Alex Toth, Jack Lemmon and 1965’s HOW TO MURDER YOUR WIFE
REEL RETRO CINEMA: New looks at old flicks — and their comics connections… By ROB KELLY The provocatively titled How to Murder Your Wife stars the legendary Jack Lemmon as Stanley Ford, writer/artist of Bash Brannigan, a successful daily comic strip. How successful? Besides paying for his lavishly furnished, three-story apartment building in the middle of Manhattan, Stanley has the time and resources to stage dramatic scenarios featuring scantily clad dames and gun-toting bad guys all around the city, which are then photographed by his butler (yes, you read that right—the cartoonist has a butler) so Stanley can use them as reference for his strip. In addition to all that, Stanley is a member of an exclusive men’s club, where various captains of industry sit around, drink, play pool and commiserate with one another how much women can ruin your life, if you let them. Stanley is a confirmed bachelor—that is, until the guys throw one of their own a bachelor party, and Stanley gets so drunk, he wakes up the next morning with a ring on his finger and a naked woman in his bed. The woman in question (the beautiful Virna Lisi) was hired to jump out of a cake at the party, and that’s pretty much all Stanley can remember. It doesn’t help that the newly christened Mrs. Ford only speaks Italian, so Stanley has to go through his lawyer’s wife (Claire Trevor) to find out whom he just married. His lawyer (Eddie Mayehoff) is no help, saying Stanley won’t be granted a divorce without some legal justification. Despite his new wife being a fun, affectionate, supportive person (in addition to being a marvelous cook), Stanley has never been unhappier. His butler (Terry-Thomas) refuses to work for a married couple, and quits. Stanley begins to feel so constrained that he changes Bash Brannigan from an adventure strip to a domestic comedy called The Brannigans. But, much to Stanley’s dismay, that makes it even more popular, since now women read the strip, too. Taking his frustrations out in panel form, he has Bash Branningan plot to murder his wife so he can back to his secret agent ways. His wife sees this (and Stanley’s attempts to play act the murder, using a mannequin and some equipment at the construction site next door) and leaves for Italy without...
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