How to Murder Your Wife (United Artists) (1965)

Virna Lisi Makes Debut In ‘How to Murder Your Wife’ Say “Virna Lisi” to the average European movie-goer and he’s apt to throw his hat into the air and cheer wildly. Say it to an American and he’s apt to look at you blankly. But there’s a change being made. Verna Lisi, although she has starred in 25 pictures in Europe during her seven-year reign as an accomplished and beautiful actress, makes her American debut at last — as co-star to the redoubtable Jack Lemmon himself — in the United Artists comedy release “How to Murder Your Wife,” in Technicolor, opening ................ at theta tonne Theatre! Which some consider great reason for rejoicing, and it all came about this way: George Axelrod, noted Hollywood screen writer and man-aboutfilms from away back when, not only wrote “How to Murder Your Wife,” which also co-stars Claire Trevor, Eddie Mayehoff and British funnyman Terry-Thomas, but he also produced it. He needed a beauty—with a slight foreign accent—who could do comedy and make it show in the brilliant lustre of Jack Lemmon’s style. There are many such _ beauties on America’s roster of lovelies, MI-51 Mat 1D Verna Lisi, hailed as ‘‘America’s new elegant sex goddess,” stars as the wife of Jack Lemmon in the Technicolor comedy, “How to Murder Your Wife,” a United Artists release, openINGE eee atatheicis2: Theatre. Blackmer Cast In Jack Lemmon ‘Murder’ Comedy In case you’ve ever wondered what’s become of Sidney Blackmer the film actor, we’ve got news for you. He’s still around—very much so we might add—and his latest appearance is in the forthcoming comedy hit “How to Murder Your Wife,” which co-stars Jack Lemmon, Virna Lisi, Claire Trevor, Eddie Mayehoff and Terry-Thomas, and which opens at the Theatre. It’s in Technicolor and it’s a United Artists release. Sidney’s been a movie actor for more than a half century—for 55 years to be exact. He was a leading man of prominence in the movies and the stage during the ‘twenties’ and ‘thirties,’ and he holds a Donaldson and Antoinette Perry Award for his performance in “Come Back, Little Sheba” to prove that he was pretty good at it. He’s a judge in “How to Murder Your Wife,” presiding over a trial in which Jack Lemmon is charged with actually having tried to take the film’s title seriously. The film was directed by Richard Quine and the story is an original from Author-Producer-Director George Axelrod. Gordon Carroll was executive producer and there’s some original pop jazz in it written and conducted by Pop Jazzman Neal Hefti. but Axelrod wanted an unknown —at least unknown to American audiences. So he packed off to Europe to look the crop over. He saw the gorgeous Virna in Paris, and it was Kismet — cinematic Kismet at least. So that’s how she got into the cast of “How to Murder Your Wife.” For Virna this was her second almost accidental fortunate break. A native of Ancona on the Adriatic, she was attending business and technical college in Rome, when the great Italian film impressario Francesco Maselli happened to be there on one of his talent hunts. Maselli specialized in unknowns, particularly those who were not “spoiled” by what he considers too much conventional film training. He saw Virna and knew he had a star. Her first Italian film proved it and she has since proved it to millions of others, particularly in France and Spain where she is enormously popular. TERRY THOMAS TOO FUNNY FOR MEAT BUSINESS When Thomas Terry Hoar Stevens was a meat salesman for a cold storage company in England he came to work one day in a green porkpie hat, a silver-tipped Malacca walking stick and a long ivory cigarette holder. And that, in the main, is why he is an actor today—a famous one called Terry-Thomas. You see, the cold storage people didn’t like it, The odd get-up that led to his downfall as a meat salesman was what the famed comedian, one of the big hits of Stanley Kramer’s recent “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” called “a compulsion to act in a funny manner.” It made an actor of him. In fact, one of England’s leading funny men, and he'll be on view again in the hilarious “How to Murder Your Wife,’ United Artists release in Technicolor, opening Pees at the ............. Theatre. Terry-Thomas is co-starred in the George Axelrod original with Jack Lemmon, Italy’s famed Virna Lisi, Claire Trevor and Eddie Mayehoff. Terry-Thomas came to the entertainment world after leaving the cold storage business, via the vaudeville route. From this he went to playing bits in movies and then the radio. After the war, in which he served with the Royal Corps of Signals, he got into pictures and made good immediately as a very funny man. But it wasn’t until 1956 that he was first seen in America, and then in “Private Progress,” that he became world famous. Still MI-7 Mat 1A Terry-Thomas shares stellar honors with Jack Lemmon, Virna Lisi, Claire Trevor and Eddie Mayehoff in “How to Murder Your Wife,” hilarious comedy in Technicolor openARDY eae at the ........ Theatre. A George Axelrod original, the United Artists release was directed by Richard Quine. JAZZMAN HEFTI PENS SCORE FOR LEMMON COMEDY Up to now music maker Neal Hefti was known only to a couple of million or so of the nation’s jazz fans but things will be different now that he has scored— and conducted—the music for the hilarious United Artists release “How to Murder Your Wife,” tongue-in-cheek high comedy from George Axelrod’s pen, which opens at the Theatre in Technicolor. The movie—which co-stars Jack Lemmon, the gorgeous Italian newcomer Virna Lisi, Claire Trevor, Eddie Mayehoff and Terry-Thomas—is described as comedy with suspense, and comedy with suspense is what Neal aimed for in his music for the film. He calls his music for this picture “clefhanging,” a takeoff of course, on “cliff hanging.” Neal is best known to his millions of admirers as the composer of the original music for ten LPs on six labels, and as the arranger for Charlie Barnett, Charlie Spivak, Woody Herman and Count Bassie. He has also been conductor for Frank Sinatra and Peggy Lee. He began his professional career in Nebraska at the age of 1] as trumpeter with the “Hefti Family Band,” a popular aggregation in early Nebraska. He played the trumpet for the Omaha Symphony and while so engaged studied classical music. He came to New York in the 1940’s and for twenty years had been arranging for some of the biggest name bands in the country. He also wrote considerable original music. He is married to pop singer Frances Wayne. They have an eleven year old son. Reaches Hollywood Via Madison Avenue Not everybody in Hollywood reaches the top by beginning as a grip man or playing walk-ons. Some come from such widely diversified fields as advertising, for instance, and from thence came Gordon Carroll, executive producer of the hilarious ““How to Murder Your Wife,” starring Jack Lemmon, Virna Lisi, Claire Trevor, Eddie Mayehoff and TerryThomas, which opens ............ at theentess. st Theatre. It’s a United Artists release in Technicolor. A native of Baltimore, Md., Carroll attended the fashionable Millbrook Prep School and is a graduate summa cum laude from Princeton. He was a ghost writer for a famous columnist whose name he still won’t reveal, and he also served as a gag writer for CBS. But before he got his feet on the ground as the saying goes, the war came along and he got in as a lieutenant. Came the piping times of peace and Carroll thought he would try advertising. He got a job with a large Madison Avenue agency and became the account executive for a motion picture account. It wasn’t long before he was an executive of the motion picture company, and, before long, an executive producer. While thus engaged at Columbia he met Director Richard Quine, with whom he is associated in “How to Murder Your Wife.” Hotel Starred In Film Comedy A hotel under construction on New York’s Avenue of the Americas at 54th Street plays a starring role in the George Axelrod original screen comedy “How to Mur der Your Wife,” Technicolor United Artists release opening pricey at the ............ Theatre. Co-starred with the hotel, where much of the film’s zany action takes place, are Jack Lemmon, Virna Lisi, Claire Trevor, Eddie Mayehoff and Terry-Thomas. Richard Quine directed and Gordon Carroll was executive producer. Still MI-32 Mat 2B Italy’s gorgeous film star Virna Lisi makes her American film debut opposite Jack Lemmon in the George Axelrod original “How to Murder Your Wife,” hilarious spoof in Technicolor opening at the release. Theatre under United Artists Comedian Jack Lemmon Gets New (And Sexy) Leading Lady One of the notable tributes to the acting talents of Jack Lemmon is a simple listing of the accomplished and beautiful ladies of the screen who have played opposite him, The list reads like the “Who’s Who of Great Actresses” — Judy Holliday, Marge Champion, Betty Grable, Janet Leigh, Betty Garrett, June Allyson, Rita Hayworth, Kathy Grant, Kim Novak, Doris Day, Marilyn Monroe, Lee Remick, Shirley MacLaine, Carol Lynley and Romy Schneider. And now comes an utter unknown (in America at least; she’s famous in Europe) to join this august company. She’s beautiful Virna Lisi, and she co-stars with him in United Artists’ hilarious “How to Murder Your Wife,” in Technicolor, opening. ................ at thes. eas Theatre. It’s a great chance for Virna and great things are expected from this fortunate casting, which also includes Claire Trevor, Eddie Mayehoff and Terry-Thomas. For Lemmon stands today, the unchallenged and most beloved comedy-romance box office champ of the world. Thrice nominated in four years for a Best Actor Academy Award, for “Some Like It Hot,” “The Apartment” and “The Days of Wine and Roses,” he is equally proficient in comedy and dramatic portrayals. Son of a well-known amateur performer in Boston, Jack made his debut at four with his father in “Gold in Them Thar Hills.” It proved his undoing. He decided there and then to become an actor. Lemmon was educated at New England’s best schools, including Harvard University, and was identified with dramatics at all. He was president of Harvard’s dramatic society, the Hasty Pudding Club. Jack “made” Hollywood, in a comedy role opposite Judy Holliday in “It Could Happen to You,” and he was an instant success. He played for a while but his appearance in “Mr. Roberts” won him an Academy Award and _international fame. He continued to play comedy and it was this medium which lifted him to his present eminence, Following completion of Columbia’s “The Notorious Landlady” opposite Kim Novak in late 1961, Jack flew to London to star in Sam Spiegel’s “The Dangerous Silence”. When this project was delayed, Jack returned to the U. S. to costar with Lee Remick in the Martin Manlius production of ‘Days of Wine and Roses” at Warner’s. When the final scene of his most dramatic role in films was completed, Lemmon flew to Paris for exterior filming of Billy Wilder’s “Irma La Douce” opposite Shirley MacLaine. Following that he filmed “Under the Yum Yum Tree” and “Good Neighbor Sam”. Lemmon and actress Felicia Farr were married in Paris on August 17, 1962. They live in a Normandy style home on a two-acre wooded hillside in Beverly Hills. Return Engagement Claire Trevor, famed screen dramatic actress of yesteryear, returns to the screen as a comedienne in “How to Murder Your Wife,” a George Axelrod original directed by Richard Quine and co-starring Jack Lemmon, Virna Lisi, Eddie Mayehoff, Terry-Thomas and Miss Trevor, opening at the Theatre in Technicolor Stull MI-25 Claire Trevor Is Back As A Comedienne One of the truly great names in entertainment which has graced the cast of over 150 pictures, 200 TV and radio programs, and 20 stage plays, and whose owner was considered one of the greatest dramatic actresses of her day, returns to the screen—in comedy for the first time—in the hilarious “How to Murder Your Wife,” a George Axelrod original in Technicolor opening ................ at the yes ca oa Theatre. She’s lovely Claire Trevor, still a beauty at 55, whose performance in “Key Largo” in 1948 won her an Oscar and is still considered one of the greatest of cinematic performances, and an Emmy for her work in television’s ‘Dodsworth” in 1956. She plays Eddie Mayehoff’s hairbrained wife in the United Artists release, and is co-starred in it with Jack Lemmon, the newcomer Virna Lisi and funnyman Terry-Thomas. Miss Trevor has been in pictures since 1933 and her name has graced the credits of some of the greatest. These include “Key Largo,” “Stagecoach,” ‘Murder My Sweet,” ‘“Crack-Up,” “The High and the Mighty” and ‘“Marjorie Morningstar.” Since her semi-retirement from films Miss Trevor has devoted herself to painting and is considered by many an excellent painter. Her return to films in “How to Murder Your Wife,” which was directed by Richard Quine with Gordon Carroll acting as Executive Producer, is being hailed as the beginning for her of a new career as a comedienne in older roles. Still MI-36 Mat 1€ Claire Trevor, once famous for her great dramatic performances, returns to the screen as a comedienne in_ hilarious “How to Murder Your Wife.” Technicolor United Artists release co-starring Jack Lemmon and Virna Lisi, which opens at the Theatre. Mat 2D Said to be one of the funniest court sequences ever filmed, Jack Lemmon cross-examines his lawyer Eddie Mayehoff in this scene from the hilarious “How to Murder Your Wife,” George Axelrod original in Technicolor, opening ............ At the sie ee Theatre. United Artists release was directed by Richard Quine. PAGE 9