Kiss Them For Me (1957)

   "...Cary Grant delivers some sardonic wisecracks very well..."

With Jayne Mansfield.

Kiss Them For Me - Review is taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):

"Kiss Them For Me, coincidentally enough, is also about some military men intent on staging a party.  The party givers in this case are three naval aviators who arrive in wartime San Francisco determined to devote all their brief French leave from a carrier to wine, women and song.  

The color-and-CinemaScope movie is based on a novel written during World War II and made into a (not very successful) play soon after that.  

By 1957, its attitudes are curiously dated. For one example, the enemy seems to be the civilian population.  For another, the fliers behave alternately like post-adolescent Peck's Bad Boys and like swashbuckling heroes with equally juvenile motivation.  Though Cary Grant delivers some sardonic wisecracks very well,  he seems a little old to be acting so irresponsibly.  

The picture also has leading-woman trouble.  Fashion model Suzy Parker, who plays the enigmatic heroine, is lovely to look at but can't act; while director Stanley Donen has allowed Jayne Mansfield, in the role that was Judy Holliday's stepping stone to fame, to be broadly and unamusingly vulgar."

- Moira Walsh, America

New Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36 -
Number 63 - Kiss Them For Me (Lobby Card Style)

Part Of

For more, see also:

Quote From Today - 10 December 2022

On This Day - 10 December 2021

On This Day - 10 December 2020

Quote From Today... Kiss Them For Me (1957)

"True love almost always fades, but money stays green forever."

With Suzy Parker

Kiss Them For Me was Cary Grant's 63rd full length feature film.

Gwinneth Livingston: And that, Mr. Crewson, is why I'm engaged to Mr. Turnbill. He's alive now, and he'll still be alive at the end of the war. He's filthy rich now, and he'll be even filthier rich then.

Cmdr. Andy Crewson: That's the stuff. True love almost always fades, but money stays green forever.

On This Day...Kiss Them For Me (1957)

 Cary Grant's 63rd film was Kiss Them For Me, and released today in 1957.

Synopsis:

Three decorated Navy pilots finagle a four day leave in San Francisco. They procure a posh suite at the hotel and Commander Crewson (Cary Grant), a master of procurement, arranges to populate it with party people. 

With Ray Walston and Jayne Mansfield.

Lieutenant Wallace (Werner Klemperer) is trying to get the pilots to make speeches to rally the homefront at shipyard magnate Eddie Turnbill's (Leif Erikson) plants, but they're tired of the war and just want to have fun. While Crewson begins falling in love with Turnbill's fiancée Gwinneth Livingston (Suzy Parker), he tries to ignore the distant call of war.

With Suzy Parker.

"Grant, even though a bit old as a dashing pilot, is wonderful, be he romantic, comic, bitter or sad."

- Motion Picture Herald.

With Jayne Mansfield.

Did You Know?

Cary Grant specifically asked that Stanley Donen be hired on to direct the film. Grant had never met or spoken to Donen prior to their collaboration on this film, but he had been extremely impressed by Donen's work on films such as Royal Wedding (1951), Singin' in the Rain (1952), and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954). Grant expressed that Donen's light and comedic touch on those films fit the tone of the screenplay for Kiss Them for Me (1957).

Suzy Parker's feature film acting debut.The speaking voice of Suzy Parker is partially dubbed by Deborah Kerr.

This marks the first of four film collaborations between actor Cary Grant and director Stanley Donen. The subsequent films were Indiscreet (1958), The Grass Is Greener (1960), and Charade (1963).

Cary Grant expressed concerns that, at age 53, he was too old to convincingly play a U. S. Navy flier. Producer Jerry Wald encouraged Grant to take the part because his charisma and popularity with the American public far outweighed concerns about his age.

Cast:

Cary Grant ... Cmdr. Andy Crewson
Jayne Mansfield ... Alice Kratzner
Leif Erickson ... Eddie Turnbill
Suzy Parker ... Gwinneth Livingston
Ray Walston ... Lt. (j.g.) McCann
Larry Blyden ... Mississip
Nathaniel Frey ... CPO Ruddle
Werner Klemperer ... Lt. Walter Wallace
Jack Mullaney ... Ens. Albert Lewis

Lobby Cards:

International Posters:

"A Sacred Border" - French

"A Devilish Swing" - Dutch

Directed by Stanley Donen.

Distributed by 20th Century-Fox.

Running time: 103 minutes.

"Lights, camera...action!" - The Directors - Part 3

The next director, who worked with Cary Grant on four films, was Stanley Donen.

Stanley Donen:

13th April 1924 - 21st February 2019

On Grant - "Cary was lavish in his giving to me. He gave me lots of gifts, always thoughtful ones. Something was always arriving."

Kiss Them For Me (1957)

With Ray Walston and Jayne Mansfield

Indiscreet (1958)

On set with Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman.

The Grass is Greener (1961)

With Deborah Kerr and Robert Mitchum

Charade (1963)

With Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn

Stanley Donen was behind many hit musicals including On The Town, Singing in the Rain and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.

Cary Grant, Stanley Fox and Stanley Donen set up Grandon Productions, Ltd in 1957.

Four directors worked on three films each with Cary Grant...

..."Lights, camera...action!" - The Directors - Part 4...