Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Directed by Sidney Sheldon, who wrote the screenplay with Herbert Baker and Alfred Lewis Levitt, this late screwball, flat sex farce reunites actor Cary Grant with writer Sheldon, who'd won an Academy Award on his only nomination for The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947) in their only other collaboration. That's just one of the reasons that make one feel that this comedy could have been better, another is its veteran cast that includes Deborah Kerr and Walter Pidgeon.As it is, the storyline incorporates dated male and female gender roles in a way that's infrequently funny and more often silly. What begins as a promising, although greatly simplified look at the primitive wants and needs of each sex, devolves into a less than amusing review of old stereotypes. The film did receive an Academy Award nomination for its B&W Costume Design.When Clemson Reade (Grant) finally realizes that his fiancée Priscilla Effington's (Kerr) state department job takes too much of her time and will likely delay their wedding, he decides that he's had enough. When 'Effie' realizes that 'Clem' was expecting her to give up her job when she'd married him, they mutually agree to end their engagement. He then sends a telegram to the Khan (Eduard Franz) of oil rich Bukistan, where he'd just been on business, to see if can wed the royal Princess Tarji (Betta St. John), who's been trained since birth, as per their 3,000 year tradition, to care about nothing else but pleasing her future husband. The only trouble is, the state department's Walter McBride (Pidgeon, with a rather minor role) and his assistant Effie, have been negotiating a big oil death with the Khan. They intercept Clem's crude telegram and express their concerns about his plans messing up theirs. McBride then assigns Effie, who understands Bukistan's customs and speaks their language fluently, to act as a liaison between Clem and Tarji, who's father accepts the proposal of marriage.Of course, Tarji is perceived by Clem and his jealous co-worker friends (Les Tremayne, Bruce Bennett, and Richard Anderson's characters) to be the perfect wife, but her native customs (e.g. having to walk 3 feet behind him at all times, being unable to dine with him, etc.) and the fact that the wedding is scheduled 3 months in the future (during which the Princess's imposing bodyguard is to keep them from kissing one another), gives him second thoughts. Heavyweight boxing champion Max Baer's younger brother Buddy plays Tarji's bodyguard and, in the screwball tradition, Dan Tobin does his best "Franklin Pangborn", playing a befuddled hotel manager. So Clem asks Effie to help Tarji to become more sophisticated, or domesticated for U.S. customs, and of course his ex-fiancée is only too happy to educate the Princess about famous suffragettes and other early feminists. Effie's efforts help to undo 3,000 years of Bukistan culture in just 3 months! Meanwhile, Effie begins to see Clem's attraction to Tarji (or at least his ideal of a subservient wife), in a new light. When the now English speaking, yet still very naive Tarji goes out for a walk alone, she attracts men (including Steve Forrest) like flies. It doesn't take a genius to figure out where all this is leading and, in the end, the predictable is delivered.

In a Middle Eastern country on business, successful traveling salesman Cary Grant (as Clemson "Clem" Reade) become acquainted with desirable young Betta St. John (as Tarji). Her father allows the princess to perform a sexy dance for Mr. Grant and indicates Ms. St. John would be a devoted and subservient wife. Her main goal in life is to please a man. Engaged to another woman, Grant passes on the offer. He returns to the US, where he reunites with attractive fiancée Deborah Kerr (as Priscilla "Effie" Effington). Grant wants to get romantic, but Ms. Kerr is constantly interrupted by business matters. She has an important job in the US State Department...Grant is frustrated with his busy fiancée and decides to wed the subservient St. John...Directed by Sidney Sheldon, "Dream Wife" can be described as "I Dream of Jeannie" without the magic. The later TV series was created by Mr. Sheldon, with the underlying theme enhanced by giving the young woman magical powers to please her master. Reportedly, Grant was unhappy with "Dream Wife" and almost retired. He appears to either be trying out a thinner "look" or recovering from an illness. His comic timing is fine, but often channeled improperly. Cast with bad contrast, second male lead Walter Pidgeon (as Walter McBride) makes Grant look smaller. Fortunately, Grant returned to the screen, with a more robust "look" assisted by better make-up and coloring.**** Dream Wife (1953-06-19) Sidney Sheldon ~ Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr, Betta St. John, Walter Pidgeon

In Stewart Granger's memoirs he mentions that after seeing future wife Jean Simmons in Black Narcissus, he was so overcome with sexual desire that he felt he had to marry her. It's almost as if Sidney Sheldon had a few drinks with Granger and was told this story years before it came out and decided it would make a great movie plot.Cary Grant is an oil executive and Deborah Kerr a female diplomat in the previously all male world of Foggy Bottom in the not too distant past. In negotiating for oil leases with the mythical kingdom of Bukistan, Cary is really bowled over by the fact that Princess Betta St. John is so unlike the career minded Kerr. A few words here and there and the engagement between Grant and Kerr is off and between Grant and St. John is definitely on.Of course the culture clash occurs and it ain't quite what Grant envisions. And Kerr starts to work on St.John and she's got some new ideas sprouting in her head.The Fifties were so different than now. Those kind of ideas in some Moslem countries would have gotten St. John killed now. Relations between the west and the Moslem world has certainly changed over 50 years. Grant and Kerr make fine leads and notice should be paid to Walter Pidgeon as Kerr's State Department boss and to Eduard Franz as the King of Bukistan who turns out to be a very wise fellow indeed.I wonder what Stewart Granger must have thought in seeing this film?

In designing a life, perhaps the first decision is how many fantasy worlds you wish to maintain. Nearly everyone has several that are robust. This is made possible because of the powerful support movies provide so we can generate and maintain fantasies with some external apparatus.We now have ready support in film for several types of fantasy worlds, concerning God, country and love of course. Identity if you are a teenager.Love is a difficult one to understand because either it doesn't connect (because it is of a world we have chosen to exclude) or it does, in which case our objectivity gets entangled. What's really good is when you have a romantic film that directly supports this need and utterly fails.This is one of those. Cary Grant in an ill-fitting suit. Deborah Kerr with amazingly fat thighs. A concept and script so incompetent one wonders just what they were thinking.The guy behind this later found the groove in this formula with the "I Dream of Jeannie" TeeVee show. There, he softened things: made the "hard woman" softer and the "soft" woman so soft she wasn't even a real woman.So this is interesting from that perspective. Bad films tell you more about the good ones than the good ones themselves do. But there is another feature of this that seems fantastic these days. Along with the romance element, they bonded it with what was then seen as the exotic flavor of Arabia. There is a subplot concerning America's desperate need for oil (more than 50 years ago!) but the main exoticism is the contrast between Islam and US culture. Islam's quirks are seen as comic and innocently charming.I had wondered elsewhere when we would again see Arab women in films as sexy beings. Didn't even happen here. Probably won't happen in my lifetime.Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.