The Notorious Landlady (1962)

• Year: 1962
• Released: 13 Apr 1962
• Country: United States
• Adwords: 1 nomination
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056289/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_notorious_landlady
• Available in: 720p, 1080p, 720p
• Language: English
• MPA Rating: Passed
• Genre: Comedy, Mystery
• Runtime: 123 min
• Writer: Larry Gelbart, Blake Edwards, Margery Sharp
• Director: Richard Quine
• Cast: Kim Novak, Jack Lemmon, Fred Astaire
• Keywords: attempted murder, diplomat, landlady,

	6.7/10
	55% – Audience

The Notorious Landlady Storyline

An American junior diplomat in London rents a house from, and falls in love with, a woman suspected of murder.

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The Notorious Landlady Movie Reviews

Despite a very promising beginning, the film sank deeper and deeper into dullness.

I saw this film for one reason–it starred Jack Lemmon. Lemmon was a very fine actor and I’d see him in just about anything. “The Notorious Landlady” must surely qualify as ‘in just about anything’! The movie starts off very well but then just seems to drag on and on–becoming quite dull. Frankly, by the time it was over, I was more than ready.

The film begins with a low-level American diplomat in London looking for an apartment. He happens upon a flat owned by an American–and it’s odd, because practically EVERYONE in London seems to be an American in this film. Lemmon is thrilled to move in, as the landlady (Kim Novak) is very sexy. Soon they fall in love. However, things do NOT go smoothly, as he then is informed by his boss and Scotland Yard that she is suspected in the murder of her husband! What’s to happen next? Well, although the film was very good at this point, the exact solution to the problem just never hit home for me. I wish that instead they had kept the film a romance–as the mystery and comedy seemed a bit thin. Overall, the actors tried but the script just wasn’t very interesting.

Jack Lemmon fun

Mrs. Carly Hardwicke (Kim Novak) has difficulties renting out a room in her London home. Everybody suspects her of killing her husband although he’s only missing. Newly-arrived American diplomat Bill Gridley (Jack Lemmon) knows nothing of her infamy. He rents her room despite her reluctance. She even pretends to be Hildy at first. He is completely taken by her beauty. Ambassador Franklyn Ambruster (Fred Astaire) is his new boss. Police Inspector Oliphant has been observing Hardwicke and suspects her of poisoning her husband. Oliphant convinces Bill to start snooping around.

With scriptwriters Blake Edwards and Larry Gelbart, this has moments of good screwball comedy. Jack Lemmon is the man to deliver that. However, the comedy doesn’t maintain to the end. There are sections where it drags. There are sections where it gets dark. I get breaking into the bathroom to see a naked Kim Novak in the tub. I don’t think Jack Lemmon has to shoot out the door. Fred Astaire isn’t as fun. This is fun at times but not all the time.

Lemmon, Novak, Astaire, Jeffries and Gershwin, Great

I saw this film for the first time on Turner Classic Movies tonight

A comedy set in England with this quartet of leads – Jack Lemmon, Kim Novak, Fred Astaire, Lionel Jeffries – a London cab full of great character actors, crisp and fully-toned black and white photography and a script from Larry Gelbert and Blake Edwards could not have been more pleasant. Gershwin’s “A Foggy Day in London Town,” washed it in additional wonderfulness. The sequences near the end of the film at a seaside resort in Penzance is wickedly choreographed with actors, camera moves and scoring for big laughs to a live band shell performance of a Gilbert and Sullivan ditty. Everything is spot on, silly to smart.