1961
Martin Balsam,
and
Wilfred Hyde-White
Susan plays Ada Dallas, a prostitute, who
falls in love with Bo Gillis (Dean Martin) who
is a guitar-playing, country-boy type, running for governor of a southern state. Three weeks before the election, Bo and Ada get married - to the dismay of his speech writer,Steve, (Martin Balsam), and his campaign manager, Sylvester (Wilfred Hyde-White). A phony biography is
created for Ada, and for a while her past is
concealed. In the meantime Bo Gillis finds himself a
puppet governor--confined to merely signing his name to the documents that Sylvester brings to him. Ada persuades Bo to stand up for himself
and up to Sylvester - the results-a car bomb is placed in Bo's car and he is seriously injured.
Bo believes that Ada has conspired with Sylvester in the attempted killing - giving her power, since she had previously been appointed Lt. Governor.
In the end, Ada proves her loyalty to Bo by
getting together a group of honest men in the legislature to stand up against Sylvester and his
pawns.
Susan is terrific in her role as the tough as nails
Ada. She has some great comebacks to those who are ready to expose her and her past.
Susan and Dean are an odd combination, but they manage to pull it off. Dean seems to pale a little against Susan's more experienced power-house acting skills. However, all in all, it's an interesting and entertaining film. Martin Balsam, a great character actor is excellent in his role as Steve, and Wilfred Hyde-White plays the conniving campaign manager convincingly- one can almost believe that his British accident is
southern.......by Ginger Haydon
Film Star