alr

Kiss Me, Stupid

Screening on Film
Directed by Billy Wilder.
With Dean Martin, Kim Novak, Ray Walston.
US, 1964, 35mm, black & white, 126 min.

Dean Martin puts a humorous spin on his public persona in the role of Dino, a Vegas crooner stranded in a small Nevada town while en route to Los Angeles. An amateur songwriter (Walston, in a role originally intended for Peter Sellers) tries to sell one of his ditties to the lecherous singer but fears he will make a play for his wife (Felicia Farr). Enter Kim Novak as Polly, a prostitute who poses as the songwriter’s wife. Wilder’s most scathing critique of American culture since Ace in the Hole, Kiss Me Stupid is a tawdry farce, savaged by critics and condemned by the Catholic Legion of Decency for its provocative subject matter. 

Part of film series

Read more

Major and Minor Notes: A Billy Wilder Centennial

Current and upcoming film series

Read more

Fragments of a Faith Forgotten: The Art of Harry Smith

Read more

The Yugoslav Junction: Film and Internationalism in the SFRY, 1957 – 1988

Read more

From the Jenni Olson Queer Film Collection

Read more
a close-up of a Bissau-Guinean woman wearing a scarf on her head and looking directly at the camera with a slight smile

Le Dépays + Sans soleil

Read more
Peter Sellers wearing a large hat with "ME" embroidered on it, and gripping a Pilgrim-like collar

Carol for Another Christmas

Read more

Satyajit Ray’s Apu Trilogy