Trailer
Plot summary
Dino, a Las Vegas singer with a heavy thirst and an appetite for women, is driving from Las Vegas to Los Angeles when he stops for gas in Climax, Nevada. Barney, the gas station attendant, writes songs with Orville, the town's piano teacher, and the two want Dino to sing one of them on an upcoming television special. Barney disables the car so Dino must stay until new parts arrive. Orville, a jealous husband married to Zelda, offers Dino a room, then learns that Dino needs a woman every night or he wakes with a headache. Orville provokes an argument with Zelda until she leaves, and he and Barney bring in Polly the Pistol, a waitress and prostitute who works at the Belly Button saloon, to pass as Orville's wife.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Kiss Me, Stupid (1964)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Peter Sellers was signed to play Orville Spooner, but six weeks into filming he suffered a series of 13 heart attacks and was hospitalized; after he was ordered to rest for six months, Billy Wilder replaced him and reshot all his scenes.
- Billy Wilder first offered the role of Orville Spooner to Jack Lemmon, whom he had directed in Some Like It Hot, The Apartment and Irma la Douce, but prior commitments forced Lemmon to turn it down.
- The role of Polly the Pistol was written for Marilyn Monroe, and after her death in 1962 filming was postponed; Jayne Mansfield was reported as her replacement but had to withdraw because of her pregnancy, and Kim Novak eventually took the part, returning from a two-year absence.
- Ira Gershwin wrote lyrics to unpublished music by his late brother George for the songs Barney and Orville perform, and three new Gershwin songs, "Sophia", "I'm a Poached Egg" and "All the Livelong Day", debuted in the film.
- The Catholic Legion of Decency condemned the film, the first American film so designated since Baby Doll in 1956, after Billy Wilder refused most of its demands, and as a result United Artists released it under the banner of its Lopert Pictures subsidiary.
- Dean Martin's unflattering turn as the singer "Dino" was a forerunner of the modern trend of celebrities doing comic send-ups of themselves on film.
- The opening sequence was filmed at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas using a portion of Dean Martin's actual stage show and the hotel's marquee from his engagement there, and the car Martin drove in the film was his own.
- A 2002 print shown in several U.S. cities restored the originally shot seduction scene in Polly's trailer, which had been replaced by a tamer version Wilder supplied in hope of satisfying the Catholic Legion of Decency.
