Tripti Joshi (Editor)

Kisses for My President

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Director
  
Curtis Bernhardt

Music by
  
Bronislaw Kaper

Duration
  

Language
  
English

5.4/10
IMDb

Genre
  
Comedy

Cinematography
  
Robert Surtees

Country
  
United States

Kisses for My President movie poster

Release date
  
December 4, 1964 (1964-12-04)

Writer
  
Claude Binyon (screenplay), Robert G. Kane (screenplay), Robert G. Kane (from a story by)

Cast
  
Fred MacMurray
(Thad McCloud),
Polly Bergen
(U.S. President Leslie McCloud),
Eli Wallach
(Raphael Valdez Jr.),
Arlene Dahl
(Doris Reid Weaver),
Edward Andrews
(Sen. Walsh),
William Walker
(Joseph)

Similar movies
  
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
,
Village People
,
Fancy Pants
,
El día del presidente
,
El gran mogollón
,
G.I. Joe: Retaliation

Tagline
  
First male "first lady" takes Washington by storm.

Tcm sunday matinee kisses for my president intro


Kisses for My President is a 1964 comedy film directed by Curtis Bernhardt, starring Fred MacMurray and Polly Bergen. Leslie McCloud (Bergen) makes history when she is elected the first female President of the United States. However, her husband Thad McCloud (MacMurray) is less enthusiastic.

Contents

Kisses for My President movie scenes

It was the last feature directed by Bernhardt, whose career stretched back to the silent era.

Kisses for My President wwwgstaticcomtvthumbmovieposters3795p3795p

Plot summary

The United States elects its first female President in the form of Leslie McCloud (Polly Bergen). She and her first gentleman, Thad (Fred MacMurray), move into the White House with their daughter Gloria (Ahna Capri) and son Peter (Ronnie Dapo).

Immediately, the new President is too busy for her husband and family as she deals with a powerful opposition Senator Walsh (Edward Andrews), and a Central America dictator Raphael Valdez Jr. (Eli Wallach).

Thad attempts to find something meaningful to do as the "first lady". Much time is given to the husband's chagrin at being assigned an ultra-feminine bedroom and office within the White House. It is clear that no one, especially Thad McCloud, has given any thought to how a President's husband might fit into the scheme of things.

Enter Doris Reid Weaver (Arlene Dahl), Thad's former flame and now an international business woman. She wants Thad back—and during a seductive visit, offers to make him Vice-President of her cosmetics company as bait. Leslie smells Doris's perfume on her husband that night, and confronts him.

Leslie has asked him to show visiting dictator Valdez around Washington, with disastrous results, as Thad brawls with a male diner at a burlesque show they are all attending. To further complicate things, the first daughter is running around town with a very unsuitable boyfriend and using her position to get out of scrapes with the police. Son Peter has become a bully, using his Secret Service men for protection as he terrorizes everyone in his school—including the principal.

The President's husband ultimately finds an important role in a Cold War subplot that resembles the rise and fall of Senator McCarthy, when Thad proves that Senator Walsh blindly supports the Latin American dictator for reasons that are not patriotic. Senator Walsh aggressively portrays the Madame President as weak in resisting Communism because she has the humanitarian integrity to refuse to give dictator Valdez more "foreign aid" money for his personal enrichment while he does nothing to alleviate poverty in his country. The Russians are also co-funding Valdez to prevent him from being influenced exclusively by the United States. As soon as the Madame President drops her support for the dictator, the Russians do so as well.

Leslie then discovers that she is pregnant, and resigns the presidency to devote herself full-time to her family.

Cast

  • Fred MacMurray as Thad McCloud
  • Polly Bergen as U.S. President Leslie McCloud
  • Eli Wallach as Raphael Valdez Jr.
  • Arlene Dahl as Doris Reid Weaver
  • Edward Andrews as Sen. Walsh
  • Donald May as Secret Service Agent John O'Connor
  • Harry Holcombe as Vice President Bill Richards
  • Ahna Capri as Gloria McCloud (as Anna Capri)
  • Ronnie Dapo as Peter McCloud
  • Richard St. John as Jackson
  • Bill Walker as Joseph
  • Adrienne Marden as Miss Higgins
  • Wilbert G. Nuttycombe as Musician
  • Norma Varden as Miss Dinsendorff
  • John Banner as Soviet Ambassador
  • Jon Lormer as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
  • Eleanor Audley as Principal Osgood
  • Beverly Powers (aka Miss Beverly Hills) as Nana Peel
  • Lillian Bronson as Miss Currier
  • Reception

    Bosley Crowther of The New York Times panned the movie on account of corniness. He commented, "...All that one can say is that we hope the first woman to become President brings along a more amusing husband than Mr. MacMurray and a more imaginative team of writers than Mr. Binyon and Mr. Kane." He also criticized Bernhardt for taking "a dim view of the prospect of a woman as President. It wouldn't be funny! That's what his picture says."

    References

    Kisses for My President Wikipedia
    Kisses for My President IMDb Kisses for My President themoviedb.org