Kiss Them for Me (film)

Plot

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

Blonde bombshell Alice Kratzner (Jayne 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 Lieutenant McCann (Ray Walston), a married man who also is in the process of running for a Congressional seat back home in Massachusetts. If he is elected, McCann can leave the Navy immediately and return to civilian life.

Lieutenant Wallace (Werner Klemperer) tries to get the three pilots, including "Mississip'" (Larry Blyden), to make morale-raising speeches at the plants of shipyard magnate Eddie Turnbill (Leif Erickson), so that Turnbill will vouch for the men with the Navy and also to grease a lucrative 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 (Suzy 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.

Production

Frederic Wakeman Sr, (1909-1998) worked in the advertising industry until leaving Lord & Thomas to serve in the United States Navy in the Pacific from 1942-1943., Recovering in a Naval Hospital, he wrote his first novel Shore Leave basing the character of Andy Crewson on an actual decorated Naviator. It was published in 1944

In 1945 the recently discharged Luther Davis acquired the rights to Wakeman's novel turning it into a play called Kiss Them for Me. The play ran for 110 performances from March 20, 1945 to June 23, 1945 featuring Richard Widmark as Crewson and Judy Holliday as Alice, The success of the novel and play led Wakeman to a seven year writer contract with MGM where he wrote his second novel The Hucksters that was filmed by MGM with a screenplay by Davis. Producer Jerry Wald acquired the rights to both the novel and play in September 1956.

When Wald acquired the property Richard Widmark was approached to reprise his Crewson role, but once Cary Grant expressed interest in the project Widmark was forgotten. The film was the first of four collaborations between Stanley Donen and Grant.

The screenplay toned done many cynical anti-war profiteer dialogues of the play and made the Alice character a war worker rather than a "Victory Girl". The film was the feature film debut of both Ray Walston and Nathanial Frey who had appeared together in Damn Yankees on stage.

The film was shot on various locations in San Francisco. At the end of the film, USS Boxer (CV-21), an Essex Class aircraft carrier, can be seen launching a Douglas A-1 Skyraider type aircraft. (The Skyraider type was not actually used in World War II.)

Reception

When released in late 1957, Kiss Them for Me was greeted with negative reviews. Critics called the film "vapid" and "ill-advised"; not to mention "no good". When the film didn't regain its production costs, Twentieth Century-Fox appeared to punish cast members, especially Jayne Mansfield, whose career was tossed on the back burner by the studio. Mansfield was resilient, however, and after several more years of starring roles landed on the Top 10 list of Box Office Attractions for 1963.

In popular culture

The English band Siouxsie and the Banshees used the movie's name in the title and lyrics of their 1991 release "Kiss Them for Me". The song is an ode to Jayne Mansfield and her death while driving from Biloxi to New Orleans in 1967.