Strangers When We Meet: A Sociological Study of Seduction
- donna31489
- Feb 16, 2016
- 3 min read
Infidelity. It’s a theme that impassions the screen time and time again—but not during Eisenhower’s America. A time when sexual repression, manicured morals and prude ideals ruled people’s dimly lit lives.
Richard Quine's Strangers When We Meet (1960) is set just when suburbia was becoming a permanent fixture in early ’60s society. In a perfectly polished neighborhood made up of upper-middle-class prosperity, passion lies between the people, and happiness is harder to find than you would think. A visually stunning creation illustrating the casual daydream fantasy of the American masses, this film bares the universal sexual desires beyond marriage, seducing you in its story and its characters.
Talented architect Larry Coe (Kirk Douglas) is stuck in the cement of his own reality. Married to the kindhearted, no-nonsense Eve Coe (Barbara Rush), he yearns for more exciting adventures in his professional and personal life. One day Larry notices the undeniably beautiful and mysterious Maggie Gault (Kim Novak), a sensitive woman stuck in a loveless marriage to a cold husband who doesn’t understand her or her needs. Both ripe for infidelity, Larry and Maggie vigilantly strike up a torrid affair where infatuation becomes affection and society’s priorities become problems.
This storyline could easily become soapy, but it doesn’t—it comes across as freshly alive throughout its entire run. The reason? Because the story is not so much about adultery. Instead, it’s about the motivations behind the affair. Larry is not running away from an overbearing wife, but rather looking for a kindred soul who understands his artistic aspirations, while Maggie is just longing to be loved. Isn’t that what everyone wants out of life?
Maggie’s beauty is something that brings her only sorrow and despair until she meets Larry. The first thing Larry says to her is, “You're not so pretty.” The irony of this line recognizes Maggie’s melancholy, immediately intriguing her and igniting her interest. With Larry, she slowly sheds her inner anguish, exorcising tortured demons from a lack of love through his sensitivity and strength.
Novak’s breathtaking beauty doesn’t detract from her acting. Her cool, subdued nature enhances her emotionally nuanced performance, breaking her character from the stigma of the “other woman.”
Novak isn’t the only standout in the cast. The supporting performances bring the story full circle, undressing society’s sexual strain, each character representing a different stereotype.
Rush gives a heartfelt performance as Eve, the devastated wife nostalgic for the way things used to be. Despite Larry’s affair, she’s content staying with him as if nothing happened because it’s the right the thing to do—the right thing to do deemed by the masses.
Then there’s Larry’s construction client Sam (Ernie Kovacs) who shows sexual desires that cannot be satisfied by a single lady. He wishes to find the perfect lover, but deep down he’s afraid to find love, afraid to commit.
The character that really makes an impression is Larry’s morally reprehensible neighbor Felix (Walter Matthau). The first to confront Larry about his affair with Maggie, he sums up his own marital role as merely being considered “furniture in his own home.” The line speaks volumes to what this film is about—people leading dull existences based on mediocre morals, while in most cases repressing their sexual desires to keep up a façade of fulfillment.
If you visually examine the film, everything appears perfect on the outside. These people live in beautiful homes, drive nice cars, have great clothes. Their lives seem flawless, but they’re all overwhelmingly unhappy. This false perception of perfection intensifies their controlled cravings for excitement that are lurking dangerously close to the surface.
This film takes place in the early ’60s but it could be set at any point in time. The fight between loyalty and respect to the wife and family, and the desire for a sexy woman or a handsome man, is an eternal part of life. The way each part will behave is the variable in the equation.
The difference between then and now? Back then, couples were living in a time of conservatism. They resigned themselves and their happiness to societal expectations because they didn’t have the guts to live the lives they really wanted. Today, most people wouldn’t settle for a life they didn’t want based on morals that didn’t match their own.
The only thing that dates the film is the underlying misogyny toward both Maggie and Eve as they both appear victimized by how men define them. But I can overlook that fact here because Strangers When We Meet is a provocative picture of visual artistry that stimulates the mind, moves the heart and leaves you thinking about the persuasive influence of society then and now.
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