Tuesday, October 5, 2010

The Notorious Landlady

Diplomat Jack Lemmon rents an apartment from landlady Kim Novak who is suspected of having killed her husband. Directed by Richard Quine, screenplay co-written by Blake Edwards and also starring Fred Astaire as Lemmon's employer.

It's a bland title for a bland film, but not all old black and white films can be classics, I suppose. At more than two hours it's far too long, and there's not much chemistry going on between Lemmon and Novak. It's fun to see old Astaire in a non dancing part, he's still got class, but he doesn't get a lot to do. The ending is sort of Hitchcockian, or could have been with a better director. Well, at least I managed to sit through it unlike Quine's How To Murder Your Wife. Next, to end this, a real classic: Some Like It Hot.

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