The Notorious Landlady

Plot synopsis:
When American diplomat William Gridley (Jack Lemmon) arrives in London, he rents part of Carly Hardwicke's (Kim Novak) house from her and promptly begins to fall in love. Gridley doesn't know that many people think she killed her British husband, Miles Hardwick (Maxwell Reed), because he has disappeared; but without a body, the police cannot do a thing.
Gridley's boss, the American ambassador (Fred Astaire), learns about it and doesn't take this "lapse of judgment" lightly. When a Scotland Yard detective arrives at the embassy, he convinces Gridley, who by this time is in love with Carly, to spy on her without letting her realize she is being investigated. When a fire erupts as Carly and Gridley are grilling steaks in the backyard of her house, a scandal ensues that is played out in the papers. Since Carly is also American, she goes to the embassy to tell the ambassador that Gridley is a good man and not to send him out of the country. The ambassador proceeds to go to lunch with Carly and becomes smitten with her and proclaims her innocence.
After Carly has pawned many of her belongings to pay bills, her husband, Miles shows up alive but then is shot and killed by Carly as Gridley is on the phone with the Scotland Yard detective. Carly is put on trial but is exonerated due to the eyewitness testimony of her crippled neighbor's private nurse saying that Miles was attacking Carly. Ultimately Carly admits that she is being blackmailed by the neighbor so that Carly will give her the pawn ticket to a candelabra which Carly recently pawned. The pawn ticket was actually the cause of the argument between Carly and Miles, as the candelabra was stuffed with stolen jewels. When Gridley and Carly go to retrieve the candelabra, the pawnbroker is found murdered and Gridley and Carly find the neighbor in the act of pushing her elderly patient off a cliff to silence her story. It was, in fact, the elderly patient who witnessed Miles and Carly fighting, and the nurse merely said she was the one who saw the struggle. A chase sequence ensues whereby the patient is saved (with music from The Pirates of Penzance), and the ambassador and the Scotland Yard detective arrive to find the nurse detained.

Tags: romantic, murder

Review:
Lemmon, Novak, Astaire, Jeffries and Gershwin, Great.
I saw this film for the first time on Turner Classic Movies tonightA 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.
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.
This film is a direct descendant of earlier screwball comedies and screwball mysteries such as the Thin Man. Kim Novak looks at times like Jean Harlow and the scenes of London are a wistful reminder of how very British the city once was.
The clever plot revolves around the question of Mrs. Hardwicke played by Kim Novak.
Lovely Kim really has trouble keeping her hat on as she tears through the fields in pursuit of poor Estelle Winwood.I found Jack Lemmon in top form, contrary to one commentary posted here.
But he usually is this way.Casting Fred Astaire was a stroke of genius - his presence adds even more vintage, and I mean vintage in the most complimentary sense.
Pleasant mystery/comedy with a young energetic Jack Lemmon and an attractive Kim Novak developing a love interest (as expected) while trying to solve the problem of the apparent murder of her husband.
Light film provides a nice diversion for an hour and a half especially with the presence of Fred Astaire and Lionel Jefferies.Unfortunately it does not appear to be available on video tape at the present time..
Jack Lemmon, rising young man in the United States State Department hasn't a clue when he rents a room from Kim Novak who turns out to be a fellow American in London.
He also doesn't know she's The Notorious Landlady whose husband has gone missing and Scotland Yard thinks she did him in.Americans in the diplomatic corps are supposed to be scandal free, even more so back in 1962 so poor Lemmon doesn't know what he's walked into.
So in the spirit of the alliance that defeated Hitler, Astaire agrees.Later on after a hilarious barbecue scene nearly burns Novak's place down and gets the State Department unwanted publicity, Astaire wants to transfer Lemmon to Tierra Del Fuego, but Novak actually comes up and charms him into letting him stay.
So much so that Astaire now wants to play Sherlock Holmes and solve the case himself or at least be Watson to Lemmon's Holmes.Jack and Kim make a lovely couple in danger, 25 years earlier I could have seen Cary Grant and Carole Lombard in their parts.
But when you set out to make a stylish comedy, casting Fred Astaire is always a stroke of genius.
Director Richard Quine even had the good sense to acquire Astaire's classic, A Foggy Day from the defunct RKO studio where he introduced it in Damsel In Distress to use as background music.
It's used to great affect on one of those foggy London nights where both of them are trailing Novak.In the last half hour their sleuthing pays off and a rather intricate mystery is solved.
Lionel Jeffries makes a dogged and determined Inspector Lestrade like Scotland Yard man, who if truth be told is one of the sleazier members of that organization ever portrayed on screen.The joint creative hands who wrote The Notorious Landlady were Blake Edwards and Larry Gelbart.
Jack Lemmon and Kim Novack are truly outstanding.
Kim Novack is the attractive American landlady.
As Jack Lemmon's boss, he to is taken with the charm and beauty of Novack.
The laughs keep coming as the the two of them, Lemmon and Astaire, do everything in there power to help Novack in her time of need.
If you love Kim Novack, Jack Lemmon, and Fred Astaire than this movie is for you..
Kim Novak was a Columbia star and went from a supporting role in Jack Lemmon's great Phfft to co star in Bell Book and Candle to lead and top billed over Jack Lemmon in this wickedly funny comedy mystery directed by Richard Quine.
This was the last movie Kim Novak made at Columbia and ended a legendary relationship between studio and star where Kim made Picnic, Pal Joey, Bell Book and Candle, Strangers When We Meet among others and her declared favorite film Middle Of The Night.
Looking at times like the fabled Jean Harlow Ms. Novak reaches the top of the stardom ladder in this film.
To me Kim Novak was what a movie star looked like!.
Kim Novak and Jack Lemmon.
This movie is now out on DVD albeit in Jack Lemmon's collection and not alone but it is a film on a single disc so while not sold separately it should suffice.
The Notorious Landlady is a film that requires repeated viewings because of the enjoyable performances.
The first time you view it you just want to see what happens, the next time you view it you want to see it knowing what you now know from the first time, etc., by the next couple of times you view it you will appreciate the Novak-Lemmon romance all the more.
The music is unforgettable (great love theme for Kim and Jack) and the dialog is excellent and witty.
Kim Novak is perfectly cast and alluring, Jack Lemmon is romantic and sexy.
Despite having a few marvelous bits and great support work by Astaire, Jeffries, and others, Lemmon gives his worst career performance.
This is the third movie where Quine works with Lemmon and Novak.
For a '62 film, it's a great parady of detective films,as well as the great wheelchair scene at the end.Great mystery,Kim Novak and Jack Lemmon had paired before and did well..
Jack Lemmon, Kim Novak, and Fred Astaire are megawatt stars.
Parts are leering dirty joke, parts are murder mystery and courtroom drama, parts are attempts at broad humor, and other parts are painfully bad romantic comedy.
Jack Lemmon comes across as a very creepy, overbearing, almost stalker-like tenant.
Jack Lemmon, Kim Novak, and Fred Astaire struggle to enliven minor mystery-comedy involving an American man working in London, renting a room from a sexy, shady lady who's under surveillance after her husband died rather suspiciously.
First-half of the movie is lax, with a witless build-up of the characters; by the second-act, director Richard Quine turns the whole thing into mad slapstick, and the characters into ninnies.
Lemmon gives his usual sterling performance, although rather closer to the wisecracking, raffish roles that someone like, say, Tony Curtis would normally appear in, Novak shows that hourglass figure in a series of body hugging outfits, her strange Harlow-like eyebrows look out of place in a 60's film.
Astaire shows immaculate timing and a nice line is self deprecation, letting Lemmon bounce the laughs off of him.What undoes the film is the desperately phony "foggy London", the sets sprinkle British telephone boxes and black cabs for effect, then undo it by introducing a Cockney flower seller (with obligatory straw hat) and filling the streets with British sports cars and limousines (since they were the most common exports to the US; Since this same cheapo trick was used for so many years in long running TV series such as "Columbo" and "Murder She Wrote", it's clear that US producers realise that US audiences can be conned at low cost).At heart the film is a strange, unworkable melange of comedy, romance and melodrama and fails to hit the mark on any of them.
I watched this through Netflix, being intrigued to see a movie hitherto unknown to me starring Jack Lemmon.
With Kim Novak and Fred Astaire on the marquee as well, I was intrigued.
The first half of the flick was fun to watch, especially seeing Fred Astaire put in his classy bit.
Jack Lemmon falls for his landlady who may or may not be a murderess.
Kim Novak is "The Notorious Landlady" in this 1962 Columbia film starring Jack Lemmon, Fred Astaire, Estelle Winwood, and Lionel Jeffries.William Gridley (Lemmon) is a junior diplomat assigned to London who comes to look at rooms for rent by one Mrs. Hardwicke (Novak).
At first she says she's the maid and can't rent to him, but she drops the pretense and allows herself to be talked into giving him the rooms, though she preferred a couple.When his boss, Franklyn Ambruster (Astaire) hears the name of Gridley's landlady, it sounds familiar.
Gridley, of course, is sure that his landlady is incapable of murder.The plot thickens and so does the comedy, leading to an atypical trial and finally to a chase scene out of the Keystone Kops.
Along the way there's blackmail, fire, a witness, poison, and a few other things.As good as I thought this film was, and as much as I like Kim Novak (who designed her own clothes and they're gorgeous - she could have had a second career) I thought she could have added to the comedy a little more, although she's just fine as the beautiful, mysterious Mrs. Hardwicke.
Jack Lemmon is delightful as the confused Gridley, and Lionel Jeffries is a standout as the exasperated Inspector.
Estelle Winwood, as an elderly neighborhood, is on hand for some fun comedy.Very entertaining film, recommended, especially given the stars.
He rents half a house from the impecunious Kim Novak, an American whose husband has mysteriously disappeared.
He's advised for the sake of his career to avoid being seen with Novak in public but when she tries to barbecue his dinner the burst of flame sets fire to the tarpaulin, screams break out, windows fly open, bells clang, and the fire department arrives -- that sort of thing.I didn't find it very funny, or very suspenseful either.
Lionel Jeffries and Henry Daniell are both memorable in their brief appearances as a Scotland Yard official and a vicar.The film does the job it set out to do, but what it set out to do is only barely worth doing..
Jack Lemmon fun.
Mrs. Carly Hardwicke (Kim Novak) has difficulties renting out a room in her London home.
Newly-arrived American diplomat Bill Gridley (Jack Lemmon) knows nothing of her infamy.
Ambassador Franklyn Ambruster (Fred Astaire) is his new boss.
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.
Fred Astaire isn't as fun.
Continuing to enjoy a short respite from my more usual heavier fare I took a look at this Kim Novak picture that it turned out I had never seen before.
With Gershwin's, Foggy Day in London Town, playing in the background the films begins quietly enough but there are some twists and turns ahead both in storyline and tone.
The star though is the wonderful Kim Novak who does not put a foot wrong.
This movie is not bad at all,not one of Lemmon's best by any stretch of the imagination but it has some funny situations and its likable for the most part.Near the ending it gets completely out of hand and instead of comedy-mystery which is the most part,it becomes mad slapstick for no apparent reason.Is like someone told the scriptwriter that a Lemmon movie should be crazier than what they had up to that point.Anyway,its kinda weird this way from that point on but you get to smile and the stars are all likable.Novak is at her sexiest, even in B&W!!Funny role for Astaire who was at his second career by that time,plays a manipulating official at the American Embassy in London with an eye for Novak..
Jack Lemmon plays an American diplomat, Bill Gridley, attached to the embassy in England.
On his first day in London he rents a flat from a very attractive new landlady, Carly Hardwicke played by Kim Novak.
On Gridley's second day he is grilled by his station chief Frank Ambruster, Fred Astaire, who informs him that his landlady murdered her husband.
Suddenly Gridley finds himself recruited by Scotland Yard Inspector Oliphant, Lionel Jeffries, to "investigate" Mrs. Hardwicke to see if he can either prove her guilty or innocent.
The film is filled with red herrings from titles of bedside reading to misunderstood phone calls that only enrich the comedy and the mystery.
The opening scenes of this movie have, as background music, the melody of the Gershwin song, A Foggy Day in London Town.
The song was introduced by Fred Astaire -- who plays a supporting role in this flick -- in his 1937 movie Damsel in Distress.SPOILER: The concluding scenes, which include a chase on the beach at Penzance, has background music from the Gilbert & Sullivan operetta, The Pirates of Penzance (which was also made into two movies in 1982 and 1983), with a coda from a melody in Gilbert & Sullivan's HMS Pinafore.
Is Kim Novak a man-eater?.
This is an entertaining spoof on Hitchcock style,long before Mel Brooks' "high anxiety" (1978),and much more subtile at that.Diplomat Lemmon rents a room in a mansion whose owner(Novak) might be a man-eater.After a slow start,the movie quickly reaches its cruising speed and will keep it till the end.Many scenes in Novak's desirable mansion are nods in the direction of "rear window".All the neighbors are looking out their windows,secretly waiting for something to happen.A kid warns Lemmon:"My mother says you're next",and he later adds "And my father says so too".And the final is some kind of cross between the chase movies like" north by norwest" and the "symphonic" scenes of a " man who knew too much"(1956) in miniature,as the characters are in search for an old lady among many wheelchairs,during an outdoor concert .Jack Lemmon is wonderful,his comical expressions have influenced a lot of actors,Jim Carrey owes him a lot.Richard Quine's final crazy chase is much more successful than that of "sex and the single girl" ,two years later.POSSIBLE SPOILER********************Possible spoiler A small flaw:the scene between Kim Novak and her husband is so dramatic that it jars with the light tongue-in -cheek atmosphere of the rest of the show.The same goes for the pawnbroker's scene..
I saw this film for one reason--it starred Jack Lemmon.
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.
Lemmon is thrilled to move in, as the landlady (Kim Novak) is very sexy.
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!
I wish that instead they had kept the film a romance--as the mystery and comedy seemed a bit thin.
This is a good one, if you like 1960s romantic murder mysteries..
Somehow I became a fan of Kim Novak when I saw her in a film in the mid-1960s when I was in college.
I don't remember the title, but I was forever hooked on her and have enjoyed all her roles.Here she is Mrs. Hardwicke, Carly, who lives in a nice part of London and is advertising to rent out part of her home.
She must be "notorious" but we don't find out why for a while.Then along comes Jack Lemmon as Bill Gridley, a US State department diplomat just moving into London and needing a flat near work.
Their early romance is filled with missteps.The third key character is Fred Astaire as Franklyn Ambruster, Bill's boss.
When he finds that Bill has rented from the notorious Carly Hardwicke, he and Scotland yard begin to watch more closely, and eventually ask Bill to help.At issue is Mr. Hardwicke, who it seems has disappeared and Carly has been accused of murdering her husband.
Kim Novak is in fine form.
Good comedy mystery and light spoof of Foreign Service.
"The Notorious Landlady" is a comedy mystery that also is a light satire.
Those are Kim Novak as Carly Hardwicke and Fred Astaire as Franklyn Ambruster.
Novak does okay in roles in which she plays a sultry, mysterious character.
Fred Astaire doesn't quite fit the role of a Foreign Service officer in the State Department.
So, the load of the acting is carried by Jack Lemmon as Bill Gridley.
The best part of this film is the crispy script with the witty exchanges of dialog between Lemmon's and Astaire's characters.
Astaire's office in this film is one of many along a long a corridor of plain doors.
Astaire's job isn't spelled out in the film or screenplay, but he's understood to be the chief of some unnamed section or office within the embassy.
Indeed, the New York Times and other papers that reviewed the movie on its opening, referred to Astaire as a chief or boss within the American embassy.
My favorite line in the film is by Inspector Oliphant (Lionel Jeffries).
Slapstick ending prevents this from being a great film...but it's still good.
Shame, shame.In the early part of the film it seems like a light comedy as US embassy rep in London, Jack Lemmon, rents a flat and falls in love with a landlady (Kim Novak) whom he doesn't know has a notorious reputation of murdering her husband.
The slapstick would have worked fine in a Red Skelton flick, but not here.The other problem with this film is the presence of Fred Astaire.
Now I like Fred Astaire, and have enjoyed him in many musicals.
With all due respect, that's just an Astaire fan's viewpoint.I did tire of the background music throughout the film being almost exclusively "A Foggy Day In London Town".
There's no question that Kim Novak and Jack Lemmon have film chemistry.
Lionel Jeffries is good as a Scotland Yard inspector.Good film, but the foolish slapstick kept it from being a notch above.