# Kiss Me, Stupid
*Kiss Me, Stupid* is a 1964 American sex farce directed, produced, and co-written by [Billy Wilder](https://www.edgepedia.org/billy-wilder), in which a small-town songwriter schemes to sell his songs to a famous singer by setting him up with a prostitute posing as the songwriter's wife. It stars [Dean Martin](https://www.edgepedia.org/dean-martin) as a carousing parody of himself, [Ray Walston](https://www.edgepedia.org/ray-walston), Kim Novak, Felicia Farr, and Cliff Osmond, and it became one of the most controversial American films of its day.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/22371-KISS-MESTUPID) • [2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/198675/kiss-me-stupid)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | 126 minutes; Los Angeles opening 18 December 1964, New York opening 22 December 1964[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/22371-KISS-MESTUPID) |
| Credits | Directed, produced, and co-written by Billy Wilder with I. A. L. Diamond; cinematography by Joseph LaShelle; music by André Previn[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/22371-KISS-MESTUPID) |
| Source | "Very vaguely based" on the 1945 Italian play *L'ora della fantasia* by Anna Bonacci[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/22371-KISS-MESTUPID) |
| Setting | Climax, Nevada, a small town near Las Vegas[3](https://www.viennale.at/en/films/kiss-me-stupid) |
| Casting change | Peter Sellers was originally cast as Orville; after a series of six minor strokes in April 1964 he was replaced by Ray Walston[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/198675/kiss-me-stupid) |
| Music | Three songs were unpublished George Gershwin compositions with new lyrics by his brother Ira Gershwin, selected from seventeen unpublished Gershwin works[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/22371-KISS-MESTUPID) |
| Censorship | Condemned by the Legion of Decency, the first American film to receive that rating since *Baby Doll* (1956)[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/198675/kiss-me-stupid) |
| Later standing | Metascore 63 (generally favorable); 75% on the Tomatometer from 32 reviews[4](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/kiss-me-stupid/critic-reviews/) • [5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/kiss_me_stupid) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
Dino, a popular singer played by Dean Martin, finishes an engagement on the [Las Vegas Strip](https://www.edgepedia.org/las-vegas-strip) and drives his convertible toward Los Angeles, but a highway detour forces him through the small town of Climax, Nevada. At the gas station he meets Barney Millsap (Cliff Osmond), an amateur songwriter who works with Orville J. Spooner (Ray Walston), the local piano teacher. The two men sabotage Dino's car, telling him parts must be sent from Milan, so they can pitch their songs to him.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/198675/kiss-me-stupid)
Orville fears that his attractive wife Zelda ([Felicia Farr](https://www.edgepedia.org/felicia-farr)) would become one of Dino's conquests, so he picks a quarrel that drives her out of the house. He then arranges for a local waitress and call girl, Polly the Pistol ([Kim Novak](https://www.edgepedia.org/kim-novak)), to pose as his wife, hoping that sex will put Dino in the mood to buy the songs. Meanwhile Zelda gets drunk at a bar and meets the lonely singer.[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/kiss_me_stupid) • [2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/198675/kiss-me-stupid)
## Production and casting
Wilder came to the project at a commercial peak: his 1963 film *Irma la Douce* had made over $25 million, and he had a string of ten hits in a row going back to *Stalag 17* (1953). He and his co-screenwriting partner I. A. L. Diamond, who had recently signed a three-picture contract with the Mirisch Company, first planned to produce *The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes*, but postponed it because the intended star [Peter O'Toole](https://www.edgepedia.org/peter-otoole) was unavailable.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/198675/kiss-me-stupid) • [1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/22371-KISS-MESTUPID)
The project was provisionally titled *The Dazzling Hour*, announced in March 1963 as [Peter Sellers](https://www.edgepedia.org/peter-sellers)'s first starring role in an American production, with [Jack Lemmon](https://www.edgepedia.org/jack-lemmon) also considered. Wilder had wanted Lemmon and his real-life wife Felicia Farr for the Spooners, but Lemmon's commitments forced a change. After six weeks of shooting, Sellers suffered a series of six minor strokes after a day off at [Disneyland](https://www.edgepedia.org/disneyland) on April 6, 1964, and returned to England under doctor's orders for six months' rest. Wilder hired Ray Walston, who had played a memorable supporting role in *The Apartment* and was then starring in the CBS series *My Favorite Martian*. Sellers later criticized the atmosphere on Wilder's set to a London newspaper, and Wilder, Martin, Novak, and Farr sent him a telegram calling him an "unprofessional rat fink."[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/22371-KISS-MESTUPID) • [2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/198675/kiss-me-stupid)
**Dean Martin as Dino.** The casting turns reality in on itself: there is no attempt to pretend the character is anyone other than Martin, who is given his real tabloid attributes, including his [Rat Pack](https://www.edgepedia.org/rat-pack) coziness and his appetite for wine and women. The opening sequence was filmed at the Sands during an actual Martin engagement, billed on the marquee with just a caricature and the one name Dino, and the Dual Ghia convertible Dino drives into Climax was Martin's own car.[6](https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/kiss-me-stupid) • [2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/198675/kiss-me-stupid)
The music is a notable detail of the production. Sammy Cahn and James Van Heusen were originally hired as songwriters but had other obligations, so Wilder asked his friend [Ira Gershwin](https://www.edgepedia.org/ira-gershwin) to contribute. Gershwin suggested writing new lyrics to long-lost music by his late brother George, and three songs drawn from unfinished or unused material, including the 1937 Astaire-Rogers musical *Shall We Dance*, debuted in the film.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/22371-KISS-MESTUPID) • [2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/198675/kiss-me-stupid)
## Censorship and controversy
Wilder and Diamond were deliberately testing the limits of American censorship organizations, and the fight came. The film was passed by the Production Code Administration in the waning years of that office; PCA head Geoffrey Shurlock told colleagues, "If dogs want to return to their vomit, I'm not going to stop them." The Catholic Legion of Decency was another matter. Wilder met personally with Monsignor Little of the Legion and reshot parts of a key scene near the end to soften the implication that Zelda had committed adultery with Dino, but he refused other demanded changes, partly on principle and partly because Kim Novak was in England shooting another film and unavailable for reshoots.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/198675/kiss-me-stupid)
The Legion gave the film a "C" for Condemned, the first such rating for an American film since [Elia Kazan](https://www.edgepedia.org/elia-kazan)'s *Baby Doll* (1956), and took the additional step of criticizing the PCA for granting a Code seal. As a direct result, [United Artists](https://www.edgepedia.org/united-artists) released the film through its Lopert Pictures subsidiary, which had previously handled only imported films, including others that had run afoul of the Legion such as *Never on Sunday* (1960). The controversy rippled through the industry: the Screen Producers Guild's journal devoted its entire March 1965 issue to the question "Should the Motion Picture Production Code be abolished?"[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/198675/kiss-me-stupid) • [7](https://repository.stu.edu/ulma/va/3005/1965/03-19-1965.pdf)
Wilder later described the reaction: "With *Kiss Me Stupid* there was a phenomenal outcry. They said it was the dirtiest movie I had ever made. Condemned in *Life Magazine*. Suggestions that my citizenship papers should be taken away."[8](https://s1.thcdn.com/design-assets/documents/arrowfilms/The%20Apartment.pdf)
## Reception and legacy
The film died at the box office. Released in the Christmas season of 1964, a date the Legion and several critics attacked as ill-timed, it was vilified by censors, critics, and the public alike; many theater owners refused to run it. Wilder preferred to ignore the film in interviews between his retirement in 1981 and his death in 2002, though he told one friend that his office was "like the Ford plant after the Edsel was made." He defended the story's morality, calling it "the most bourgeois film there is" and saying the public had accepted the same material better in *The Apartment* because it was "better conceived, better written, better lubricated."[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/198675/kiss-me-stupid) • [9](https://dennisschwartzreviews.com/kissmestupid/)
**Reassessment.** Later critics have been more divided in the film's favor. A re-release earned a Metascore of 63, with six reviews split evenly between positive and mixed and none negative; J. Hoberman of the Village Voice called it "a grimly suggestive and unexpectedly tender bedroom farce" and "a true film maudit," while Variety's original review found the screenplay "basically vulgar."[4](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/kiss-me-stupid/critic-reviews/) Richard Brody of The New Yorker wrote that the results are "less funny than they are surprisingly moving," and that Wilder and Diamond's true subject is the power of Hollywood itself, a business built on a rotten core of immorality that is also one of the most liberating things it has to offer.[6](https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/kiss-me-stupid)
Restorations have settled a long-standing textual question. The original ending played only in Europe, while American audiences saw a forced ending; a restoration presents the original ending followed by the American one, and critics have noted the "slightly dirtier" European ending as a rarity for cinephiles.[3](https://www.viennale.at/en/films/kiss-me-stupid) • [4](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/kiss-me-stupid/critic-reviews/) The film is available on streaming services in the United States, including MGM+ and free ad-supported platforms, and on disc.[10](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/kiss-me-stupid)
## References
1. [Kiss Me, Stupid (1964), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/22371-KISS-MESTUPID)
2. [Kiss Me, Stupid, by John M. Miller, Turner Classic Movies](https://www.tcm.com/articles/198675/kiss-me-stupid)
3. [Kiss Me Stupid, Vienna International Film Festival](https://www.viennale.at/en/films/kiss-me-stupid)
4. [Kiss Me, Stupid (re-release) Critic Reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/kiss-me-stupid/critic-reviews/)
5. [Kiss Me, Stupid, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/kiss_me_stupid)
6. [Kiss Me, Stupid, by Richard Brody, The New Yorker](https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/kiss-me-stupid)
7. [Kiss Me, Stupid Stirs Film 'Code' Fuss, The Voice, March 19, 1965](https://repository.stu.edu/ulma/va/3005/1965/03-19-1965.pdf)
8. [The Apartment booklet, Arrow Films](https://s1.thcdn.com/design-assets/documents/arrowfilms/The%20Apartment.pdf)
9. [Kiss Me, Stupid, Dennis Schwartz Reviews](https://dennisschwartzreviews.com/kissmestupid/)
10. [Kiss Me, Stupid streaming, JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/kiss-me-stupid)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Black comedy and satire films › Released 1939 to 1997*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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