The Notorious Landlady (1962)

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Mrs. Carly Hardwicke (Kim Novak) has difficulties renting out a room in her London home. Everybody suspects her of killing her husband although he's only missing. Newly-arrived American diplomat Bill Gridley (Jack Lemmon) knows nothing of her infamy. He rents her room despite her reluctance. She even pretends to be Hildy at first. He is completely taken by her beauty. Ambassador Franklyn Ambruster (Fred Astaire) is his new boss. Police Inspector Oliphant has been observing Hardwicke and suspects her of poisoning her husband. Oliphant convinces Bill to start snooping around.With scriptwriters Blake Edwards and Larry Gelbart, this has moments of good screwball comedy. Jack Lemmon is the man to deliver that. However, the comedy doesn't maintain to the end. There are sections where it drags. There are sections where it gets dark. I get breaking into the bathroom to see a naked Kim Novak in the tub. I don't think Jack Lemmon has to shoot out the door. Fred Astaire isn't as fun. This is fun at times but not all the time.

Kim Novak is "The Notorious Landlady" in this 1962 Columbia film starring Jack Lemmon, Fred Astaire, Estelle Winwood, and Lionel Jeffries.William Gridley (Lemmon) is a junior diplomat assigned to London who comes to look at rooms for rent by one Mrs. Hardwicke (Novak). As soon as Gridley lays eyes on her, he wants the room. At first she says she's the maid and can't rent to him, but she drops the pretense and allows herself to be talked into giving him the rooms, though she preferred a couple.When his boss, Franklyn Ambruster (Astaire) hears the name of Gridley's landlady, it sounds familiar. It takes him a couple of minutes to find out that she is suspected of murdering her husband and remains the talk of London. The police, headed up by Inspector Oliphant, want Gridley to see what he can find out. Gridley, of course, is sure that his landlady is incapable of murder.The plot thickens and so does the comedy, leading to an atypical trial and finally to a chase scene out of the Keystone Kops. Along the way there's blackmail, fire, a witness, poison, and a few other things.As good as I thought this film was, and as much as I like Kim Novak (who designed her own clothes and they're gorgeous - she could have had a second career) I thought she could have added to the comedy a little more, although she's just fine as the beautiful, mysterious Mrs. Hardwicke. Jack Lemmon is delightful as the confused Gridley, and Lionel Jeffries is a standout as the exasperated Inspector. Fred Astaire makes an elegant Ambruster. Estelle Winwood, as an elderly neighborhood, is on hand for some fun comedy.Very entertaining film, recommended, especially given the stars. Written by Larry Gelbart and Blake Edwards.

"The Notorious Landlady" exemplifies how all the right ingredients can add up to a failed movie. Jack Lemmon, Kim Novak, and Fred Astaire are megawatt stars. The look of the film is great; high quality, deeply textured black and white film stock records interesting, early sixties sets. The direction is the weak point. The film never comes together. It badly needs to be edited; it should be at least 25 percent shorter. Much of the humor is derived from extended dirty jokes about Kim Novak's spectacular figure. Jack Lemmon leers and gawks and cops feels. Yuch, not yuck. Even Fred Astaire steals a kiss. Sad, undignified, and not funny.The movie is clunky, awkward, and badly pieced together. Parts are leering dirty joke, parts are murder mystery and courtroom drama, parts are attempts at broad humor, and other parts are painfully bad romantic comedy. Jack Lemmon comes across as a very creepy, overbearing, almost stalker-like tenant. At one point he shoots the lock off of his landlady's bathroom and walks in on her as she is bathing. The audience that will find this scene appealing is, one would hope, very small, and certainly deranged and unaware of appropriate courtship behaviors.Sadly, according to IMDb comments, the director, Richard Quine, killed himself because he lacked the skill to make frothy romantic comedies. One can only shake one's head at the irony of that.

For a '62 film, it's a great parady of detective films,as well as the great wheelchair scene at the end.Great mystery,Kim Novak and Jack Lemmon had paired before and did well.