Must-See Movie: How to Murder Your Wife

How to Murder Your Wife (1965)
Jack Lemmon stars as Stanley Ford, a cartoonist and confirmed bachelor who has his single life down to a science. His fabulous butler (Terry Thomas) keeps the brownstone in tip-top shape, down to the smallest detail of chilling his martini glass for a nightly cocktail. His cartoons about secret agent Bash Brannigan are authentic, as he acts out the adventures and has his butler take photographs to use later as reference. Ford even says "I'd never have Bash do something that I haven't done myself."

Things change for Ford when he attends a bachelor party for a friend. He gets drunk and wakes up married to the stripper who performed that night (the beautiful Virna Lisi). Even more chaotic, she speaks nearly no English and is determined to reform Stanley's carousing ways.

Ford's cartoon even changes from a secret agent to a household comedy to reflect his new lifestyle. Reaching a crescendo as she completely changes his singleton paradise, he decides to at least give back Bash Brannigan's life. And so he plots to kill off the wife character. However, the real Mrs. Ford disappears, and those who read the cartoons believe he's guilty of murder.

The supporting cast is outstanding: Ford's lawyer (Eddie Mayehoff) and his wife (Claire Trevor) have some of the best lines in the movie. The view of the wives' role in "snaring a man" from the bachelor life is hilarious: women are parodies, with tiny snippy dogs and tons of shopping bags. Don't take it too personally, just remember it's the 60's. I also enjoy the scenes inside Ford's apartment, as I hope to one day have that sort of swinging "bachelor pad" myself; black leather couch and all!