How to Murder Your Wife (1965)

Country: USA
Director: Richard Quine
Production Co: MGM
Genre: Comedy
Rating: 6.6/10
Length: 118 mins

Storyline

Stanley Ford leads an idyllic bachelor life. He is a nationally syndicated cartoonist whose Bash Brannigan series provides him with a luxury townhouse and a full-time valet, Charles. When he wakes up the morning after the night before - he had attended a friend's stag party - he finds that he is married to the very beautiful woman who popped out of the cake - and who doesn't speak a word of English. Despite his initial protestations, he comes to like married life and even changes his cartoon character from a super spy to a somewhat harried husband. When after several months he decides to kill off Bash's wife in the cartoon, his wife misinterprets his intentions and disappears. Which leads the police to charge him with murder.—garykmcd

Plot Keywords

misogyny, surprise ending, breaking the fourth wall, black comedy, butler, farce, lust, uxoricide, language barrier, newlywed couple, new york city, misogynist, bachelor, murder trial, husband wife reunion, sexism, sexist, dysfunctional marriage, close up of mouth, close up of eyes

Short Review

A nimble comedy that doesn't make much sense because it makes nonsense, most of it screechingly funny and played by knockabouts who know that the slapstick was invented for keeping an idea aloft, not for beating it into the ground.