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!

markspangler1 I was totally shocked when I saw this film as a kid, home sick from school. Here was one of my movie heroes, Kirk Douglas and the lovely Kim Novak at her sexiest, and they were NOT doing good things in their neighborhood. Ahhhhhhhhh... so THIS is what was happening while I was at school.This "adult" themed soaper showed that Hollywood was beginning to change its tune when it came to dealing with issues like infidelity. Douglas plays a successful architect who starts an affair with Novak because he's, well, bored. Douglas' macho performance is tempered a bit and we really feel that he is in love with Novak. This isn't a tawdry affair, we're supposed to believe, because Douglas' performance is so strong. It isn't until late in the film do we realize that these types of affairs are incredibly damaging to all involved and that there are no heroes here.For establishing a subtle ground-breaking subject matter, for a strong Douglas performance, for the neat cars and a really cool barbecue on the patio (hello 60s... you can just see the neighborhood gang out there, firing up the steaks, sipping on gin and tonics and watching a space shot on one of those metal portable TVs) and most of all for the gorgeous Kim Novak, this soaper has a little more depth than you'd expect.Watch it.

eaglesfan152000 This might contain possible spoilers. First off, this is Kirk Douglas in one of his usual roles ( he was once quoted as saying "I've made a career of playing s.o.b's). Kim Novak is quite nice as the wife who doesn't get the total affections of her husband and falls into a relationship with a married man (Douglas). I saw this film on AMC and if you can record it please do, because this film is currently unavailable. It is one of the best films that depicted suburban 1960's Los Angelas. Walter Matthau's performance was probably the best in this film. The scene where he encounters Douglas on the patio at the party and informs him of his knowledge of the affair is really good. Then at the end when he confronts Douglas's wife (Barbara Rush) is disturbing. Matthau was alway's a great actor. The music is pretty good, Ernie Kovaks does a good job also. This is pretty much a chick flick but worth it.

moonspinner55 Married architect secretly romances a pretty society wife, new to the neighborhood. Vehicle for stars Kirk Douglas and Kim Novak is quite lush and slick, but doesn't have the guts to face any of the nasty truths inherent to the situation until just about the end, when neighbor Walter Matthau gets involved. Matthau could be quite menacing and foreboding when he wanted to be, and he pulls off a very difficult moment here. Otherwise, it's a glossy tale about attractive people doing a hurtful thing to their respective spouses. It doesn't hold infidelity up as something to admire or duplicate, but neither does it de-glamorize the act of cheating. For his part, Douglas gives one of his most relaxed performances; Novak is still a bit stiff but cuts a lovely presence. **1/2 from ****