HotToastyRag This film reminded me of The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, because both protagonists are family men in the suburbs with no real complaints, but they still feel unhappy. Kirk Douglas plays the lead in Strangers When We Meet, and although he's a successful architect with a loving wife and two sons, he's restless, or something. I really couldn't understand why he came on so strongly and suddenly to Kim Novak. Yes, she's beautiful and has an incredible figure, but was there any other reason besides physical attraction for him to stray? Kim is also a family woman, and although she resists his advances at first, she gives in pretty easily to what is obviously an invitation to an affair. Barbara Rush, Kirk Douglas's wife, is the shining star in the film. She gives so much, and stuffs her feelings to save her family, so when she finally explodes, it's cathartic for the audience as well. If I didn't think the viewers were supposed to sympathize with her character, I wouldn't have liked the movie at all, since the romance between the two leads is very difficult to root for. Walter Matthau costars as a nosy neighbor, and although you'll at first get a chuckle out of him because his character is named Felix, you'll soon see he's not the comic relief. He's cold, cunning, and practically frightening-but his character is very necessary to the plot!If watching two beautiful people fall in lust is enough entertainment for you, you'll probably really like Strangers When We Meet. For me, the supporting characters made it worthwhile, but it isn't really a movie I'll want to watch again.

Catharina_Sweden This movie was a disappointment to me. I had hoped that it would be something like "Brief Encounter", but with more attractive leading actors. And it is - partly. The romance is there. But it is interspersed with social realism, the psychoanalytic lingo that was so common in novels and movies in the 1960:s, an unhealthy atmosphere overall among the middle-aged couples in the upper middle-class neighborhood, a lot of talking and reasoning... It is also much too long and partly tedious. All this does not fit into a romantic love story. The most incongruous thing of all, however, was the end music: an angelic choir with a sugar-sweet, romantic song, that should have been just right in an animated Disney Princess movie... I wonder what the person who chose that end song was thinking about..? :-O Despite from my criticism above, I think there are good scenes too that illuminate the disastrous situation that I think most of us at least brush against at on time or other in our lives. I.e.: to fall in love with someone who is already married, or to fall in love with someone else while one is oneself married. Or both, as in this film. For instance the scene when Kim Novak, playing the unfaithful wife, is walking around in the private rooms of her married lover and his wife. The look of all the little intimate things THOSE two share - the bed, the towels, the toilet utensils, and not least the kid who suddenly appears in the door - suddenly makes her understand what it is she is trying to destroy. A marriage and a family. That scene is superb!

williwaw Kim Novak was the quintessential movie star of her era and this film a heartbreaking drama directed by Kim Novak's then beau Richard Quine showcases the great star. Co starring Kirk Douglas, and Walter Matthau the film is well acted, and I love seeing it every time it is on TV.Kim Novak at the time of the filming was #1 Box Office Female Star in the world and incredibly beautiful. Kirk Douglas rugged manliness plays off the sultry Novak well, and Walter Matthau in an early role is wonderful. Matthau years later would compliment Novak saying he learned more about Movie Acting from Kim Novak then from any other actress or actor. Quite A compliment.This is a great movie and I wish they made movies like this today.Strangers When We Meet is the apothesis of the career of Kim Novak.

keylight-4 This film is nothing but a beautiful Technicolor soap opera, but wow, what great-looking stars -- the gorgeous Kim Novak, with a figure that would knock your eyes out, and virile, well-built, flat-bellied Kirk Douglas! The acting, at least by Kim Novak, leaves a lot to be desired -- she always seems to be in some kind of a mental fog, and delivers her lines lifelessly, without feeling.But this movie is not to be missed, if for no other reason than the unintentionally funny scenes between Kim Novak ("Maggie") and her cold fish of a husband, "Ken". In one scene, Maggie is going out for a clandestine meeting with Kirk Douglas ("Larry"), poured into a tight, revealing red dress that practically screams, "I'M HAVING AN AFFAIR!". Her prissy husband is sitting on the sofa reading the newspaper, oblivious. Maggie tells Ken she's going out with a girlfriend or something like that (yeah, sure), and when Ken fails to notice the obvious, she says to him in that smoky voice, "Suppose I'm going to meet a man. It happens", to which Ken replies, glancing up briefly and rattling his newspaper, "Not to someone like you". That hilarious bit of dialogue alone makes this movie worthwhile!