Wonderland Burlesque's Let's All Go To The Movies: It's In His Kiss - Part VI

Wonderland Burlesque's 

Let's All Go To The Movies: 

It's In His Kiss

Part VI

It's in his kiss.

Isn't that where it all begins?

A caress of the lips. A deep longing. Sharing a single breath?

On the silver screen such a kiss can be captured forever, frozen in time.

Or so these films would have us believe.

So, let's kiss and tell and spill the beans on these everlasting smacks, smooches, and snogs.

Yes, things can get pretty heated.

Chapstick exists for a reason, you know!

Grab a seat on the aisle.

Popcorn at the ready.

Pucker up and roll film!

- uptonking from Wonderland Burlesque

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Kiss Me Again 

(1925)

Gaston Fleury's wife, Loulou, takes a perfunctory interest in music but a deeper one in a musician named Maurice. Although Gaston has no intention of releasing his wife into the hands of Maurice, he feigns willingness to give Loulou a divorce. Loulou then becomes bored with Maurice, and clever maneuvering on the part of Gaston brings her to want desperately a reconciliation with him. He happily fulfills her wish.

Based on the French play Divorçons! (1880), by Victorien Sardou and Émile de Najac, and the adapted version of the play Cyprienne, this American silent romantic comedy film directed by Ernst Lubitsch. It stars Marie Prevost, Monte Blue, John Roche, Clara Bow and Willard Louis.

This film is presumed lost. In the late 1940s and 1950s, Warner Bros. destroyed many of its negatives due to nitrate film decomposition. Studio records indicate that the negative of filmography pre-1931 was marked "Junked 12/27/48".

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Kiss Me Again 

(1931)

A Legionnaire in love with an aspiring opera singer is expected to marry the general's daughter, who in turn is in love with another soldier.

Based on the popular 1905 Broadway operetta Mlle. Modiste, by Victor Herbert and Henry Martyn Blossom, this American pre-Code musical operetta was directed by William A. Seiter and stars Bernice Claire, Edward Everett Horton, Walter Pidgeon, June Collyer and Frank McHugh.

Filmed entirely in two-tone Technicolor, it was originally released in the United States as Toast of the Legion in late 1930, but was quickly withdrawn when Warner Bros. realized that the public had grown weary of musicals. The Warner Bros. believed that this attitude would only last for a few months, but, when the public proved obstinate, they reluctantly re-released the film early in 1931 after making a few cuts.

When the film was re-released in 1931, most of Walter Pidgeon's songs were cut from the film. Only a small abbreviated version of one of his songs is heard on the existing print.

While a black and white version of the edited film has been preserved, it is not known if a copy of the original film, release in other countries under the title Toast of the Legion, exists.

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Kiss Me Quick!

(1964)

Sterilox, asexual ambassador from a distant planet, comes down to earth in search of feminine breeding stock. A mad scientist uses the opportunity to show off his dancing sex robots as a means of entertaining the interplanetary visitors.

This American comedy horror film directed by Peter Perry and stars Frank A. Coe, Max Gardens, and Althea Currier.

The film was originally titled Dr. Breedlove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love (or, more simply, Dr. Breedlove) to exploit the title of Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove. It was then retitled to exploit Billy Wilder's Kiss Me, Stupid.

First American film for cinematographer László Kovács. He came to the US in 1962, but didn't speak much English. Nobody would hire him and he couldn't get into the Union. Producer Harry Novak met him through a friend and hired him for this film. Kovács made a few more films for Novak and then went on to become a huge success, working on several prominent films in his career - Five Easy Pieces, Easy Rider, Paper Moon, What's Up Doc?, Shampoo, etc. Kovács never forgot Novak and was always grateful for his helping get his start.

You can watch this film in its entirety for free on YouTube. (I dare you.)

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Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me

(1968)

Jean Novak, neglected by her brutal and alcoholic mechanic husband Stan, pursues affairs with other men. One of them is Stan's best friend Eddie, whom she falls in love with. When Eddie wants to break it off with Jean, she resorts to underhanded tactics to continue seeing Eddie by introducing Stan's unmarried younger sister Ellen to Eddie and trying to break them up. But when Stan finds out that Jean is neglecting their three-year-old son for drunken binges and sex parties, he goes over the deep end and sets out to stop Jean, for good.

This American drama was directed by Andy Milligan and stars Natalie Rogers, Don Williams, Peter Ratray, and Joy Martin.

Natalie Rogers was paid five hundred dollars to play the lead female character, and wore a blonde wig for the role.

Natalie Rogers and Peter Ratray

Director Andy Milligan was held upside-down by his feet over a balcony in order to get the 'falling' shot for the film's finale.

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Torture Me, Kiss Me

(1970)

Count Henri de Prave revisits the French bistro where he played a small part in the downfall of the Nazis years earlier. He recounts the story of how the evil Nazi Commandant Max von Hildebrandt, a friend of the Count, came to France with his sadistic ways and his ultimate downfall.

This American war drama was directed by David R. Friedberg and stars Frank MacIntosh, Blaine Quincy, Christine Cybelle, and Nick Linkov.

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And that's all for now, folks!

Tune in next time...

Same place, same channel.

Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me - B.B. James and Derv

(1968)

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