Kiss Them for Me (film)

Infobox Film
name = Kiss Them for Me


caption = DVD cover of the film
director = Stanley Donen
producer = Sol C. Siegel
writer = Luther Davis
Julius J. Epstein
Frederic Wakeman
starring = Cary Grant
Jayne Mansfield
Leif Erickson
Werner Klemperer
Suzy Parker
music =
cinematography =
editing =
distributor = Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation
released = flagicon|United States 10 December, 1957
flagicon|Sweden 17 January, 1958
flagicon|Denmark 13 October, 1958
runtime = 105 min.
country = U.S.A.
language = English
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0050599

"Kiss Them for Me" is a 1957 screwball comedy film directed by Stanley Donen and starring Cary Grant, Jayne Mansfield, Leif Erickson, Ray Walston, Werner Klemperer and Suzy Parker.

Plot

Three decorated Navy pilots finagle a four-day leave in San Francisco. They manage to land a posh suite at a hotel and Commander Crewson (Grant), a master of procurement, arranges to populate it with wine, women and song.

Alice Kratzner (Mansfield) is one of these women, lured to the suite under the false pretense that Crewson has a stash of nylon stockings. Once there, she is naturally attracted to Crewson, but later turns her attention to Lt. McCann (Walston), a married man who also is in the process of running for a Congressional seat back home in Connecticut. If he is elected, McCann can leave the Navy immediately and return to civilian life.

Lieutenant Wallace (Klemperer) tries to get the three pilots, including Mississip (Larry Blyden), to make morale-raising speeches at the plants of shipyard magnate Eddie Turnbill (Erickson), so that Turnbill will vouch for the men with the Navy and also to grease a popular job for himself upon leaving the service. Crewson and his cohorts, however, are physically and mentally exhausted from the war and simply want to enjoy a few days away from it.

Suffering from combat stress and confronted with a number of reminders of the horrors of war, Crewson tries to amuse himself by making a play for Turnbill's attractive fiancée, Gwinneth Livingston (Parker). She resists his advances at first, but ultimately throws her engagement ring in Turnbill's face. Crewson declares his love for her shortly before he and his mates board a plane leaving San Francisco to return to duty.

Commentary

Grant fought to make this movie, as he wanted to bring out into the open the ongoing problem of what is now labeled Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, but the studio wanted another "light-hearted war comedy".Fact|date=December 2007

The script points out the differences in attitude and perception between combat veterans and both civilians and those in the military who spend the war safely at home.

Cast

Cary Grant ... Lieutenant Commander Andy Crewson
Jayne Mansfield ... Alice Kratzner
Leif Erickson ... Eddie Turnbill
Suzy Parker ... Gwinneth Livingston
Ray Walston ... Lieutenant McCann
Larry Blyden ... Mississip
Nathaniel Frey ... CPO Ruddle
Werner Klemperer ... Lt. Walter Wallace

External links

*imdb title|title=Kiss Them for Me|id=0050599