How to Murder Your Wife

How to Murder Your Wife is a 1965 black comedy about Stanley Ford, a successful, confirmed bachelor and cartoonist played by Jack Lemmon. After a drunken bachelor-party night, Stanley impulsively marries a beautiful woman who emerges from a cake, then quickly regrets the decision once sober. His new wife refuses to agree to a divorce, and Stanley's frustration spills into his popular comic strip, where he imagines a secret agent escaping domestic life by 'eliminating' his spouse. The situation spirals into a chaotic farce as his marriage, public reputation, and legal troubles collide, with the film mixing slapstick, courtroom comedy, and mistaken assumptions. The story centers on Stanley's panic, vanity, and eventual rethinking of marriage rather than any real crime, keeping the tone broadly comic and satirical throughout. (rottentomatoes.com)

Reception is fairly mixed-to-positive, with the film often remembered as a brisk, old-school farce powered by Jack Lemmon's comic timing. Rotten Tomatoes lists it at 64% from 14 critic reviews, with a 64% Popcornmeter based on 2,500+ audience ratings, suggesting an appreciable but not overwhelming level of approval. IMDb currently shows a 6.5/10 rating, which lines up with the idea of a film that many viewers find amusing and entertaining, even if not a classic for everyone. Critical commentary has tended to praise the performances and the premise while noting that the script's satire can be broad or uneven; Rotten Tomatoes' quoted Time review calls it a “nimble comedy” with “screechingly funny” moments, while the New York Times' Bosley Crowther was notably harsher, objecting to its treatment of wives and calling the humor dependent on tolerance for the joke. In short, audiences generally seem warmer than the most skeptical critics, and the movie is best viewed as a light, dated but still lively comedy built around Lemmon's charm and the film's fast, mischievous setup. (rottentomatoes.com)