How to Murder Your Wife
Encyclopedia
How to Murder Your Wife is a 1965
American comedy film starring Jack Lemmon
and Virna Lisi
. It was directed by Richard Quine
, who also directed Lemmon in My Sister Eileen
, It Happened to Jane
, Operation Mad Ball
and Bell, Book and Candle.
). Stanley's comic strip, Bash Brannigan, is a secret-agent thriller characterized by a high level of realism: no matter how outrageous the plot may seem, Stanley will not allow Brannigan to do anything physically impossible or use gadgets that don't exist. He hires actors and sets up elaborate enactments of storylines, playing Brannigan himself, while Charles takes photographs Stanley will use as models.
While attending a bachelor party for his friend Tobey Rawlins (Max Showalter
), Stanley becomes very drunk and proposes to a beautiful Italian girl (Lisi) who steps out of a large cake wearing a bikini. An equally drunken judge (Sidney Blackmer
) performs an impromptu wedding ceremony. The next morning, Stanley wakes up with the girl, now his wife, lying naked in bed next to him. He asks his lawyer Harold Lampson (Eddie Mayehoff
) to arrange a divorce, but Lampson informs him that this is impossible without legal justification.
Stanley's new bride is cheerful, affectionate, and sexy, but she does not speak English. To learn the language, she spends time with Harold's manipulative, henpecking wife Edna (Trevor), who speaks Italian. Unfortunately, in the process, she also learns Edna's overbearing ways. Meanwhile, Charles, who has a policy of not working for married couples, takes a new job with Rawlins, who was jilted by his bride. With Charles replaced by Mrs. Ford, Stanley's bathroom fills with beauty products and lingerie, and Stanley is kept awake by the television, which his wife watches to learn English. To make matters worse, her high-calorie Italian cuisine causes his weight to balloon, and she informs him that her mother will come from Rome to live with them.
Adjusting to his new marital status, Stanley changes his Bash Brannigan cartoon from the exploits of a secret agent to a household comedy, The Brannigans, again drawing from his real life. The strip turns Bash into a bumbling idiot and is wildly successful. However, Mrs. Ford continues to intrude on Stanley's lifestyle. Increasingly irritated by the restrictions of married life, Stanley calls a meeting of his associates at his all-male health club. When Edna learns of the meeting, she telephones Mrs. Ford and arouses her suspicions about Stanley's activities. Mrs. Ford then sneaks into the club, with the result that Stanley is banned from the club for violating its "no women" policy.
Feeling a need to vent his frustrations, Stanley concocts a plot in his comic strip to kill Brannigan's wife by drugging her with "goofballs
" and burying her in "the goop from the gloppitta-gloppitta machine
" at a construction site next to their home. As always, he enacts the events before drawing the strip, but after drugging his wife, he uses a department-store mannequin for the burial.
Mrs. Ford sees the cartoon describing Stanley's murder plan, realizes that her husband does not want her, and leaves without a trace. After reading the cartoon in the newspapers, the police conclude that Stanley actually murdered his wife. Stanley is arrested and charged with murder, and his cartoons are used as prosecution evidence at the subsequent trial. When the trial appears to be headed for a conviction, Stanley takes up his own defense and pleads justifiable homicide
, appealing to the all-male jury's frustrations regarding their own wives, and is acquitted.
Stanley finds his wife in bed when he goes home. He has come to appreciate her, and, after he puts her wedding ring back on her finger, they are reconciled. Meanwhile, Charles meets Mrs. Ford's attractive mother who, like Charles, has a space between her front teeth. The film ends as Charles closes the door to her room in front of the camera so they can share an amorous moment alone.
, Mac Divot, and Rick O'Shay
. Alex Toth
did a teaser comic in Keefer's style that ran in the Hollywood Reporter and several newspapers for ten days to promote the film.
1965 in film
The year 1965 in film involved some significant events, with The Sound of Music topping the U.S. box office.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:...
American comedy film starring Jack Lemmon
Jack Lemmon
John Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III was an American actor and musician. He starred in more than 60 films including Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Mister Roberts , Days of Wine and Roses, The Great Race, Irma la Douce, The Odd Couple, Save the Tiger John Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III (February 8, 1925June...
and Virna Lisi
Virna Lisi
Virna Lisi is a Cannes and César award-winning Italian film actress. She was born in Ancona, Marche, as Virna Lisa Pieralisi.-Early career:...
. It was directed by Richard Quine
Richard Quine
Richard Quine was an American stage, film, and radio actor and film director.Quine was born in Detroit. He made his Broadway debut in the Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein II musical Very Warm for May in 1939 and appeared in My Sister Eileen the following year...
, who also directed Lemmon in My Sister Eileen
My Sister Eileen
My Sister Eileen originated as a series of short stories by Ruth McKenney that eventually evolved into a book, a play, a musical, a radio play , two films, and a CBS television series in the 1960-1961 season....
, It Happened to Jane
It Happened to Jane
It Happened to Jane is a 1959 romantic comedy film starring Doris Day, Jack Lemmon, and Ernie Kovacs directed by Richard Quine and written by Norman Katkov and Max Wilk.The film was co-produced by Quine and star Day's husband at the time, Martin Melcher....
, Operation Mad Ball
Operation Mad Ball
Operation Mad Ball is a 1957 military comedy starring Jack Lemmon, Kathryn Grant, Ernie Kovacs, Dick York, Arthur O'Connell, and Mickey Rooney and directed by Richard Quine. The screenplay by Blake Edwards and Jed Harris is based on an unproduced play by Arthur Carter.-Plot:In a hospital unit in...
and Bell, Book and Candle.
Plot summary
Stanley Ford (Jack Lemmon) is a successful, happily unmarried cartoonist enjoying the comforts of a well-to-do existence in an urban townhouse, including the services of his loyal and attentive valet, Charles Firbank (Terry-ThomasTerry-Thomas
Thomas Terry Hoar Stevens was a distinctive English comic actor, known as Terry-Thomas. He was famous for his portrayal of disreputable members of the upper classes, especially cads and toffs, with the trademark gap in his front teeth, cigarette holder, smoking jacket, and catch-phrases such as...
). Stanley's comic strip, Bash Brannigan, is a secret-agent thriller characterized by a high level of realism: no matter how outrageous the plot may seem, Stanley will not allow Brannigan to do anything physically impossible or use gadgets that don't exist. He hires actors and sets up elaborate enactments of storylines, playing Brannigan himself, while Charles takes photographs Stanley will use as models.
While attending a bachelor party for his friend Tobey Rawlins (Max Showalter
Max Showalter
Max Showalter was an American film, television, and stage actor, as well as a composer, pianist, and singer. One of Showalter's most memorable roles was as Jean Peters' character's husband in the 1953 film Niagara...
), Stanley becomes very drunk and proposes to a beautiful Italian girl (Lisi) who steps out of a large cake wearing a bikini. An equally drunken judge (Sidney Blackmer
Sidney Blackmer
Sidney Alderman Blackmer was an American actor.Blackmer was born and raised in Salisbury, North Carolina. He started off in an insurance and financial business but gave up on it. While working as a builder's laborer on a new building, he saw a Pearl White serial being filmed and immediately...
) performs an impromptu wedding ceremony. The next morning, Stanley wakes up with the girl, now his wife, lying naked in bed next to him. He asks his lawyer Harold Lampson (Eddie Mayehoff
Eddie Mayehoff
Eddie Mayehoff was an American actor.Probably his best known role was as Harold Lampson, the henpecked husband and incompetent lawyer in the 1965 comedy movie How to Murder Your Wife....
) to arrange a divorce, but Lampson informs him that this is impossible without legal justification.
Stanley's new bride is cheerful, affectionate, and sexy, but she does not speak English. To learn the language, she spends time with Harold's manipulative, henpecking wife Edna (Trevor), who speaks Italian. Unfortunately, in the process, she also learns Edna's overbearing ways. Meanwhile, Charles, who has a policy of not working for married couples, takes a new job with Rawlins, who was jilted by his bride. With Charles replaced by Mrs. Ford, Stanley's bathroom fills with beauty products and lingerie, and Stanley is kept awake by the television, which his wife watches to learn English. To make matters worse, her high-calorie Italian cuisine causes his weight to balloon, and she informs him that her mother will come from Rome to live with them.
Adjusting to his new marital status, Stanley changes his Bash Brannigan cartoon from the exploits of a secret agent to a household comedy, The Brannigans, again drawing from his real life. The strip turns Bash into a bumbling idiot and is wildly successful. However, Mrs. Ford continues to intrude on Stanley's lifestyle. Increasingly irritated by the restrictions of married life, Stanley calls a meeting of his associates at his all-male health club. When Edna learns of the meeting, she telephones Mrs. Ford and arouses her suspicions about Stanley's activities. Mrs. Ford then sneaks into the club, with the result that Stanley is banned from the club for violating its "no women" policy.
Feeling a need to vent his frustrations, Stanley concocts a plot in his comic strip to kill Brannigan's wife by drugging her with "goofballs
Barbiturate
Barbiturates are drugs that act as central nervous system depressants, and can therefore produce a wide spectrum of effects, from mild sedation to total anesthesia. They are also effective as anxiolytics, as hypnotics, and as anticonvulsants...
" and burying her in "the goop from the gloppitta-gloppitta machine
Concrete mixer
A concrete mixer is a device that homogeneously combines cement, aggregate such as sand or gravel, and water to form concrete. A typical concrete mixer uses a revolving drum to mix the components...
" at a construction site next to their home. As always, he enacts the events before drawing the strip, but after drugging his wife, he uses a department-store mannequin for the burial.
Mrs. Ford sees the cartoon describing Stanley's murder plan, realizes that her husband does not want her, and leaves without a trace. After reading the cartoon in the newspapers, the police conclude that Stanley actually murdered his wife. Stanley is arrested and charged with murder, and his cartoons are used as prosecution evidence at the subsequent trial. When the trial appears to be headed for a conviction, Stanley takes up his own defense and pleads justifiable homicide
Justifiable homicide
The United States' concept of justifiable homicide in criminal law stands on the dividing line between an excuse, justification and an exculpation. It is different from other forms of homicide in that due to certain circumstances the homicide is justified as preventing greater harm to innocents...
, appealing to the all-male jury's frustrations regarding their own wives, and is acquitted.
Stanley finds his wife in bed when he goes home. He has come to appreciate her, and, after he puts her wedding ring back on her finger, they are reconciled. Meanwhile, Charles meets Mrs. Ford's attractive mother who, like Charles, has a space between her front teeth. The film ends as Charles closes the door to her room in front of the camera so they can share an amorous moment alone.
Comic strip
The comic strip art in the film was credited to Mel Keefer, who drew strips such as Perry MasonPerry Mason
Perry Mason is a fictional character, a defense attorney who was the main character in works of detective fiction authored by Erle Stanley Gardner. Perry Mason was featured in more than 80 novels and short stories, most of which had a plot involving his client's murder trial...
, Mac Divot, and Rick O'Shay
Rick O'Shay
Rick O'Shay is a Western comic strip created by Stan Lynde in 1958. It was distributed worldwide through the Chicago Tribune Syndicate until publication ended in 1981.-Characters and story:...
. Alex Toth
Alex Toth
Alexander Toth was an American professional cartoonist active from the 1940s through the 1980s. Toth's work began in the American comic book industry, but is known for his animation designs for Hanna-Barbera throughout the 1960s and 1970s. His work included Super Friends, Space Ghost, The...
did a teaser comic in Keefer's style that ran in the Hollywood Reporter and several newspapers for ten days to promote the film.
Cast
- Jack LemmonJack LemmonJohn Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III was an American actor and musician. He starred in more than 60 films including Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Mister Roberts , Days of Wine and Roses, The Great Race, Irma la Douce, The Odd Couple, Save the Tiger John Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III (February 8, 1925June...
as Stanley Ford, a carefree playboy - Virna LisiVirna LisiVirna Lisi is a Cannes and César award-winning Italian film actress. She was born in Ancona, Marche, as Virna Lisa Pieralisi.-Early career:...
as Mrs. Ford, a "blonde bombshell" - Terry-ThomasTerry-ThomasThomas Terry Hoar Stevens was a distinctive English comic actor, known as Terry-Thomas. He was famous for his portrayal of disreputable members of the upper classes, especially cads and toffs, with the trademark gap in his front teeth, cigarette holder, smoking jacket, and catch-phrases such as...
as Charles Firbank, loyal valet to Stanley - Eddie MayehoffEddie MayehoffEddie Mayehoff was an American actor.Probably his best known role was as Harold Lampson, the henpecked husband and incompetent lawyer in the 1965 comedy movie How to Murder Your Wife....
as Harold Lampson, Stanley's envious and incompetent lawyer - Claire TrevorClaire TrevorClaire Trevor was an Academy Award-winning American actress. She was nicknamed the "Queen of Film Noir" because of her many appearances in "bad girl” roles in film noir and other black-and-white thrillers...
as Edna Lampson, Harold's shrewish, interfering wife - Mary WickesMary WickesMary Wickes was an American film and television actress.-Career:Wickes was born as Mary Isabelle Wickenhauser in St. Louis, Missouri, of German Irish Protestant extraction. She graduated at the age of eighteen with a degree in political science from Washington University in St. Louis, where she...
as Harold's secretary - Jack AlbertsonJack AlbertsonJack Albertson was an American character actor dating to vaudeville. A comedian, dancer, singer, and musician, Albertson is perhaps best known for his roles as Manny Rosen in The Poseidon Adventure , Grandpa Joe in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Amos Slade in the 1981 animated film The Fox...
as Dr. Bentley - Sidney BlackmerSidney BlackmerSidney Alderman Blackmer was an American actor.Blackmer was born and raised in Salisbury, North Carolina. He started off in an insurance and financial business but gave up on it. While working as a builder's laborer on a new building, he saw a Pearl White serial being filmed and immediately...
as Judge Blackstone - Max ShowalterMax ShowalterMax Showalter was an American film, television, and stage actor, as well as a composer, pianist, and singer. One of Showalter's most memorable roles was as Jean Peters' character's husband in the 1953 film Niagara...
as Tobey Rawlins - Alan HewittAlan HewittAlan Hewitt was an American film, television and stage actor.He never became a major star, but he did have a lengthy career which included smaller parts in several well-known programs, including Daktari, I Dream Of Jeannie, Dr...
as District Attorney - Barry KelleyBarry KelleyBarry Kelley was an actor on Broadway in the 1930s and '40s and in movies during the 1940s, '50s, and '60s. The heavy-set actor created the role of Ike in Oklahoma! on Broadway....
as Club Member in Steam Room - William BryantWilliam Bryant (actor)-Career:Born in Los Angeles, California, U.S.., Bryant was a character actor who appeared in films such as King Dinosaur , Escape from San Quentin , Experiment in Terror , with Glenn Ford, How to Murder Your Wife and The Great Race with Jack Lemmon, What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? , McQ ,...
as Construction Worker - Charles Bateman as Club Member in Steam Room
- Edward Faulkner as Club Member in Steam Room / Party Guest
- Lauren Gilbert as Men's Club Manager
Awards
- Jack Lemmon won the Golden Laurel for Male Comedy Performance at the Laurel AwardsLaurel AwardsThe Laurel Awards were cinema awards to honor pictures, actors, actresses, directors and composers. This award was created by Motion Picture Exhibitor magazine, and ran from 1958 to 1968, then 1970 and 1971....
. - Claire Trevor was nominated for Golden Laurel for Female Supporting Performance.
- Jack Lemmon was also nominated for BAFTA Film Award for Best Foreign Actor.
Cultural references
- The film is referenced in Fawlty TowersFawlty TowersFawlty Towers is a British sitcom produced by BBC Television and first broadcast on BBC2 in 1975. Twelve television program episodes were produced . The show was written by John Cleese and his then wife Connie Booth, both of whom played major characters...
in the episode "The Wedding PartyThe Wedding Party"The Wedding Party" is the third episode of the BBC sitcom Fawlty Towers.-Synopsis:Basil is disgusted when two young lovers, Alan and Jean, begin 'hanky-pankying' under his very nose while checking in. He becomes convinced that they and two other guests are engaged in group sexual misbehaviour,...
".