How to Murder Your Wife

Some comedies simply don't age well, which is certainly the case with this slick 1965 battle-of-the-sexes romp that today comes across as almost smugly misogynistic. Jack Lemmon stars as Stanley Ford, a famous comic-strip writer known for personally testing the plausibility of scenarios he constructs for his secret-agent hero, Bash Brannigan. After Stanley gets drunk at a bachelor party and marries the vivacious, non-English-speaking Italian immigrant (Virna Lisi) who bursts out of a cake, he suddenly finds her taking over his life—so he draws up a plan on his sketch pad for Bash to dispose of her. When Mrs. Ford sees the drawing, however, she understandably disappears, leaving Stanley to face a murder charge—although he will aim for acquittal from the all-male jury by offering a scalding harangue against marriage and supine husbands. Lemmon displays his trademark farcical skill here, falling in easily with director Richard Quine's smoothly sarcastic style, while Lisi is extraordinarily beautiful as Mrs. Ford. The film also features expert supporting turns from Terry-Thomas as Ford's snide butler, Eddie Mayehoff as a henpecked lawyer, and Claire Trevor as Mayehoff's overbearing spouse. How to Murder Your Wife might have seemed rib-tickling in the Swinging Sixties, but its portrayal of women now comes across as more than a little crass. Still, this will appeal to Lemmon fans willing to make allowance for its distinctly dated attitudes. A strong optional purchase. (F. Swietek)