Kiss Them for Me

Starring:Cary Grant, Jayne Mansfield, Leif Erickson, Suzy Parker, Ray Walston, Larry Blyden, Nathaniel Frey, Werner Klemperer, Jack Mullaney, Larry Lo Verde, Ann McCrea, Hal Baylor, James Stone, Sue Collier, Jack Mather, Caprice Yordan, Frank Nelson (II), Kathleen Freeman, Rachel Stephens, Michael Fox
Director: Stanley Donen
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Product Type: DVD

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Cary Grant--the man who defines "movie star"--plays Andy Crewson, a Navy war hero at the tail end of World War II who cons his way into a four-day leave in San Francisco. While a slick PR guy tries to turn Grant's hero status into a well-paying job, Crewson only has eyes for Gwinnith (Suzy Parker, one of the first supermodels)--who just happens to be the fiancée of a shipbuilding tycoon. Grant is always watchable, but the rest of the movie suffers from an identity crisis; while an aspiring Congressman (Ray Walston, The Apartment) cheerfully admits joined the Navy to further his political career, a buxom young woman (Jayne Mansfield, trying very hard to be Marilyn Monroe) offers herself to everyone in uniform because she sincerely feels it's her patriotic duty. A strange blend of cynical humor and light-hearted romance. --Bret Fetzer

Description

In this light-hearted wartime comedy, three WWII Navy men orchestrate a 4-day leave for themselves in San Francisco. Once ashore, they immediately set out to make it a swinging celebration - to last as long as possible! Chief among the party-bound is Commander Andy Crewson (Cary Grant). Desperate to keep the men on the straight and narrow, Lieutenant Walter Wallace (Werner Klemperer) commits the trio to becoming spokesman at a local shipyard that's owned by a local tycoon. But before long, the rowdy Crewson is courting the shipmaker's voluptuous daughter (Jayne Mansfield) with hilarious results.

Customer Reviews:

........Cary Grant At His Best...............2007-06-06

Cary takes alotta lumps from Reviewers in here, I say he was at his best by portraying a combat carrier pilot in the middle of WW2...he injects the inner/wisdom of the stressors of carrier pilots who take off in the largest ocean on this planet, drop bombs on a tenacious enemy afloat and tries to get back to his carrier in one piece, if fortunate enough ...with all these extenuating stressors of combat [dwell on this some]...he exudes all these traits when amongst his own calling, for example in the cocktail lounge high above San Francisco [The Top Of The Mark]...he encounters a younger Navy pilot in a wheelchair in the care of a Navy Chief friendly to Grant...at first Grant doesn't recognize the hero [ MOH] in the wheelchair ...in the flash of a mental/lightening bolt, Grant now recalls this young pilot now looking gravely sick as a result of aerial combat all shot up...at that precise moment, the young pilot is now aloft doing what he loves shooting down Japanese planes, destroying ships so on and so on...Grant is right with him all the way...that is a gift of an accomplished actor is Cary Grant [outside of Cary Grant]...that one scene is the BONDING of combat veterans, the rock-solid camraderie that civilians can't even recognize; let alone feel....but Grant and his comrades eminate this throughout the picture even up to the final fadeout...heading back into the war come hell or high water...heroes, of course, but the unherald types; yet, never ending mortal/combat can be such a gripping elixir to cetain men that many in here just draw a blank expression...whoever wrote this screen/play was a man of such Naval combat ilk and Grant comes through as the excellent actor who knows his character...another heart-tugging scene, when Harry Carey, Jr comes into the hotel party drunker than a skunk and blurts out their carrier was sunk!!...Grant and his buddies sink, too, with guilt as they are on an R&R... had they not...they probably would have died with their shipmates...no, this is not a bummer of a movie; conversely, a well thoughtout film about men at war, tired of killing, but it is still a long war: tomorrow-tomorrow-tomorrow, etc and that's all they know...the long and endless fight to end it, and hopefully, try to get on with a peaceful life thereafter...oh, for the record, Suzy Parker is a 100% dud of an actress, just awful...now that is your bummer!!........SSGT CHRIS SARNO-USMC FMF

not for families.......2006-11-24

OK, I learned that just because a movie is not rated and was made in the 1950s doesn't mean it's good for families. This movie made a joke of infidelity. Cary Grant's was the main character and his goal was to "get drunk and chase girls." There was no redeeming quality in him except being a good pilot. It's a pretty cynical movie as well.

Jayne wanted to be in a Cary Grant movie at all cost,and the result is a DISASTER.......2006-07-19

Poor Jayne,and the mistakes she made in her short film career.Read any biography about Jayne,and you will have to agree that she should have never accepted this role.Why did she do it? Her life-long competition with Marilyn is the only explanation.MM had been in a Cary Grant movie (Monkey Business),so Jayne just had to do the same.Interestingly enough,in the 2 Cary Grant biographies I read,the film is not even mentionned...Jayne fighting for the attention of Grant with the beautiful model turned actress,Suzy Parker,ends up looking like a female-impersonator,and not a good one.In 1957 Jayne was in a position where she could have refused that tacky role,but instead she sure is in this bomb.Cary Grant was obviouly in it for the money,and his 'I'm so cool,i can't believe it-kind of acting' just doesn't cut it this time.Jayne is the fifth wheel,and just looks like she doesn't belong-No chemistry whatsoever,and everyone in the film looks embarrassed for her.Even her clothes don't even have the feeling of a movie that is supposed to be set in the 1940's.You end up with the feeling that she is an unwelcomed guest on the film-set.
Get the DVD,but don't pay more than a buck for it !

Fun, But Not Classic Cary Grant Comedy With A Good Jayne Mansfield Performance.......2005-09-08

By 1957 Cary Grant had his screen characterisations down pat and was able to move effortlessly through comic roles like this one in "Kiss Them For Me". Never could "Kiss then For Me", be called his best effort in a decade that saw most of his famous collaborations with director Alfred Hitchcock in "To Catch a Thief", and "North by North West", bring him renewed popularity at the Box Office, however he works very effectively with a very different type of director here in Stanley Donen. Grant would enjoy one of his greatest successes under Donen's direction in the early 1960's with the classic "Charade", with Audrey Hepburn and while this is a much lesser effort that great comic timing and style is very evident. At first glance having Jayne Mansfield as his leading lady might not be what you would expect in a Cary Grant movie having become used to the Irene Dunne's and Katherine Hepburn's as his leading ladies in his earlier triumphs however the two make an interesting team. I find this to be one of Mansfield's more pleasing performances where she gets to utilise her vastly underestimated comic abilities which of course are still wrapped up in the screen persona of the luscious blonde bombshell, a la Marilyn Monroe, which she sadly always found herself lumbered with. Cynical comedy is always hard to put over effectively on screen but Grant does his usual fine job as a navy war hero on a four day leave of duty at the end of World War II who along with his mates find themselves the targets of a cynical money making PR campaign promoting the war effort.

Not a great Cary Grant movie, not a bad movie.......2004-07-04

"Kiss Them For Me" is a 1957 movie staring Cary Grant as Commander Andy Crewson who is able to get four days shore leave for himself and three of his buddies in San Francisco. While there, they meet women (Jayne Mansfield, Suzy Parker), old friends from the navy and when they are offer safe state-side jobs, these fun loving flyers realize that being in combat with buddies is what matters most.
For me, these was not the best Cary Grant movie that I have seen so far. But it was pretty decent, but clearly Grant's earlier works were better.

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