Kisses for My President
| Kisses for My President | |
|---|---|
 1964 Theatrical Poster | |
| Directed by | Curtis Bernhardt |
| Written by | Claude Binyon (writer) Robert G. Kane (screenplay) |
| Produced by | Curtis Bernhardt |
| Starring | Fred MacMurray Polly Bergen Eli Wallach |
| Cinematography | Robert Surtees |
| Edited by | Sam O'Steen |
| Music by | Bronislau Kaper |
Production company | Pearlayne |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
Release date | December 4, 1964 |
Running time | 113 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Kisses for My President is a 1964 comedy film directed by Curtis Bernhardt, starring Fred MacMurray and Polly Bergen. Leslie McCloud (Bergen) makes history when she is elected the first female President of the United States. However, her husband Thad McCloud (MacMurray) is less enthusiastic.[1]
Plot summary
The United States elects its first female President in the form of Leslie McCloud. She and her first gentleman, Thad, move into the White House with their daughter Gloria and son Peter.
Immediately, the new President is too busy for her husband and family as she deals with a powerful opposition senator (Edward Andrews), Senator Walsh, and a Central American dictator (Eli Wallach).
Thad attempts to find something meaningful to do as the "first lady". Much time is given to the husband's chagrin at being assigned an ultra-feminine bedroom and office within the White House. It is clear that no one, especially Thad McCloud, has given any thought to how a President's husband might fit into the scheme of things.
Enter Doris Reid Weaver (Arlene Dahl), Thad's former flame and now an international business woman. She wants Thad back—and offers him a lucrative position in her company as bait.
Leslie has asked him to show visiting dictator Valdez around Washington, with disastrous results. To further complicate things, the first daughter is running around town with a very unsuitable boyfriend and using her position to get out of scrapes with the police. Son Peter has become a bully, using his Secret Service men for protection as he terrorizes everyone in his school—including the principal.
The President's husband ultimately finds an important role in a Cold War subplot that resembles the rise and fall of Senator McCarthy when he proves that Senator Walsh blindly supports the Latin American dictator for reasons that are not patriotic. Senator Walsh aggressively portrays the Madame President as weak in resisting Communism because she has the humanitarian integrity to refuse to fund the dictator's fraudulent use of "foreign aid" for his personal enrichment while doing nothing to alleviate poverty in his country. The Russians are only co-funding the dictator to prevent him from being influenced exclusively by the United States. As soon as the Madame President drops her support for the dictator, the Russians do so as well. The film thereby shows that a woman President might have greater moral wisdom than the belligerent male establishment.
To make the film shift from the sort of political conflict that led to the Bay of Pigs fiasco to a happy ending in marital relations, the only solution in the Hollywood of 1964 is for Leslie to discover that she is pregnant, and resign the presidency to devote herself full-time to her family.
Cast
- Fred MacMurray as Thad McCloud
- Polly Bergen as U.S. President Leslie McCloud
- Eli Wallach as Valdez
- Arlene Dahl as Doris Reid Weaver
- Edward Andrews as Sen. Walsh
- Donald May as Secret Service Agent John O'Connor
- Harry Holcombe as Vice President Bill Richards
- Ahna Capri as Gloria McCloud (as Anna Capri)
- Ronnie Dapo as Peter McCloud
- Richard St. John as Jackson
- Bill Walker as Joseph
- Adrienne Marden as Miss Higgins
- Wilbert G. Nuttycombe as Musician
- Norma Varden as Miss Dinsendorff
- John Banner as Soviet Ambassador
- Jon Lormer as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
- Eleanor Audley as Principal Osgood
- Beverly Powers (aka Miss Beverly Hills) as Nana Peel
Reaction
The New York Times review called the film "corny".[2]
