklyn Ambruster (Astaire) hears the name of Gridley's landlady, it sounds familiar. It takes him a couple of minutes to find out that she is suspected of murdering her husband and remains the talk of London. The police, headed up by Inspector Oliphant, want Gridley to see what he can find out. Gridley, of course, is sure that his landlady is incapable of murder.

The plot thickens and so does the comedy, leading to an atypical trial and finally to a chase scene out of the Keystone Kops. Along the way there's blackmail, fire, a witness, poison, and a few other things.

As good as I thought this film was, and as much as I like Kim Novak (who designed her own clothes and they're gorgeous - she could have had a second career) I thought she could have added to the comedy a little more, although she's just fine as the beautiful, mysterious Mrs. Hardwicke. Jack Lemmon is delightful as the confused Gridley, and Lionel Jeffries is a standout as the exasperated Inspector. Fred Astaire makes an elegant Ambruster. Estelle Winwood, as an elderly neighborhood, is on hand for some fun comedy.

Very entertaining film, recommended, especially given the stars. Written by Larry Gelbart and Blake Edwards.

Jack Lemmon, rising young man in the United States State Department hasn't a clue when he rents a room from Kim Novak who turns out to be a fellow American in London. He also doesn't know she's The Notorious Landlady whose husband has gone missing and Scotland Yard thinks she did him in.

Americans in the diplomatic corps are supposed to be scandal free, even more so back in 1962 so poor Lemmon doesn't know what he's walked into. But his supervisor Fred Astaire does and he wants him to leave. But Lionel Jeffries of Scotland Yard thinks he'd make one great unofficial undercover man. So in the spirit of the alliance that defeated Hitler, Astaire agrees.

Later on after a hilarious barbecue scene nearly burns Novak's place down and gets the State Department unwanted publicity, Astaire wants to transfer Lemmon to Tierra Del Fuego, but Novak actually comes up and charms him into letting him stay. So much so that Astaire now wants to play Sherlock Holmes and solve the case himself or at least be Watson to Lemmon's Holmes.

Jack and Kim make a lovely couple in danger, 25 years earlier I could have seen Cary Grant and Carole Lombard in their parts. But when you set out to make a stylish comedy, casting Fred Astaire is always a stroke of genius. Director Richard Quine even had the good sense to acquire Astaire's classic, A Foggy Day from the defunct RKO studio where he introduced it in Damsel In Distress to use as background music. It's used to great affect on one of those foggy London nights where both of them are trailing Novak.

In the last half hour their sleuthing pays off and a rather intricate mystery is solved. Lionel Jeffries makes a dogged and determined Inspector Lestrade like Scotland Yard man, who if truth be told is one of the sleazier members of that organization ever portrayed on screen.

The joint creative hands who wrote The Notorious Landlady were Blake Edwards and Larry Gelbart. Can't do better than that for style and wit.