I remember seeing this film around the time it first came out and looking at it again today, I had forgotten how wildly funny it was. In fact listening to my record collection, the thing I had remembered most about Who Was That Lady? was the very good title song that Dean Martin sung and had a record of which sold a few platters back in the day.
But the film itself is a hilarious Cold War spy farce. It's based on a Norman Krasna play that ran for 208 performances on Broadway in 1958 with the slightly elongated title of Who Was That Lady I Saw You With. On Broadway the roles played by Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh, and Dean Martin were done by Peter Lind Hayes, Mary Healy, and Ray Walston.
It all begins when chemistry professor at Columbia University Tony Curtis is caught by wife Janet Leigh in fast embrace with a foreign exchange student. She's back to their apartment and packing her bags for Reno. Curtis who really loves his wife is in a terrible state, what to do?
Depending on how you look at it, long time pal Dean Martin is eager to help. He's a television writer for CBS and he's good with figuring out plot explanations. Mainly because Curtis is convinced Leigh just won't believe that the foreign exchange student was kissing him in gratitude.
So what do these two knuckleheads conceive? That Curtis was kissing the girl in the line of duty because he's an undercover agent for the FBI. In fact they get an FBI card printed up and a gun from the prop department at CBS. And to further 'aid' the story, Martin gets Curtis to get four dots tattooed on his heel as he did back in his fraternity days. Isn't that what all FBI agents have.
But when Leigh buys the story all too well and the printer goes to the real FBI when the card doesn't show up on the CBS program as Martin said it would, the fun really starts. Even a pair of chuckleheaded Russian agents played by Simon Oakland and Larry Storch actually believe Curtis is an FBI man working on a super secret project at Columbia.
The biggest change from stage to screen had to be Dean Martin for Ray Walston. Certainly Dean is far more believable as the wolfish television writer, but there are some outrageous comedy bits that Martin has that I could definitely see Ray Walston doing on stage.
This was the last screen pairing of Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, within three years a Hollywood storybook marriage would be at an end. Janet has her innings in this film also especially in the restaurant tailing her husband and Martin who has set him up on a double date with the Coogle Sisters, a pair of foreign agents from Brooklyn. All I can say there is that there is no doubt that these two had to contain four weapons of mass destruction in the persons of Joi Lansing and Barbara Nichols.
A lot of the problem is caused by FBI agent James Whitmore who after interviewing Leigh first, realized what was going on, but decided to hold off until he could get Curtis alone. Whitmore plays the part as a good foil for Leigh's ingenuousness. Of course Whitmore has to answer to his field office boss John McIntire who in turn has to answer to you know who in Washington.
It all ends quite uproariously in the basement of the Empire State Building when Curtis and Martin think they're on a submarine and proceed to try and 'sink' it.
Got to be seen to be believed.
But the film itself is a hilarious Cold War spy farce. It's based on a Norman Krasna play that ran for 208 performances on Broadway in 1958 with the slightly elongated title of Who Was That Lady I Saw You With. On Broadway the roles played by Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh, and Dean Martin were done by Peter Lind Hayes, Mary Healy, and Ray Walston.
It all begins when chemistry professor at Columbia University Tony Curtis is caught by wife Janet Leigh in fast embrace with a foreign exchange student. She's back to their apartment and packing her bags for Reno. Curtis who really loves his wife is in a terrible state, what to do?
Depending on how you look at it, long time pal Dean Martin is eager to help. He's a television writer for CBS and he's good with figuring out plot explanations. Mainly because Curtis is convinced Leigh just won't believe that the foreign exchange student was kissing him in gratitude.
So what do these two knuckleheads conceive? That Curtis was kissing the girl in the line of duty because he's an undercover agent for the FBI. In fact they get an FBI card printed up and a gun from the prop department at CBS. And to further 'aid' the story, Martin gets Curtis to get four dots tattooed on his heel as he did back in his fraternity days. Isn't that what all FBI agents have.
But when Leigh buys the story all too well and the printer goes to the real FBI when the card doesn't show up on the CBS program as Martin said it would, the fun really starts. Even a pair of chuckleheaded Russian agents played by Simon Oakland and Larry Storch actually believe Curtis is an FBI man working on a super secret project at Columbia.
The biggest change from stage to screen had to be Dean Martin for Ray Walston. Certainly Dean is far more believable as the wolfish television writer, but there are some outrageous comedy bits that Martin has that I could definitely see Ray Walston doing on stage.
This was the last screen pairing of Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, within three years a Hollywood storybook marriage would be at an end. Janet has her innings in this film also especially in the restaurant tailing her husband and Martin who has set him up on a double date with the Coogle Sisters, a pair of foreign agents from Brooklyn. All I can say there is that there is no doubt that these two had to contain four weapons of mass destruction in the persons of Joi Lansing and Barbara Nichols.
A lot of the problem is caused by FBI agent James Whitmore who after interviewing Leigh first, realized what was going on, but decided to hold off until he could get Curtis alone. Whitmore plays the part as a good foil for Leigh's ingenuousness. Of course Whitmore has to answer to his field office boss John McIntire who in turn has to answer to you know who in Washington.
It all ends quite uproariously in the basement of the Empire State Building when Curtis and Martin think they're on a submarine and proceed to try and 'sink' it.
Got to be seen to be believed.