Strangers When We Meet

1960

1 hr. 57 min.

Drama

List

60%

5 Reviews

Tomatometer

55%

1,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

Architect Larry Coe (Kirk Douglas) yearns to create adventurous designs, but his pragmatic wife, Eve (Barbara Rush), is determined to make her husband focus on more marketable, straightforward work. Maggie Gault (Kim Novak), a neighbor of the Coe family who is trapped in a loveless marriage, believes in Larry's creative impulses, and the pair eventually strike up a love affair. However, they're interrupted by the nosy, lecherous Felix (Walter Matthau), who has eyes for Eve.

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Audience Member

Very interesting movie. A beautiful reflection upon love, art, freedom,,,

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/26/23

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Audience Member

A house is constructed at the same an affair is constructed. I think both constructions are worth watching. Kim Novak and Kirk Douglas are legendary!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/29/23

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Audience Member

One of the great, vastly underrated soap operatic love stories, between Kirk Douglas and Kim Novak, who are married to other people. With Walter Matthau, Barbara Rush, and Ernie Kovacs.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/17/23

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Audience Member

I found this drama to be quite dull. The majority of it is spent with the actors sitting around talking, smoking, drinking, and talking some more. It has all the usual plot devices of an affair drama, no surprises or anything. It's not bad, though. I wouldn't say this movie was worse than any other movies like it. It's just not good either.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/22/23

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Audience Member

the paradox within the cultural temperament of 1960s america is the juxtaposition of sexual liberation (free love among the youth) and the height of bourgeois suburban dream, the co-existence of radical activism and the conservative reactionary. thus "strangers when we meet" is the mediocre lukewarm product moulded by such social atmosphere. on the one hand, it encourages emancipation for married woman to re-vitalize her confidence meanwhile it also dubs moralistic pedogogy that marriage is a commitment which should not be nullfied. kim novak plays a housewife with a wooden un-passionate husand who demands her to put her clothes on in order to appear decent in their own house (come on, your wife is kim novak, wouldn't you supposedly be more passionate to such voluptuous woman?) thus she finds herself suffocated in a lifeless marriage, and she seeks solace from her neighbor, who happens also to be married, who also finds his wife quite insensitive to his passions of life, frustrated by the lack of mental connections and spiritua)l communications. in one scene, novak without bra, in a scarlett (flesh-red dress requests the man to kiss in a hissing exclamation as if she's sensually requesting for orgasm as you could clearly see the tempting shape of her naked bossom. the ending is that the woman just bids farewell to the man graciously without making a fuss about his sudden decision to depart and leave her in a loveless marriage. it's like saying: we have had a great fun together, and eventually i will return home to be a good little wife and you could easily take off. ok, perhaps i ideologize everything, it feels like a patronization of hugh hefner-esque chauvinism. yes, free love is only doable under the premise that woman is the man's plaything without any actual romantic consequence. (and woman, you're on your own, since i'm gonna help you.) BUT, how could you do except just letting him go? strangers when we meet, still strangers after you put your pants back on! quite a roller-coaster ride of free love without paying the ticket fair, isn't it?

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/24/23

Full Review

Audience Member

July 2010 - This is a very well developed family drama. The characters are quite attractive even though I don't think they are explained very well. K Douglas is always somewhere between a deceiving unfaithful husband and a true artist in love. On the other hand K Novak looks psychologically troubled and the only explanation for her strange behavior seems to be sexual deprivation. Other characters are rather shallow. But overall visually the movie is appealing and I liked the ending.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/12/23

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Richard Quine

Director

Kirk Douglas

Larry Coe

Kim Novak

Margaret `'Maggie'` Gault

Ernie Kovacs

Roger Altar

Barbara Rush

Eve Coe

Walter Matthau

Felix Anders

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Clyde Gilmour

Maclean's Magazine

Illicit passion around the suburban barbecue pits is the tattered theme in this romantic drama.

Dec 3, 2019

Full Review

Lori Hoffman

Atlantic City Weekly

Rated: 3/5

Aug 17, 2006

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Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

Rated: 3/5

Jun 19, 2005

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Michael Szymanski

International Press Academy

Rated: 3/5

Jun 1, 2005

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David Nusair

Reel Film Reviews

The bloated running time is exacerbated by a focus on pointless subplots...

Rated: 2/4

Feb 26, 2005

Full Review

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Synopsis

Architect Larry Coe (Kirk Douglas) yearns to create adventurous designs, but his pragmatic wife, Eve (Barbara Rush), is determined to make her husband focus on more marketable, straightforward work. Maggie Gault (Kim Novak), a neighbor of the Coe family who is trapped in a loveless marriage, believes in Larry's creative impulses, and the pair eventually strike up a love affair. However, they're interrupted by the nosy, lecherous Felix (Walter Matthau), who has eyes for Eve.

Director: Richard Quine
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English