In 'The Wedding Party' episode of 'Fawlty Towers', Basil ( John Cleese ) tells Major Gowen ( Ballard Berkeley ) that he saw 'How To Murder Your Wife' five times. The film in question was scripted by George Axelrod, who wrote the screenplay for 'Breakfast At Tiffany's' ( 1960 ),and directed by Richard Quine. The much-missed Jack Lemmon plays 'Stanley Ford', creator of newspaper comic-strip hero 'Bash Brannigan'. Ford won't have Bash do anything he has not done himself first; with the aid of actors, he acts out Bash's larger-than-life adventures before committing them to paper. Ford lives the life of a playboy in a swank New York apartment, with only his British manservant Charles ( Terry-Thomas ) for company. It is a lifestyle us blokes would willingly kill for.

But, after a drunken party, Ford wakes up in bed with a beautiful Italian ( Virna Lisi ) to whom he is now married. She has virtually no command of English, so he cannot even find out her name. She is very sexually demanding, and Ford finds his work affected. He marries Bash off in the comic strip, which turns from being a secret agent series into a domestic comedy. Unable to tell her to leave, Ford decides to kill her...

"Good evening, gentlemen!", says Terry-Thomas at the start of this picture: "I take it your wives are not with you?". On release, this was accused by some of being in poor taste, but the fact is it is tremendous entertainment, boasting Jack Lemmon at his best, and the impeccable Terry-Thomas stealing every scene he is in as the butler. Has there ever been a sexier leading lady than Virna Lisi? When we first see her at a party, she emerges from a cake, and just looks incredible, a vision of pure loveliness. No wonder Ford is smitten! Eddie Mayehoff is great too as Ford's agent. The funniest scene is when Ford makes an impassioned speech to the jury to acquit him on the grounds of justifiable homicide. He draws a dot and tells Mayehoff to imagine it is a button, which by pressing he can remove his wife from his life without anyone knowing. Ford tells him of all the things he would free to do with his wife gone, and Mayehoff is gradually persuaded.

The film's gloss dilutes the black comedy premise somewhat, but this is still great fun. Neal Hefti's music is a delight too. Terry-Thomas nominated this as his favourite film.

A delightfully sophisticated farce written and produced by George Axelrod and very nicely directed by Richard Quine, who seemed to have a knack for this sort of thing. Jack Lemmon is the New York cartoonist and a confirmed bachelor who goes to a bachelor dinner one night and wakes up in the morning married to the girl who popped out of the cake. And who could blame him since she's played by the delectable Virna Lisi who is not only gorgeous but a great comedienne as well. The problem is Lemmon doesn't want a wife, even one who looks like Lisi - hence the title.

Axelrod is the man who gave us "The Seven Year Itch" but this is better. It's beautifully designed and has a great supporting cast. Terry-Thomas is the British butler appalled by Lemmon's newly acquired martial status, the great Eddie Mayehoff is his lawyer, (the movies never really used Mayehoff to his full effect),and Claire Trevor is Mayehoff's wife. It's never as black as it ought to be, (indeed, it's highly coloured in the way many American comedies of the period were),but it's consistently funny and enjoyable.

Jack Lemmon, Virna Lisi, Terry-Thomas and Eddie Mayehoff star in this comedy. It begins with Lemmon a contented bachelor and Terry-Thomas as his misogynistic butler. Lemmon is a VERY successful cartoonist with a daily strip in the newspapers--an action/adventure series starring Bash Brannigan. However, this very structured and happy life is destroyed when Lemmon goes to a bachelor party. He has too much to drink and awakens...with a wife next to him in bed (Lisi). To compound the problem, she only speaks Italian and he has a devil of a time explaining to her that he wants an annulment. Eventually, he just gives up on the idea of breaking up the marriage--she's so nice he can't bring himself to do it--though he resents losing his old lifestyle.

At the same time, Lemmon decides to bring his home-life into the comic strip. After all, he acts out Brannigan's escapades and sees his character as his alter-ego. And, since he's married, Brannigan is now married. And, instead of the usual adventures, the strip is now about married life--and it's very successful. But Lemmon wants his old strip, his old life and old butler--and he has Brannigan feel the same way in the strip. In fact, he then has the strip take a VERY dark turn, as Brannigan plans on killing his wife! Now, millions of readers are waiting to see what's next. However, when Lisi sees the strips, she is hurt--and stomps off. Where to? No one seems to know--and now they suspect Lemmon really DID kill her! Can he get himself out of this predicament?! This is a pretty funny comedy but I am also sure some folks (especially folks with no sense of humor) will be offended by all the sexist humor (particularly in the courtroom scene). It's much like the way Ralph and Ed Norton or Fred and Barney Rubble talk about women! So, you MIGHT just be best to see this film and enjoy it when the wife is not home!! Just kidding, though I DO think men would enjoy this film more than women due to its old fashioned values and themes. Plus, it's nice to see the wonderful support from Mayehoff and Terry-Thomas...plus Lisi simply is gorgeous to watch.

By the way, one of the supporting actors in this one that you see near the beginning is Khigh Dhiegh--just after he finished playing an evil Chinese communist agent in "The Manchurian Candidate" and just before becoming a very similar Chinese communist agent on "Hawaii Five-O". It's unusual to see him in a non-Chinese communist agent--which is funny, as he's actually of North African heritage!