Strangers When We Meet (film)

Infobox Film
name = Strangers When We Meet


image_size =
caption =
director = Richard Quine
producer = Richard Quine
Bryna Productions
Richard Quine Productions
writer = Evan Hunter
narrator =
starring = Kirk Douglas
Kim Novak
Ernie Kovacs
Barbara Rush
music = George Duning
cinematography = Charles Lang
editing = Charles Nelson
distributor = Columbia Pictures
released = June 29 1960
runtime = 117 minutes
country = USA
language = English
budget =
gross =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id = 1:47223
imdb_id = 0054345

"Strangers When We Meet" is a 1960 drama film about two married neighbors who have an affair. The movie was adapted by Evan Hunter from his novel of the same name and directed by Richard Quine. The film stars Kirk Douglas, Kim Novak, Ernie Kovacs, Barbara Rush, and Walter Matthau.

The motion picture was filmed in Los Angeles, California, with additional scenes shot in Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, and Malibu.

Plot

Larry Coe (Douglas) is a Los Angeles architect who's married with two kids. He has a very bright wife, Eve (Rush). She's ambitious for him, but he wants to do work more imaginative than the commercial buildings he's designing. Maggie Gault (Novak), one of his neighbors whose son is friends with his son, helps him get a commission to build a house for an eccentric writer named Roger Alter (Kovacs). Both Larry and Maggie are dissatisfied in their marriages. Larry's wife is too hard-headed and practical and Maggie's husband isn't interested in having sex with her. So they have an affair that involves lots of walking on the beach and having drinks in oceanside hideaways. They both know what they're doing is wrong, and they each love their spouses in their own way and they're devoted to their children.

Felix Anders (Matthau) is a neighbor who snoops around and finds out about their affair. His leering and insinuations to Larry makes Larry realize the risks he's taking and he tells Maggie that they shouldn't see each other for a while. Felix, in the meantime, makes a play for Larry's wife Eve. In a way, Felix is a personification of the tawdriness of Larry and Maggie's affair. After her near-rape by Felix, Eve wises up and realizes that Larry has been unfaithful. She confronts him and they agree to stay together and move to Hawaii, where Larry has been offered a job to design a city.

Roger Alter's house is finished but still empty. Maggie drives up to take a look at it. Larry shows up and they talk about how they can never be together. Larry tells Maggie that he wishes they could live in the house and if they did, he would dig a moat around it and never leave it. Maggie says she loves him. The contractor for the house shows up and thinks Maggie is Larry's wife. They both take a moment to savor the irony of his remark and Maggie drives away. On the way out of the driveway, one of the construction workers leers at her.

Cast

*Kirk Douglas - "as" - Larry Coe
*Kim Novak - "as" - Margaret Gault
*Ernie Kovacs - "as" - Roger Altar
*Barbara Rush - "as" - Eve Coe
*Walter Matthau - "as" - Felix Anders
*Virginia Bruce - "as" - Mrs. Wagner
*Kent Smith - "as" - Stanley Baxter
*Helen Gallagher - "as" - Betty Anders
*John Bryant - "as" - Ken Gault
*Sue Ane Langdon - "as" - Daphne

Reception

"Variety" said that the film is "...easy on the eyes but hard on the intellect...an old-fashioned soap opera", and: "It is a rather pointless, slow-moving story, but it has been brought to the screen with such skill that it charms the spectator into an attitude of relaxed enjoyment, much the same effect as that produced by a casual daydream fantasy". [ [http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=print_review&reviewid=VE1117795258&categoryid=31 "Strangers When We Meet"] . - "Variety". - January 1, 1960. - Retrieved: 2008-06-08] "TIME" called the movie: "pure tripe". [ [http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,869545,00.html "The New Pictures"] . - "TIME". - July 04, 1960. - Retrieved: 2008-06-08] "Unvaried strangulated hush", is how film critic Stanley Kauffmann, in "The New Republic", described Novak's diction. [ [http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,869674,00.html U.S.] . - "TIME". - August 01, 1960. - Retrieved: 2008-06-08] Craig Butler at Allmovie says that Douglas "seems a little out of place", and that the screenplay is "predictable". [Butler, Craig. - Review: [http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=1:47223~T1 "Strangers When We Meet"] . - Allmovie. - Retrieved: 2008-06-08]

References

External links

*tcmdb title|id=3863|title=Strangers When We Meet
*Tonguette, Peter. - [http://www.thefilmjournal.com/issue12/strangerswhenwemeet.html Strangers When We Meet] . - The Film Journal