"Strangers When We Meet" is a poor attempt at creating lush melodrama and cashing-in on the successful soap opera-type film genre that was so popular and saturated cinema in the late-1950s and early-1960s.
With this experienced cast, one would expect a lot more than this movie actually provides. Kirk Douglas and Kim Novak are both attractive Southern Californians, but trapped in boring marriages. They meet one day while they are dropping-off their respective children at the school bus stop. They soon embark on an affair risking the tranquility of their domestic lives. Maggie (Novak) isn't too sure about this at first, but apparently Larry's (Douglas) chiseled features are all it takes for her to forget about her guilt and participate in their days of steamy trysts.
The storyline, plot points, soundtrack, and acting are, for the most part, uneventful. The exception is Douglas is manages to give a tough, intense performance up against the extraordinarily drab Novak. Walter Matthau also manages to pull-off a good performance as Felix, Douglas' sleazy neighbor, with what little he's given to do. The last twenty minutes of this sudser are actually decent. Too bad the rest of this borefest couldn't follow suit.
With this experienced cast, one would expect a lot more than this movie actually provides. Kirk Douglas and Kim Novak are both attractive Southern Californians, but trapped in boring marriages. They meet one day while they are dropping-off their respective children at the school bus stop. They soon embark on an affair risking the tranquility of their domestic lives. Maggie (Novak) isn't too sure about this at first, but apparently Larry's (Douglas) chiseled features are all it takes for her to forget about her guilt and participate in their days of steamy trysts.
The storyline, plot points, soundtrack, and acting are, for the most part, uneventful. The exception is Douglas is manages to give a tough, intense performance up against the extraordinarily drab Novak. Walter Matthau also manages to pull-off a good performance as Felix, Douglas' sleazy neighbor, with what little he's given to do. The last twenty minutes of this sudser are actually decent. Too bad the rest of this borefest couldn't follow suit.