Just perfect...

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

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 ---

I watched most of this 1957 film on Turner Classic tonight. I had never heard of it. It promised to be a "four Navy buddies on shore leave and assorted pranks" flick, particularly with the thought that it featured Jayne Mansfield. I figured that Cary Grant really needed to pay alimony. However, two things about the film kept me from turning it off. The first was Suzy Parker. The second was very much unexpected and it was a ribbon through the screenplay which began to shine in Grant's lines telling off the ship building tycoon played by Leif Ericson. While I realize that the film was made twelve years after the close of the Second World War, this was no sentimental script which appealed to an audience's passions for a war in progress. Grant's Navy aviator was sick and tired of the war, of combat, of the blood and gore, of picking up after the guy next to him is blown into twelve pieces. Grant's character again displays a cynicism about the war when he tells a whopper to an inquiring reporter in a nightclub.The screenplay was even more remarkable when you realize that this movie was released in 1957....just on the late fringe of McCarthyism and the Second Red Scare. It is a tepid film at best, but a tip of the hat to Cary Grant for portraying a realistic warrior who conveys that he is sick and tired of the gore of war.

A comedy with some serious overtones best describes 1957's "Kiss Them for Me."It's basically the story of 4 naval guys on leave in San Francisco. They've about had it with flying and are ready to get out of service. This includes Ray Walston running for a congressional seat in a special election.You would think it would be about their escapades in S.F. during those days, but the film turns into one or two parties at a posh hotel and then the serious stuff comes across.They're reminded of the serious stuff when they encounter one of their guys who is terminally ill and at the film's end, when their ship is blown to bits. It's time for them to reevaluate their situation and face the music.Even Jayne Mansfield, who really provides the comic relief here, has one serious moment in the film.Cary Grant, the movie stalwart, was beginning to show his age here in the same year he costarred with Deborah Kerr in "An Affair to Remember."The picture is wholesome and reminds us of our patriotic duty.

The mildly amusing World War II romantic comedy, "Kiss Them for Me," has little that will linger in memory beyond the closing credits. Three navy officers stop a taxiing plane on the runway and hitch a ride for an unofficial leave in San Francisco, where they spend four days in a luxury hotel suite chasing women, drinking booze, and making fools out of the shore patrol. Credibility is not among the film's assets. Cary Grant is always smooth and likable in these breezy parts, although his age and British accent remain unexplained. However, Cary gets away with these anomalies, and he is under the sure direction of Stanley Donen, who keeps things light. This director/star team went on to make two more memorable films together, "The Grass is Greener" and the classic "Charade." Beyond the preposterous plot, another credibility gap surfaces when Grant and Suzy Parker fall for each other. Parker is leaden as Grant's love interest. The supposedly romantic couple has zero chemistry, and Grant and Parker do their best to avoid locking lips or showing mutual warmth. Such are the mysteries of true love in the 1950's. However, Jayne Mansfield is a delight as the not-too-bright Alice Kratzner, whose hair is natural, except for the color. Mansfield lights up the film, and she is missed, both physically and comically, when off screen. Larry Blyden and Ray Walston play Grant's sidekicks, and both are fine, although subtlety is not a hallmark of anyone's performance. Donen keeps his performers moving and maintains a lively pace, although the film's stage origins are evident.Despite the romantic black hole of the Grant-Parker romance, "Kiss them for Me" is a frothy couple of hours, although, with the exception of a new respect for Jayne Mansfield, the film's ephemeral charms will dissipate before "The End" has faded from the screen.