It Started with a Kiss

Directed by George Marshall, It Started with a Kiss follows Glenn Ford’s Joe Fitzpatrick and Debbie Reynolds’ Maggie Putnam as they impulsively decide to get married and subsequently experience a series of complications in Spain (where Joe has been stationed). There’s ultimately little doubt that It Started with a Kiss fares best in its briskly-paced and thoroughly charming first act, as the movie benefits substantially from the engaging efforts of its two stars and their palpable chemistry together – with the appealing, watchable atmosphere heightened by an emphasis on agreeable story elements (including a terrific misunderstanding wherein Joe assumes that Maggie is pregnant). It’s disappointing to note, then, that the picture slowly-but-surely begins to fizzle out as it progresses into an episodic (and distressingly hit-and-miss) midsection and second half, and while Marshall, working from a screenplay by Charles Lederer, has peppered the proceedings with a few entertaining sequences (eg Joe and Maggie meet a pompous bullfighter), It Started with a Kiss builds towards a fairly tiresome climax that ensures it fizzles out to a rather conspicuous degree – which is a shame, ultimately, given the potential inherent in the premise and performances.

** out of ****