Thursday, February 23, 2023

Movie review - "The Notorious Landlady" (1962) **

Odd fish. Jack Lemmon is an American diplomat in London who moves into a rental owned by landlady Kim Novak who is American. Fred Astaire is Lemmon's boss and Lionel Jeffries steals the film as a British cop. Turns out the rumour is that Novak killed her husband.

Some talented people - the script is credited to Larry Gelbart and Blake Edwards, Richard Quine directed. Lemmon acts his tail off. Novak tries as she always seemed to and is erratic in her way - charismatic, beautiful, poor then effective in the one scene and back again.  That English accent in her opening scene is pretty whiffy.

It doesn't work. I like these actors. It's a little all over the shop. Why is it in London? As a farce it's spread out. Is it funny? You could cut Astaire out of the film. Lemmon never believably falls for Novak, even if she does look good and goes topless in a bath (flashes a bare back - the times were a changin').

I mean it's got stars. It's not in colour. I don't know what to think or say. It annoyed me. Wasn't for me.

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