People are voting emotionally.

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Crappy film

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Odd little movie about infidelity in the 50s. It begins with the 50's most leaden homage to heteronormativity; a collage of adorable infants under the credits. I was rolling my eyes. The 50s are a tiresome heap of propaganda for reproduction and the family; resulting in dozens of rotten on-screen performances by insufferable moppets (An Affair to Remember, The Man who Knew Too Much, Picnic, etc.). But it eventually becomes a droll, sort of dirty (though very polite) piece about getting a little on the side (in 1956!!). The whole thing is too slight for the overamped starpower they've cast. By the time Cary Grant is striding into a gun duel, you might even conclude as I did, 'Wow, even Grant is miscast here.' Jean Simmons, playing a bimbo, is slumming. And she wears some hideous outfits that even Endora on Bewitched might've said No to.

Hugh and Margaret Williams turned out several successful stage comedies in the 1950s almost, as it were, in defiance of the Angry Young Man school that had all but decimated the breed and this was one of the more successful. Three of the principals had and/or would co-star several times as in Grant-Kerr (An Affair To Remember), Mitchum-Kerr (Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison, The Sundowners) so were thoroughly at home with each other and Jean Simmons had no trouble fitting in as the gooseberry. A definite bonus is the background music, what amounts to an extended medley of Noel Coward favourites from Sigh No More, to I'll Follow My Secret Heart to Poor Little Rich Girl to Dance, Little Lady etc and for good measure The Stately Homes Of England is sung over both front and end credits. Essentially tourist Mitchum turns up to scratch a ten-tear itch that Kerr was unaware of, hardly surprising when hubby is Cary Grant. This paves the way for some sophisticated banter, anti-American jokes before it all ends happily. Even almost sixty years later there is still a large dollop of charm clinging tenaciously. Catch it if you can.

Some had mentioned Noel Coward and the drawing room comedy. I think it should be mentioned that the entire score was completely based on the songs of Noel Coward. I feel the film was an homage to Coward and his light plays of the 20's and 30's. Actually, if you know Coward's music, it forecasts things in the plot.For example at the beginning of the film when Grant and Kerr are having their first conversation, she reads a poem, and the music being played is "I'll Follow My Secret Heart." It is not too long after this she meets the third person in the triangle. I think it's quite an enjoyable movie, and it is nice to see people enjoy performing light banter.

This delightful morsel is even more impressive given the bare post-Eisenhower era of its release. While we tend to view 1960 as the beginning of the JFK cultural renaissance, in fact the decade dawned with Ike in the White House and Nixon on the horizon. Extramarital hijinks, dealt with adult sophistication, tolerance and forgiveness are rare enough, but the Bible-thumpers must have bust a gut on this one. I disagree with those who chastise the title, I think it's perfect. That such a topic is explored without losing the light comedic magic of Grant, the earnest angst of Kerr, the irreverent sexuality of Simmons and the brooding strength of Mitchum is testament to the ability of Stanley Donen to guide without herding. It all fits, wonderfully, in a movie that glows brighter with the passage of time, and the tsunami of trash that was to follow.