Strangers When We Meet

Kim Novak excels alongside Kirk Douglas in this heartbreaking story of an extramarital affair among the sleepy suburban hills of 1950s Los Angeles.

Margaret “Maggie” Gault (Kim Novak) is listless, persisting in a stable but passionless marriage to a conservative prude. Kirk Douglas is Larry Coe, an architect in a happy but comfortable marriage who has just taken on a new project to design a house for a successful writer played by Ernie Kovacs (Bell, Book and Candle, MIFF 2026). After a meet-cute at school pick-up and a follow-up at the local grocery store, Maggie and Larry embark on a tender, deeply felt affair, sharing a connection they haven’t previously enjoyed with anyone else – one in which they can be their authentic selves. But when nosy neighbour Felix (Walter Matthau, The Odd Couple) discovers the dalliance, he makes a sinister play for Larry’s wife.

Adapted from a novel by Evan Hunter, Strangers When We Meet is a gorgeously rendered melodrama that fields a mature viewpoint on adult relationships, layered with shades of grey. The film boasts an exceptional supporting cast: Matthau revels in his sleazy role as a smug spanner in the works; while Barbara Rush is also wonderful, exuding quiet wisdom and grace as Larry’s pragmatic and perceptive wife – her rebuff of Felix’s unwanted advances is a scene-stealer. The house that Larry constructs, meanwhile, was purpose-built for the film, designed by legendary Hollywood art directors Carl Anderson and Ross Bellah.

Content: Melbourne International Film Festival