Kisses for My President (1964)

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

The idea for this film is a very good one...but the execution is lackluster to say the least. It's a shame.When the film begins, Leslie McCloud (Polly Bergen) is being sworn is as President of the US. However, soon after, it's obvious that no one even considered what Mr. Thad McCloud (Fred MacMurray) would do as First Lady or First Fella or whatever he would be. This isn't at all realistic as you'd think this would all be planned out. Then, through the course of the film, Thad just seems kind of lost and the President seems to have little time for him. And, the kids run amok as neither the President nor her husband seem to have considered what to do with the kids. And, as for Thad...he's like a fish out of water in all this.So here's the problem. Unless the President was chosen by lottery, Mr. McCloud and his wife would have already had to work out their roles and the impact of all this on her kids. After all, you would assume she would have already been a Congresswoman, Senator or Governor...and so the family moving to the White House should NOT have been this difficult. In essence, the plot really didn't make a lot of sense the way they handled it...nor the way the President just gave it all up at the end!! If you can look past all this (and you won't), the film has some cute moments. But it could have been so much better had the script made more sense.

First gentleman Fred MacMurray (as Thaddeus "Thad" McCloud) is frazzled after beautiful wife Polly Bergen (as Leslie Harrison McCloud) is sworn in as first female President of the United States. While Bergen plays politics with South American dictator Eli Wallach (as Raphael Valdez), MacMurray entertains him with fast American vehicles. The men are involved in an embarrassing fight in a strip bar. Bergen as President finds her family in crisis. MacMurray's old girlfriend Arlene Dahl (as Doris Reid Weaver) begins to seduce him and the children get in trouble. Teenage daughter Anna Capri (as Gloria) goes out on a hot rod date, little Ronnie Dapo (as Peter) becomes the school bully, and MacMurray begins mixing drugs with alcohol...All is solved by the sighting of the stork over the White House. Too bad they didn't shoot the bird.** Kisses for My President (8/21/64) Curtis Bernhardt ~ Fred MacMurray, Polly Bergen, Eli Wallach, Arlene Dahl

In 1964 this was considered an outrageous idea: the first female president. How times have changed during the 45 years. Hillary Clinton must laugh up her sleeve when she saw this one; even though she didn't make it in 2008.The film deals with a woman (Polly Bergen) playing our nation's first chief executive. Whether male or female, the president must deal with affairs of international or domestic consideration.We're not interested in a film dealing with the concept of the first husband. Fred MacMurray does an interesting job here. Surprised that Polly Bergen didn't break out in a chorus of Giselle McKenzie's hit-"Hard to Get!"The picture weakens as it goes on since it's hard to keep up the pace with problems associated with a woman in the White House.Those involved with the liberation of women movement would certainly be disheartened by the ending when that famous line is stated: "The president is pregnant!" I think that was a cop-out to the total ideal of the film. The film is comic and somewhat serious by nature. What's to be done by the first husband? Must he assume the traditional roles of the First Lady? That's a pretty interesting point to consider.

Easily made my list of most insultingly bad movies -- and I have tried to not be a negative guy. But, to put it all in one line, this film doesn't even seem to be an honest treatment of what actually is a good idea, and is a slap in the face of feminism and a slap in the face of the office of the presidency.Even considering that it predates the feminine revolution, it represents the worst of the pre-1968 culture that thought women were silly things that had to stay in the kitchen keeping pots and pans bright and shiny.If you wonder about a female president, read up instead about the presidential campaigns of folks like Patricia Schroeder, Hillary Clinton, or Elizabeth Dole. See "Commander-in-Chief" starring Geena Davis.If, instead, you wonder what it would be like to be First Husband, take a look at the life of Prince Philip, who has already lived this role in real life. Read about a powerful man who marries a princess, and finds himself given a free hand in raising the kids while his wife runs an empire.But you are still thinking of watching this movie? Here are my opinions. I will warn you when the spoilers start.* * * * *"A woman, Polly Bergen, as president?" I asked. "And a macho star like Fred MacMurray as First Lady?" This had all the signs of being a first class 'what-if'.And it could have been. Its first minutes seemed a really good take on "What Would Be Different?" She'd have to clutch her mink coat while taking the oath, she'd have trouble with a couple of bigots at least, and the husband would have some adjusting to do. There is a very nice scene in which the Vice-President commiserates with the First Husband about being on the sidelines.And there is then some really good stuff about "What Would Be The Same?" The Soviets give the new president some grief, and Polly Bergen (a successful businesswoman in real life) proceeds to kick Russian Communist butt -- the Soviets settle down, exactly as if she were Margaret Thatcher, or Golda Meir, or Indira Ghandi. The film seems to think a woman president could be great.But, then ... the writers seem to poop out. They run out of good ideas, and fall back upon really insultingly bad old-style stereotypes. And yes they change their stance, they seem to think a woman president would self-destruct immediately.Spoilers, Warning. As if they said "Oh the girls would really love this" the film dwells more and more on how neat it is to live in the White House with a full staff. Yes, butlers and maids running around with fancy suits and white gloves. A permanent vacation from housework, how could the female audience resist! (But you thought this was a film about democracy and government? So did I. Apparently Hollywood thought the average female would get bored with things like global crises.) The final shot, when the president has to leave the White House after resigning, is of the White House butlers and maids bowing deeply to the camera ... The End.What the ...? "Resigning"? Oh, yeah ... the first female president, according to 1964 Hollywood, would have to resign because she fainted. Yes, the woman fainted. And why did she faint? Because she got pregnant, of course she would faint, wouldn't she? And of course, you can't have a fainting, pregnant president, so she resigns and the butlers and maids bow to her as she leaves.Utterly unbelievable. Nobody becomes president who would willingly resign for such stupid reasons. We had almost two hundred years of government here before a president resigned. And women don't faint and give up when they get pregnant -- some women have had babies in the wild. Governor Jane Swift of Massachusetts went right through labor and had her kid without even turning over the office of governor temporarily.It's insulting even to modern day MEN like myself to think that a female president would pull a Victorian swoon and resign, after spending years of campaigning to cap a life's political career as president to just resign.Look ... I watched this movie because it might have been an interesting speculation about an American 'Queen Victoria'-type, but it turned into a horrible piece of sterotyping that defied belief. Really. It took me a while afterwards to pick my jaw off the floor. Monumental bad taste.