Wild and Wonderful

Wild and Wonderful
Wild and Wonderful
Directed by	Michael Anderson
Written by	Richard M. Powell; Philip Rapp; Larry Markes; Michael Morris; Waldo Salt
Based on	"I Married a Dog" (story); by Dorothy Crider
Produced by	Harold Hecht
Starring	Tony Curtis; Christine Kaufmann
Cinematography	Joseph LaShelle
Edited by	Gene Milford
Music by	Morton Stevens
Production; company	Harold Hecht Productions
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date	June 10, 1964
Running time	88 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	est. $2,000,000 (US/ Canada)

Wild and Wonderful is a 1964 comedy film directed by Michael Anderson and starring Tony Curtis and Christine Kaufmann. The screenplay concerns a clever French poodle named Monsieur Cognac, and the dog's effect on the newly married couple portrayed by Curtis and Kaufmann.^[2] The film was Curtis's last under his long contractual relationship with Universal Studios.^[3]

Plot[]

Cast[]

Tony Curtis as Terry Williams
Christine Kaufmann as Giselle Ponchon
Larry Storch as Rufus Gibbs
Pierre Olaf as Jacquot
Marty Ingels as Doc Bailey
Jacques Aubuchon as Papa Ponchon
Sarah Marshall as Pamela
Marcel Dalio as Dr. Reynard
Jules Munshin as Rousseleau
Marcel Hillaire as Inspector Duviver
Cliff Osmond as Hercule
Fifi D'Orsay as Simone
Vito Scotti as Andre
Steven Geray as Bartender
Stanley Adams as Mayor of Man La Loquet

Reception[]

The film had six credited writers, including Waldo Salt, who was then still working his way back from years on the Hollywood blacklist and who reportedly "hated" the film.^[4] In his 1999 obituary for Larry Markes, another of the credited writers, Dick Vosburgh of The Independent commented, "Critics found it hard to accept that it had taken six writers to fashion the wafer-thin tale of a jazz flautist whose marriage to a French film star is threatened by the jealous tricks of Monsieur Cognac, her neurotic, alcoholic French poodle."^[5] In his obituary for Tony Curtis in 2010, film critic Dave Kehr dismissed the film as "disastrous," noting that Curtis was rebuilding his reputation after an earlier affair with Kaufmann, his co-star in Wild and Wonderful, and subsequent divorce from Janet Leigh.^[6]

References[]

^ "Big Rental Pictures of 1964", Variety, 6 January 1965 p 39. Please note this figure is rentals accruing to distributors not total gross.
^ "'Wild and Wonderful' is Wild and Wacky Fun", Boxoffice reprinted in Evening Independent, June 4, 1964.
^ Biography at tonycurtis.com official website.
^ Buhle, Paul; Wagner, Dave (2005). Hide in Plain Sight: The Hollywood Blacklistees in Film and Television, 1950-2002. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 208. ISBN 978-1403966841.
^ Vosburgh, Dick (June 10, 1999). "Obituary: Larry Markes". The Independent. Archived from the original on January 25, 2013. – via HighBeam Research (subscription required).
^ Kehr, Dave (September 30, 2010). "Tony Curtis, Hollywood Leading Man, Dies at 85". The New York Times.

External links[]

Wild and Wonderful at IMDb
Wild and Wonderful at the TCM Movie Database

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[1] "Big Rental Pictures of 1964", Variety, 6 January 1965 p 39. Please note this figure is rentals accruing to distributors not total gross.

[2] "'Wild and Wonderful' is Wild and Wacky Fun", Boxoffice reprinted in Evening Independent, June 4, 1964.

[3] Biography at tonycurtis.com official website.

[4] Buhle, Paul; Wagner, Dave (2005). Hide in Plain Sight: The Hollywood Blacklistees in Film and Television, 1950-2002. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 208. ISBN 978-1403966841.

[5] Vosburgh, Dick (June 10, 1999). "Obituary: Larry Markes". The Independent. Archived from the original on January 25, 2013. – via HighBeam Research (subscription required).

[6] Kehr, Dave (September 30, 2010). "Tony Curtis, Hollywood Leading Man, Dies at 85". The New York Times.

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