“Strangers When We Meet” (1960) is simply a dazzling movie. In this reviewer’s plan, the acting performances from every single member of this favorable cast are gleaming — from Kirk Douglas to Kim Novak to Ernie Kovacs to Walter Matthau. They are each unprejudiced perfect here. Also preserve an notice peeled for Sue Ane Langdon, who pops up in a brief cameo role.
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And I certainly don’t want to leave out Barbara Bustle, who gives a knockout portrayal of Douglas’ wife. Rush’s final emotion-filled scenes in the film are literally worth a replay every time this movie is watched.
Walter Matthau’s role in the film is fairly itsy-bitsy, but noteworthy. Walter is thoroughly unpleasant here as an aggressively-lecherous, scheming, and oversexed neighbor, who lives impartial a few doors down from Douglas.
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Can you imagine that — Walter Matthau being deemed “unsightly”? Hardly seems moral, does it? But, in this flick, it applies. “Strangers” was made at a time when the then-39-year-old Matthau was playing more serious roles in the movies, and before all of his genuine humorous parts. Four years after “Strangers”, Matthau played another rather unlikable character, in 1964’s “Fail-Safe”, which was yet another magnificent performance by the versatile actor.
It’s also kind of comic to label (in an “in-joke” fashion) that Matthau’s character’s name in “Strangers” is “Felix”, which is a name that would be closely associated with Walter in the film “The Queer Couple” (1968), when Matthau’s “Oscar” played opposite Jack Lemmon’s “Felix”.
Douglas and Novak are “strangers when they meet” in the supermarket one day, and they seem to have a gracious chemistry on shroud here. I found Kim’s “Maggie” in this movie very similar in “frosty” and “touchy” style to her role two years earlier in Alfred Hitchcock’s classic epic, “Vertigo”. Both of those Novak characters seem to be forever tormented by some inner demons that can never be fully exorcised. But by the waste of “Strangers”, Maggie has shed a huge deal of her inner peril, with the film ending in a bittersweet — but in my conception very fitting — fashion.
“Strangers When We Meet”, I reflect I’m splendid in assuming, is one of Kirk Douglas’ lesser-known efforts during the man’s improbable cloak career — but its relative obscurity doesn’t beget the movie any less mighty. Douglas is 100% believable in his role here as “Larry Coe”, an architect who’s tired of the drab cookie-cutter assignments that have been served up to him. He wants to fabricate a house that’s different. And that’s unbiased what he does in the movie.
Throughout the film, we can actually peek Larry’s uniquely-designed, multi-level house prefer shape, bit by bit. By the film’s final reel, the project is completed, and it’s a truly heavenly home, in my thought.
Larry Coe also has a roving gape for his quite fetching and alluring neighbor (Maggie) — and despite the fact that each of them is married with young children, Larry and Maggie come by their mutual attraction to each other too great to resist, and they launch a fancy affair.
The screenplay for “Strangers” was written by Evan Hunter (based on his recent) . The film was directed with spacious style and distinct “TLC” by Richard Quine (who also doubled as the movie’s producer) .
The setting is California, circa 1960, and Mr. Quine’s generous exercise of his exquisite “CinemaScope” widescreen (2.35:1) framing comes through with flying colors on this DVD version of the film. The movie was shot in color and the cinematography for both the outdoor and indoor scenes is rich in radiant details, which this DVD from Columbia/Sony exhibits very nicely.
There’s a scene come the raze of the movie that’s unprejudiced spectacular (from a photography and lighting standpoint), with a rainbow of colors on the conceal at once — this scene taking position in Larry’s just-finished hilltop home, with the light intellectual through various tinted panes of window glass in a arrangement that’s unbiased simply heavenly.
This adult drama, which is replete with multiple cases of infidelity, could very easily (in my idea) have been a accurate “snooze-fest” (aka: a humdrum 2-hour nightmare to have to sit through) . But, instead, it’s exactly the opposite — it comes across as original and alive and spellbinding, all the intention through its entire length of 1 hour and 57 minutes.
Director/Producer Quine and screenwriter Hunter have made these characters compelling and interesting — and objective flat-out moving to gawk. Quine and Hunter manufacture us care about these people on hide, from beginning to slay. And I’m guessing that this wasn’t an easy task, given the rather heavy and somber subject matter that the film deals with.
The “suburban” feel of the early 1960s comes across very strongly in the film as well. Each frame of the movie reflects the era in which it was made — and I don’t mean that in a negative intention whatsoever; to the contrary in fact. That “feeling” for the era is something I like very remarkable here. The film began playing in movie houses on Wednesday, June 29th, 1960.
I was flabbergasted when I discovered this movie was actually available on the DVD format. It had been on my “Win When Available” list for many moons; but slipped under my radar of unique releases when Columbia/Sony streeted this exiguous gem on February 22, 2005. To say the least, I was most gratified when I was finally able to detestable this one off of the “To-Get” list.
This single-disc, single-sided DVD gives us the film in its intended and novel 2.35:1 Widescreen video format, and it offers up a dandy-looking Anamorphic (16×9 enhanced) transfer to boot. It impartial looks sizable. …. The audio on the disc comes across blooming via a 2.0 Dolby Digital Mono soundtrack. Subtitles can be accessed in either English or Japanese.
The DVD comes packaged in an Amaray-type plastic Sustain Case. There’s no Scene Selection paper insert included in the box; but there is the normal Scene Index included on the disc itself (the film is divided up into a modest number of chapters, totalling 12) .
The DVD’s Menus are soundless and non-animated, with the Main Menu (and “Scene” Menu) sporting an uncommon, albeit very picturesque, concept of the skyline of Novel York City. (That’s “uncommon” only because the movie is not plot in Modern York, and has nothing whatever to do with that city; the film is residence entirely in California. And what makes the DVD Main Menu record of NYC even more unfamiliar is the fact that it depicts the World Trade Center as piece of the Modern York skyline; the WTC wasn’t completed until more than a decade after “Strangers” was made. Oh, well, it’s peaceful a nice-looking Menu photo nonetheless. A section of that same Modern York skyline represent is also broken-down for the DVD’s front cover; the packaging photo is cropped, however, and lacks the World Trade Center image.)
The only “Bonus” material on the DVD are three “Previews” (Trailers) . But, unfortunately, the unique theatrical trailer for “Strangers When We Meet” is not included.
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To Sum It Up………
“Strangers When We Meet” is highly recommended — both the film and this DVD. Anyone who is a fan of intelligently-written motion-picture dramas — or a fan of Kirk Douglas or the always-lovely Kim Novak — will have no choice but to fancy “Strangers” (IMHO) .
If you haven’t done so already, recall “Strangers” for a rush in your DVD Player as soon as you can. It’s a 117-minute dart attend to 1960 — and it’s worth the time spent making the stagger.
After World War II movies became more frank in subject matter. This was in share due to the changing mores of the returning vets and the women they came home to. After the horrors of war things would never be the same for them or for Hollywood. The other factor was the tedious demise over the 50’s of the studio system and the rise of television as a threat to the box office. The censors began to relax and allowed more adult themes to be presented on the broad mask. By the early 1960’s movies were well on there procedure to growing up. Taboo subjects such as prostitution, homosexuality and adultery were now subjects Hollywood was now eagerly taking on.
One of the more piquant and surprisingly un-judgmental of these films was the 1960 Colombia release, `Strangers When We Meet’. Produced by Kirk Douglas’ company Bryna Productions and Richard Quinn Productions and taken from the modern by Evan Hunter the film is a spirited perceive into the suburban lives of a Los Angeles architect, his wife and the other woman in his life.
Kirk Douglas gives a magnificent, understated performance as the architect Larry Coe. It is a stark dissimilarity to his memoir Spartacus of the same year. At a injurious roads in his life he is given the chance to make the kind of house he always wanted to for upcoming novelist Ernie Kovaks while his company wants him to go on doing the same dreary work they put a question to. He fights for his chance to capture the chance of a life time with the skill of a elegant camouflage actor.
As his wife, Barbara Run is outstanding in one of her finest moments on hide. She is chilly and withholding yet needy of her husbands adore. Her finest moments reach in her scenes with Douglas where they argue over their future and in her chilling confrontation with the lecherous Walter Matthau on a gloomy rainy afternoon.
As Maggie Gault actress Kim Novak turns in a nuanced and deeply felt performance. She is a woman that men have been hunting down all her life. Her beauty is something that brings her only sorrow and despair though a string of meaningless affairs. Her husband seems to be the only man who has no interest in sleeping with her and though she does fancy him he drives her away embarrassed by her commence and unprejudiced desire for him. When Douglas says to her on their first meeting, “You’re not so gorgeous.” it throws her and intrigues her. Throughout the affair she embarks on with Douglas she is incandescent enough to know that this like all the others will ultimately lead nowhere. In the final frames of the film she is shown this very fact when faced with another leering man.
Kim Novak is so wintry and remote at times that it seems the perfect fit for her, the role of Maggie. She is the kind of natural actress that when left alone with her instincts and the inspect of the camera she surprises the viewer with the murky emotions that live objective beneath her ravishing features. One scene among many where she shines is when she is confronted with her past and has to affirm the truth to Douglas about it.
The cinematography is unbelievable to survey in the widescreen aspect of this DVD and shows the ample talent of cinematographer, Charles Lang who also shot such classics as `Charade’ and “Some Like It Hot’ and the attractive “One-Eyed Jacks”.
The rep by George Dunning is the perfect meeting of the romantic and dramatic. It stands along side his classic scores for “Bell, Book, and Candle”, “The World of Suzy Wong” and “Picnic.”
Jean Louis one of the top designers of costumes for actresses of the period turns in honest enough suburban glamour to support the ladies in the cast looking incredible.
Director Richard Quinn pulls it all together with his usual style. He presents us with not only a generous drama but also an tantalizing explore at the suburban life of Los Angeles in 1960. The locations are memorable, the glamorous stale Romanoff’s restaurant, the beautiful house that is built through the course of the film, and the radiant beach at Malibu where the lovers rendezvous. This film stands along with “Suzy Wong,” “Bell Book and Candle”, and “How to Slay Your Wife” as some of his best work. The film holds up after forty-five years as a modern and timely gape at the relationships between husbands and wives and lovers who are always “Strangers When We Meet.”
