Leigh...mississippi??
Back in the 1940s-50s, there were a couple films which explored May-December romances, where a man married a much younger woman. Both "That Hagan Girl" and "Strictly Dishonorable" explored this...and were both failures. Audiences just didn't seem to want to see relatively old guys with very young women. But despite this, is "Strictly Dishonorable" worth seeing?
The film stars the opera star Ezio Pinza, a wonderful singer who made a hand full of movies to indifferent public reactions. He was 35 years older than his co-star, Janet Leigh. Oddly, Leigh is cast as a Mississippian! The accent is odd and I guess they made her from Mississippi because she was a Mississippian in the original play it was based upon.
Pinza plays Gus, a guy pretty much like himself...a world famous opera star. However, he's NOT happy, as his co-star in an upcoming opera has practically no talent at all...and eventually he informs everyone he won't perform with the woman...and rightfully so. But the woman is a jerk and she's married to an even bigger jerk who owns a newspaper....and the newspaper owner creates all sorts of scurrilous stories about Gus.
Later, Gus has a kooky woman (Janet Leigh) over to his apartment. His manager thinks the newspaper will once again try to make something of this...so the solution is for Guy to marry Isabelle! They barely know each other. But what happens next, well, NONE of it makes much sense and it involves a fabricated Breach of Promise suit. Again...it doesn't make much sense.
So it this any good? Not especially. Isabelle (Leigh) is supposed to be from Mississippi...an odd stetch. But the worst is that the sanitized script (the play and 1931 film were much racier) is boring and makes little sense. Plus, I am sure it didn't help the film having such a romance, as Pinza was nearly 60.
Overall, a decent time-passer IF you don't think much about the plot...which is a hopeless mess.
