MovieChat Forums > Kiss Them for Me (1957) Discussion > What a strange, oddly subversive 'Comedy...

What a strange, oddly subversive 'Comedy'....

posted 11 years ago by moviethrush
3 replies | jump to latest

....finally caught up with this one on Netflix, not a moment too soon..the day before it expired.
I was expecting a typically frothy 1950's "lovable goldbricks in the navy"
comedy...maybe like "On The Town", only without the songs.....I watched fairly astounded at the scenes that dealt with the three men's disaffection from the
war and their overwhelming desire to get themselves out of harm's way. At some point, I think the film was vaguely hinting about their post-traumatic stress
symptoms. In the middle of all this bubbly farce (with Jayne Mansfield literally squealing like a stuck pig), witness Cary Grant's bitter, outraged tirade at Lief Erikson......inside this supposed comedy...it's as if there's an
alternate version of "The Best Years Of Their Lives" struggling to get out.

[–] Gatorman9 10 years ago

This movie always reminded me of the TV series MASH (not so much the movie). I have always been inclined to think that it didn't do well at the box office because it was at least a dozen years too early.

[–] pmiano100 10 years ago

I can't really agree. I can't see Hawkeye or Trapper John eager at the end (as these men were) to return to combat for anyone or any reason, and as usual, the actors were way too old for their roles. They were just guys on leave, taking what they could get. That's been the way of things since the military instituted tours of duty and furloughs. I was in Vietnam, and that's how my week in Australia was for me, although I didn't mix in such high-end circles. I was only a 19 year-old Sp/6 at the time, and no Cary Grant. It was a bad picture, and that's why it failed. But it did point out one very big truth of war - ultimately you are usually fighting more for your "buddies" than anything else.

[–] iwals 10 years ago

My understanding, according to Ben Mancawitz (sp?), is that this was originally written as a play without comedy, whose point was to indict war profiteers and the developing military-industrial complex. I really liked it and gave it a 7. It's not Grant's best movie, but I felt his character did have depth in this movie that wouldn't have been there in a simple farce.

Nobody gets to be a cowboy forever.