Mikel3 'Kisses for My President' (1964) – Starring Polly Bergen and Fred MacMurray.I watched this today again on TCM. It's a funny, if dated, spoof about the first woman president, Leslie McCloud (Polly), and the role of her husband, Thad McCloud (Fred). The story is good at first showing a woman can be a strong very competent leader for the country. It seems especially timely now when we just had our first female democratic presidential candidate in the last election. We almost had a long overdue female president. In the film the women of the country had united to elect a woman. Fred MacMurray gets a chance to show off his impressive comic talents in his role as her husband. He's especially funny in one scene where he's nervous about doing a white house tour before millions of TV viewers. To help relieve his nerves he's given pills and drinks by various people in order to relax him for the camera. None of them realize he's already been given something to relax him. By the time he has to appear for the show he's totally plastered. I found myself laughing out loud more than once at his physical antics. An early scene where he gets seasick during a romantic excursion on the presidential yacht is also very funny. So as a comedy the movie is pretty darn good. The problem for me is the almost sickening ending. ****** warning ending spoiler ahead***** Things are going well with Leslie McCloud's presidency and her husband is finally not such a bumbler in his role as 'First Husband'. At a public hearing meant to embarrass the president Thad is even able to finally bring down a sly windbag of a senator played by well known comedy character actor Edward Andrews. Later, all is going well till the president passes out and it's discovered she is...gasp... pregnant. Of course now she must resign from her strenuous duties or maybe lose the baby. The early 1960s message here is obviously that a woman is not physically able, due to her sex, of being president. It's also pointed out that her other two children are getting into trouble due to lack of proper parental guidance...why her husband isn't doing the guidance himself while she runs the country isn't explained well. The final insult was this line from Thad to his wife as they are leaving the White house following her resignation...Thad says that he has proved male superiority. He explains that it took many millions of women to put her in the white house and only one male to remove her from it, meaning himself of course since he had gotten her pregnant. Of course that line was said in a joking way yet the message to the audience was obvious. This could have been a much better all-around film if it had not fallen into preaching that sickeningly outdated early 60s message that a women's place is at home with the children caring for her husband. If only they had ended it differently this film could have been a timeless comedy. I'll give it a 6 out of 10 stars for the comic movements and what came before the ending.

trudyr_1999 I had heard about this movie for years and even knew how it ended, but I decided I should finally see it for myself--it was on TCM this past weekend. As a feminist, I was prepared to be offended, but parts of the movie pleasantly surprised me. President Leslie McCloud, well played by Polly Bergen, is a strong, smart woman more than capable of handling the duties of president. And Eli Wallach is very funny as the Castro-like dictator seeking aid for his country. Today the casting of a non-Latino actor in the role wouldn't go over, but Wallach, a gifted character actor, does a good job. The character is a bit stereotypical, but hey, he's a dictator-- we're not supposed to like him. Fred MacMurray's performance is OK--I prefer him cast against type, as in Double Indemnity and The Apartment--but his "first gentleman" character is such a bumbler, until he redeems himself in the congressional hearing, that it's hard to believe he was ever a successful businessman. And Edward Andrews, like Wallach a fine character actor, is excellent as the smarmy senator who had run against McCloud. But the movie finally does a cop-out on the idea of a woman president--she has to resign because she's pregnant! So for most of the film, the script takes the idea of a woman president seriously, and shows Leslie McCloud to be a serious, intelligent, competent one, but in the end biology dictates her destiny. So yes, we needed the women's movement and still do--even in 2016, a lot of Americans wouldn't vote for a woman for president, and don't tell me sexism had nothing to do with it. One more problem: Even though the movie was made at the height of the civil rights movement, the only black character who gets notable screen time is the White House butler.

JLRMovieReviews Polly Bergen has just been elected President of the United States. That makes husband Fred MacMurray first lady. Even though he had his own business, he forgoes that to stay at home and becomes bored with the duties that are usually given to ladies in that position: planning the banquets, what's for supper, guiding the tours, etc. I was afraid this was going to be lame, not funny, and dated. But I was pleasantly surprised to find myself getting into it. It helps that Eli Wallach is given a larger-than-life character as a foreign diplomat asking for financial aid for his country that he misuses. It helps if you like Fred MacMurray. Arlene Dahl is an ex-suitor who still has a yen for Fred. She tries to coax him into bringing his reputation to her business, but he eventually backs out. Even the children have Secret Service following them throughout the day and that has its repercussions. Granted, it has its predictable humor about Fred as "a fish out of water." And, I agree with another reviewer that Rosalind Russell would have been a better choice than Polly Bergen, but, if you like the actors here, then you'll have a pleasant two hours with friends in some extraordinary conditions.

Robert J. Maxwell Polly Bergen is elected president of the United States (in 1964!) and ex-businessman husband Fred MacMurray must assume the role of "first lady." It sounds stupid and, okay, you may call it a one-premise movie, but not a one-joke movie because there are plenty of relatively unsophisticated laughs.And the laughs build, so to speak, from slight discomfort to slapstick. An example of early self consciousness: MacMurray is assigned to the first lady's bedroom, all fluffy and flouncy, with a dressing table and chintz.Along the way, while his wife is busy with state affairs, MacMurry receives a job offer from a former girl friend who now owns a toilet-accessory business. MacMurray eagerly accepts, wanting to begin a men's line of after-shave colognes with names like "Green Cedar" and "Testosteral" and "Bloodthirsty" and "Ballsy." Well, not those last. I just made them up. The lady in charge, however, Arlene Dahl is interested in the man, not his manly deodorants.There is an embarrassing contretemps too with a visiting Latin American dictator, Eli Wallach, who wants an influx of American dollars. MacMurray manages to offend Wallach, who threatens to sue the United States or go to another foreign country for financial aid.A legislative committee is later formed to investigate the stupidity and incompetence of MacMurray, led by that always reliable pompous blowhard, Edward Andrews. MacMurry exposes Andrews as corrupt, because it develops that Andrews was formerly a partner in the law firm Wallach intends to use in his suit.This sounds shockingly corrupt, doesn't it? Yet, as of this year, a state governor who was previously involved in an extremely expensive health-care scandal signed into law a bill mandating sonograms for women seeking to terminate their pregnancies and one of the chief providers of sonograms in that state is largely owned by the governor's wife. Not a peep. We're not in 1964 anymore, Toto.The least demanding -- and the funniest -- episode comes near the end of the movie. MacMurray is to conduct a guided tour of the White House, a la Jackie Kennedy, but he's a nervous wreck. Two friends have already given him tranquilizers but he's still a neural shambles. The White House physician gives him pep pills that will wake him up and turn him into a shark. Somebody else slips him a double whiskey to calm him down. At this point MacMurray freezes in place behind his desk, assuming an alarming port de bras, holds the pose for a full minute, then leaps to his feet, shouting, "Let's get going!", and throws his jacket on backwards. The results are expectable. He winds up stumbling around before the cameras with one foot in a spitoon. Right out of Laurel and Hardy.Oh, one more gag I feel compelled to throw in. MacMurray, as first lady, has two secretaries but he has trouble with their names. The first one corrects him when he addresses her incorrectly. Then he remarks to the other, "Well, I don't think I'll forget your name, Miss Ives." She replies: "Miss Currier." I laughed out loud and decided to try it in the next meeting of my sociology class. I addressed one of the young students as "Miss Martin." She shook her head slowly, and said "Miss Aston." Nobody laughed. I had to explain the joke -- "Aston-Martin" -- before I roused a couple of polite smiles. No wonder the student evaluations were so low.I know it's silly but I enjoy it on those rare occasions when it's on cable. It's undemanding stuff and everyone needs a laugh now and then. And MacMurray, as he'd already demonstrated numerous times, is an accomplished light comedian.