Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

DKosty123 This movie is the message on political lob corruption as done in 1961 Wardrobe with a 1930's setting. While it is not perfect, Wirt Williams only novel brought to the screen a story of a woman being appointed Governor of a state in the 1930's. She does not even have to run for office, much like Gerald Ford's appointment to Vice- President in 1974. Of course this setting is not anywhere near as exciting as the first elected woman to the office -Nellie Davis Tayloe Ross (November 29, 1876 – December 19, 1977) was an American politician, the 14th Governor of Wyoming from 1925 to 1927.Still, it combines the light humor of Dean Martin as Bo Gillis who runs and is elected to the office with the help of his friend Sylvester Marin (Wilfred Hyde White)who has so many people in his pocket that Bo can not even throw his election off by eloping with Ada, a Hooker, who just gave him the 3 best weeks of their lives (I guess 3 weeks with Hayward would be pretty good back in the day). Martin Balsam heads up a supporting cast with more UN-credited than credited cast members. After the election Bo begins to realize that Marin got him elected simply to sign bills and make Marin and friends rich at the expense of the taxpayers (this sounds to close to home since the 1980's nationally). Martin's Bo, a simple man who plays guitar and gets elected suddenly realizes he has been took because of his friend and Ada who is the main star here. It is Ada who has to do the heavy lifting after Marin try's to kill Bo with a car bomb.Ada is not your average hooker. She gets quite a ways in proposing stopping Marin, though it does take Bo to get her over the top. Overall this is a good film from MGM which fell a bit short of being a great film. Daniel Mann who directed Our Man Flint for James Coburn is behind the camera for this one. Arthur Sheekman who worked on the script for Martin's "Some Come Running" is on this script too which explains Martin's character fitting him like the proverbial glove. Recently caught this one on TCM.

JohnHowardReid Copyright 1961. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture. New York opening at the Capitol: 25 August 1961. U.K. release: floating from October 1961. Australian release: October 1961. 9,730 feet; 108 minutes. SYNOPSIS: While campaigning for the governorship of a southern state, Bo Gillis, a folksy politician, falls in love with and marries, Ada, a reformed prostitute, whose dubious background alarms both Bo's press agent, Steve Jackson, and his political adviser, Sylvester Marin. COMMENT: Despite its name cast, this movie seems to be totally forgotten today. True, it's a curate's egg of a picture, and not one that's likely to send Dean's fans into raptures. He sings a snatch of a song right at the beginning and that's it as far as Dino's harmonizing is concerned. His performance is great, but halfway through he drops out of the action for quite a spell while Susan Hayward takes control.And what a naïve perspective the scriptwriters have of legislature procedure as Susan is sworn in as lieutenant-governor! And director Daniel Man's relentless use of Hayward close-ups (even in tracking shots) doesn't help either.Nonetheless, Wilfrid Hyde White has a field day. Admittedly, his dialogue is the sharpest and most interesting in the picture. Maybe he brought his own writer along to the set. Maybe he wrote it himself. In a lesser role, Ralph Meeker's fascinating performance as a slimy police chief also deserves watching.As said above, Ruttenberg's superb cinematography is often wasted on ineffective close-ups, but CinemaScope does come to the fore in some of the location set-ups in what certainly look like real government buildings and legislative chambers. These scenes, plus the cab trip and our first exposure to the executive office, give the film much- needed dramatic effectiveness plus an engrossing yet taut political atmosphere. What a shame, it's so often undermined!

mack9201 This movie "Ada" hasn't received the good publicity it deserved. Susan Hayward acted her best as a hard-spoken woman, intent on serving her new husband Bo Gilles (Gubernatorial Candidate) well. Three weeks before the election, Candidate Bo Gilles (played by Dean Martin - in his first drama picture) marries Ada, a former prostitute. Basically, Bo was not a shrewd politician, but possessed charismatic qualities and was elected in a landslide. The voters of that Southern state loved Bo, and saw him as a regular guy who even played guitar and sang. Eventually Bo realizes the crookedness of the powerful man who had sponsored him, (Sylvester Marin), and the corruption abounding in that government. Eventually Ada's past comes back to haunt her, but it doesn't stop her. Colonel Yancey top State Policeman, (a crooked operator, well-played by Ralph Meeker) tries to bring Ada down - who at the time is Acting Governor. The entire movie is riveting, and is a must-see if you like real movies.

halriedl This is an MGM potboiler with great colors and weak credibility. The picture was probably the best that repressed Hollywood could do at the time with the legend of Earl Long, once Governor of Louisiana, and the stripper Blaze Starr. (The story was filmed many years later, with Paul Newman and Lolita Davidovich.) A singing, guitar-playing candidate for Governor in the Depression South is quite historical. The sly self-deprecation in Bo Gillis's stump speech at the beginning of the picture is well done. But once he hooks up with Susan Hayward, Dean Martin becomes a marshmallow. The role must have appealed tremendously to a tough broad like Hayward. She was a perfect choice for Barbara Graham in I Want to Live. I'd call the picture a failure with interesting features.