That was an excellent one.

Best movie of this year hands down!

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Mrs. Carly Hardwicke (Kim Novak) has difficulties renting out a room in her London home. Everybody suspects her of killing her husband although he's only missing. Newly-arrived American diplomat Bill Gridley (Jack Lemmon) knows nothing of her infamy. He rents her room despite her reluctance. She even pretends to be Hildy at first. He is completely taken by her beauty. Ambassador Franklyn Ambruster (Fred Astaire) is his new boss. Police Inspector Oliphant has been observing Hardwicke and suspects her of poisoning her husband. Oliphant convinces Bill to start snooping around.With scriptwriters Blake Edwards and Larry Gelbart, this has moments of good screwball comedy. Jack Lemmon is the man to deliver that. However, the comedy doesn't maintain to the end. There are sections where it drags. There are sections where it gets dark. I get breaking into the bathroom to see a naked Kim Novak in the tub. I don't think Jack Lemmon has to shoot out the door. Fred Astaire isn't as fun. This is fun at times but not all the time.

Jack Lemon is a newcomer to the Ambassador's staff in London. His boss is Fred Astaire. He rents half a house from the impecunious Kim Novak, an American whose husband has mysteriously disappeared. It's widely suspected that she poisoned hubby, using kidney pies that were so good that he asked for seconds. "It was the seconds that done him in," remarks a police officer. Lemon begins to wonder if she's going to poison him and is hypervigilant.The fact that Lemon and Novak are "living together" becomes a scandal. He's advised for the sake of his career to avoid being seen with Novak in public but when she tries to barbecue his dinner the burst of flame sets fire to the tarpaulin, screams break out, windows fly open, bells clang, and the fire department arrives -- that sort of thing.I didn't find it very funny, or very suspenseful either. Lemon tip toes from room to room, examining the contents of drawers, while Novak goes about her business in the kitchen. Lemon and Novak are competent enough. Fred Astaire is miscast in the role of the sarcastic boss who should be threatening instead of charming. Lionel Jeffries and Henry Daniell are both memorable in their brief appearances as a Scotland Yard official and a vicar.The film does the job it set out to do, but what it set out to do is only barely worth doing.

I watched this through Netflix, being intrigued to see a movie hitherto unknown to me starring Jack Lemmon. With Kim Novak and Fred Astaire on the marquee as well, I was intrigued. But what an awful disappointment. The first half of the flick was fun to watch, especially seeing Fred Astaire put in his classy bit. The cinematography of London was beautiful and the production values were great, but after the first half, the movie just disintegrates into incoherence. The plot complications are too complex to keep track of and after a while one just gives up. One shouldn't have to work so hard to keep track of things in what is supposed to be a frothy comedy. The insertion at the end of outright slapstick seems like an act of desperation. The actors do their best, but the fault ultimately lies with the script. Sad, really to see such talent wasted.

Jack Lemmon plays an American diplomat, Bill Gridley, attached to the embassy in England. On his first day in London he rents a flat from a very attractive new landlady, Carly Hardwicke played by Kim Novak. But unknown to him his new landlady has a "reputation" but for what. The dialogue sparkles from Lemmon's comment to Carly's query. you don't seem to harbor any prejudices, to which Lemmon responds; no, after all he is a Democrat from Massachusetts. And from the get-go it's clear Gridley is attracted to Carly but is she single, married,or divorced. On Gridley's second day he is grilled by his station chief Frank Ambruster, Fred Astaire, who informs him that his landlady murdered her husband. Suddenly Gridley finds himself recruited by Scotland Yard Inspector Oliphant, Lionel Jeffries, to "investigate" Mrs. Hardwicke to see if he can either prove her guilty or innocent. Of course Gridley leaps to Carly's defense especially after Oliphant's hysterical explanation of how women make not only loving wives but exceptional killers. Ambruster orders Gridley to cooperate and yet after he meets her and is smitten; he agrees that she is innocent. The film is filled with red herrings from titles of bedside reading to misunderstood phone calls that only enrich the comedy and the mystery. Lemmon is great as the would be lover who vacillates between loyalty and suspicion. This film is a classic and deserves an updated release.This film has stuck in my mind from my first viewing in 1962 because of the chemistry among the three principal actors. And the finale is one of the best of any chase scenes filmed.