Billy Wilder's career as a hitmaker ended with this for-its-time smutty sex comedy, yet it shows all of the flaws and strengths that once made him one of Hollywood's top directors and, for all its sexual innuendo, is really a very sweet film. Although Ray Walston is terribly miscast as small-town songwriter Orville J. Spooner, who hires a local prostitute (Kim Novak) to impersonate his wife (Felicia Farr) so he can use her to sell singing star Dino (Dean Martin) his songs, the other three stars are dynamite. Farr displays a crack sense of comic timing. Martin, one of Hollywood's most underrated actors, is dead on in a parody of his own image. And Novak gives the performance of her career as the romantic small-town slut trying to earn enough money to get her trailer out of the desert.

As with most of Wilder's films, all the cynicism and sex play mask a romantic heart: Polly and Orville begin to believe in her masquerade as his wife, until he kicks Dino out to protect her honor. The two develop a genuine affection for each other that transcends their brief sexual encounter.

At the time of its release, it was a major scandal, condemned by the Legion of Decency and disowned by United Artists. Now, it seems less shocking and ranks among the second tier of Billy Wilder's work. It's hardly as good as "Some Like It Hot" or "Sunset Boulevard," but never descends to the shoddiness of "The Front Page."

In this sex comedy from writer-director Billy Wilder, Dean Martin stars as Dino, a Vegas singer and comedian who heads to Hollywood to make his next picture. His ends up in the small town of Climax where his car "breaks down", leading him to stay at the home of local piano teacher and aspiring songwriter Orville (Ray Walston), who hopes to get Dino buy some of his songs. The only problem is that Dino wants a woman for the night, and the insanely jealous Orville is afraid he'll target Orville's wife Zelda (Felicia Farr). So Orville arranges for the real Zelda to be gone, and hires local cocktail waitress Polly (Kim Novak) to pose as her and take the brunt of Dino's charge. Also featuring Mel Blanc.

This was highly controversial upon release, condemned by the Catholic Legion of Decency, and lambasted in the press as smutty and prurient. Even Barbara Stanwyck made public condemnations of the film. Now of course it doesn't come across as anything more than a typical primetime sitcom, and even tame by those standards. I wasn't too fond of Walston, although I learned that he was a late replacement for Peter Sellers, who suffered a series of heart attacks after filming began. In fact, the main cast was originally supposed to be Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, and Shirley MacLaine in the Martin, Farr, and Novak roles, respectively. Dean Martin's exaggerated spoof of his own persona seems to have been a forerunner of later "meta" self-parodies like Being John Malkovich, Topher Grace in the Ocean's movies, or the entirety of This Is the End.