''Drop Dead Darling'' (US title: ''Arrivederci, Baby!'') is a 1966 British-American

black comedy film Black comedy, also known as black humor, bleak comedy, dark comedy, dark humor, gallows humor or morbid humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally ...

directed by Ken Hughes and starring

Tony Curtis Tony Curtis (born Bernard Schwartz; June 3, 1925September 29, 2010) was an American actor with a career that spanned six decades, achieving the height of his popularity in the 1950s and early 1960s. He acted in more than 100 films, in roles co ...

, Rosanna Schiaffino,

Lionel Jeffries Lionel Charles Jeffries (10 June 1926 – 19 February 2010) was an English actor, director, and screenwriter. He appeared primarily in films and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, Golden ...

and

Zsa Zsa Gabor Zsa Zsa Gabor ( , ; born Sári Gábor ; February 6, 1917 – December 18, 2016) was a Hungarian Americans, Hungarian-American socialite and actress. Her sisters were socialites and actresses Eva Gabor and Magda Gabor. Gabor competed in the ...

Plot

A man goes around marrying wealthy women, and then murdering them. However, his third wife has married him with similar intentions.

Cast

as Nick Johnson * Rosanna Schiaffino as Francesca *

as Parker *

as Gigi * Nancy Kwan as Baby *

Fenella Fielding Fenella Fielding (born Fenella Marion Feldman; 17 November 1927 – 11 September 2018) was an English stage, film and television actress who rose to prominence in the 1950s and 1960s, and was often referred to as "England's first lady of t ...

as Fenella * Anna Quayle as Aunt Miriam * Warren Mitchell as Conte de Rienz / Maximillian * Mischa Auer as Romeo * Noel Purcell as Capt. O'Flannery * Alan Gifford as American brasshat * Joseph Fürst as German brasshat * Monti DeLyle as butler * Bernard Spear as French inspector * Eileen Way as Italian dressmaker * Bruno Barnabe as head waiter * Gábor Baraker as Gypsy Baron * Tony Baron as Baby's boyfriend * Eunice Black as matron * John Brandon as radio engineer *

Windsor Davies Windsor Davies (28 August 1930 – 17 January 2019) was a British actor. He is best remembered for playing Battery Sergeant Major Williams in the sitcom '' It Ain't Half Hot Mum'' (1974–1981) over its entire run. The show's popularity resulted ...

as radio engineer * Franco De Rosa as Romano * John Fordyce as boy in orphanage * Yole Marinelli as first maid * Miki Iveria as second maid *

Henri Vidon Henri is the French form of the masculine given name Henry, also in Estonian, Finnish, German and Luxembourgish. Bearers of the given name include: People French nobles * Henri I de Montmorency (1534–1614), Marshal and Constable of France * ...

as priest * Raymond Young as photographer *

Jacqueline Bisset Winifred Jacqueline Fraser Bisset ( ; born 13 September 1944) is a British actress. She began her film career in 1965 and first came to prominence in 1968 with roles in ''The Detective (1968 film), The Detective'', ''Bullitt'', and ''The Sweet ...

as dancer

Production

In May 1962 Joshua Logan announced he would make a film about a wife killer called ''The Careful Man'' based on an Edmund Morris from an original story by Max Franklin. The film would be done with Seven Arts Pictures and Logan would produce and direct. It was described as a suspense melodrama. In July 1962 Seven Arts announced ''The Careful Man'' would be one of 20 films it would make with MGM. Filming started in August 1965 under the title ''You Just Kill Me'' with Ken Hughes as a director and Tony Curtis as star. Curtis said he took the job "because of the excellent script by Ken Hughes." Other working titles were ''You're Dead Right'' and ''My Last Duchess.'' Zsa Zsa Gabor's casting was announced in October. Filming took place in London at Shepperton Studios and in Cannes. Curtis said he was romantically interested in all his leading ladies but did not have affairs with any. Curtis later said, "the problem with the picture was that it was disjointed. The individual scenes were funny but the production company couldn't figure out a way to link them all together."

Critical reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin The ''Monthly Film Bulletin'' was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 until April 1991, when it merged with '' Sight & Sound''. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those wi ...

'' wrote: "We have seen all this before, many times, but Ken Hughes brings fresh wit to a hackneyed theme and drives the whole thing along in dashing style. The result is entertaining enough for those who like their comedy in the worst possible taste. Each of Nick's marriages is treated as a sort of revue sketch, in flashback, and each of the ladies (Anna Quayle, Zsa Zsa Gabor and Fenella Fielding) does her turn with enjoyable verve. Anna Quayle's ascent in a puff of blue smoke from her grotesque

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...

drawing room is a collector's piece of its kind, and as long as the note is relentlessly farcical all is well. But it all turns a little slow and sour towards the end, largely because Rosanna Schiaffino, for all her sparkling beauty, is no comedienne. Fortunately the film recovers in the last in few minutes, when Hughes shows the happy couple in a burlesque of the familiar all-screaming Italian drama, yelling at each other in a poverty-stricken hovel all squalling brats and steaming spaghetti." The ''Los Angeles Times'' called it "cleverly sketched".Tony Curtis in Role of Lady Killer Thomas, Kevin. Los Angeles Times 30 Dec 1966: C6. ''

Filmink ''FilmInk'' is an Australian film magazine published by FKP International Exports. It was founded by current publisher Dov Kornits and Colin Fraser in July 1997, in Sydney. The magazine has been through many changes over the course of its exist ...

'' called it "a frantic farce".

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Drop Dead Darling 1966 films American crime comedy films British crime comedy films Films directed by Ken Hughes Films produced by Ray Stark 1960s crime comedy films Paramount Pictures films 1967 comedy films 1967 films 1966 comedy films 1960s English-language films 1960s American films 1960s British films English-language crime comedy films