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How To Murder Your Wife Details

1965 DVD Certificate PG.gif
  • Rated:
  • 70
  • from 632 members

Cartoonist Stanley Ford, a confirmed bachelor, attends a party one evening... and is bewitched by a blonde Italian knockout who pops out of a cake. Then he does a very stupid thing. He marries her on the spot. Though his new wife is a happy homemaker, a man's man like Stanley has no stomach for domestic bliss. When his attempts .. Read more

Starring Jack Lemmon, Virna Lisi
Director Richard Quine
Genres Comedy

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How To Murder Your Wife

Cartoonist Stanley Ford, a confirmed bachelor, attends a party one evening... and is bewitched by a blonde Italian knockout who pops out of a cake. Then he does a very stupid thing. He marries her on the spot. Though his new wife is a happy homemaker, a man's man like Stanley has no stomach for domestic bliss. When his attempts at separation fail, he gets an idea. Known for always acting out his hero's scenarios before putting ink to page, he stages her murder and sketches a cartoon based on the scheme. When his wife sees the funny pages, she is frightened and vanishes. Mission accomplished. Not so fast, however, as the police appear and now want to ask him a few questions about his wife's whereabouts...

Starring Jack Lemmon, Virna Lisi
Director Richard Quine
Studio MGM ENTERTAINMENT
Run time DVD: 1 hr 54 mins
Certificate DVD Certificate PG.gif
Genres Comedy
Language English
Released DVD: 24 Jan 2005
Production year: 1965
Format DVD

  • Critics' reviews (2) of How To Murder Your Wife

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  • 4 stars out of 5

    Confirmed bachelor Jack Lemmon wakes up after a night on the town married to luscious Virna Lisi, much to the dismay of his faithful butler Terry-Thomas, in director Richard Quine's brilliant politically incorrect comedy scripted by producer George Axelrod. Thereafter, strip-cartoonist Lemmon's action-man character Bash Brannigan becomes cosily domesticated. To placate his fans, who want Brannigan restored to bachelorhood, Lemmon kills off his cartoon hero's wife; but then Lisi disappears and Lemmon finds himself accused of murder. Scenes to cherish involve the “galopita-galopita” machine and the courtroom pressing of an imaginary button, while the long-married double act of Eddie Mayehoff and Claire Trevor shows just how far the battle of the sexes can go and still keep us laughing.

    • Radio Times
    • Posted 29 Jan 2006
  • 1 stars out of 4

    Amusing preliminaries give way to dreary plot complications and an overlong courtroom scene. Leave after the first hour.

    • Halliwell's Film Guide
    • Posted 02 Mar 2006

  • Most helpful member's review of How To Murder Your Wife

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  • 4 out of 4 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 5 stars

    A great example of its time

    This is the quintessential 60's light comedy, slick Hollywood at its best. Ardent feminists may get the vapours, but really it's just a product of its time, and well re-mastered too. Great performances - Lemmon in his prime, Terry-Thomas proving just how good he really was, and heaps of glamour and indeed talent from an exceptional supporting cast. Virna Lisi is the eye-candy, and a script by George Axelrod - it's a classic all round. No heavy political comment, but if you fancy a light frothy romp, you won't be disappointed.

      • A customer from Cardiff Boy
      • Posted 05 Feb 2005 19:00

  • Most recent members' review of How To Murder Your Wife

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  • Rated - 3 stars

    How to kill two hours

    First - what makes it worth watching. I loved the sheer audacity of the central premise and the way it is developed, the avoidance of a conventional romantic scenario, the interplay between the superbly cast Lemmon and Terry-Thomas, and the hedonistic, uninhibited '60s atmosphere. I also like films about cartoonists, especially where they use their own lives as an inspiration.

    What I didn't care for so much - the humour often seemed naive and didn't really work for me. It was perhaps a bit too reliant on ethnic and sexual stereotyping: the wild, impulsive, hot-blooded Italian female. Also the 'battle of the sexes' theme - the women are manipulative control freaks and the men are put-upon wretches who just want a little 'me-time' - inevitably seems bit old-fashioned today.

    Given its savagely cynical take on marriage and gender relations, the film's ending struck me as rather bland and I think that a darker and more ambivalent conclusion might have been in order.

    Overall, though, a highly original and well-realised picture which is definitely worth watching.

      • HuddsOn from Huddersfield
      • Posted 07 Mar 2009 18:25

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Rating breakdown

632 Member ratings
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76
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43
  • 80
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  • 70
119
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117
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60
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41
  • 30
31
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25
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12

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      • Cartoonist Stanley Ford, a confirmed bachelor, attends a party one evening... and is bewitched by a blonde Italian knockout who pops out of a cake. Then he does a very stupid thing. He marries her on ...