Strangers When We Meet is a fairly routine "domestic melodrama," but it does have a number of interesting aspects. Chief among these is its cast, which is rather top-loaded with talent. Indeed, one wants to ask what Kirk Douglas -- more recently seen in the likes of Spartacus and Last Train From Gun Hill -- is doing in this little soaper. Douglas is very good, mind you, but he seems a little out of place; the audience keeps waiting for him to be given a really great scene to sink his teeth into. But though the movie keeps flirting with such a scene, it never really gets there, leaving the viewer feeling shortchanged. Kim Novak, more at home in this genre, does quite well (even though the camera occasionally captures her in some surprisingly unflattering angles), and she and Douglas have a great chemistry together. There's also a quirky but solid turn from Ernie Kovacs, a delicious and finely shaded contribution from Barbara Rush, and a wonderful pre-stardom Walter Matthau performance that's delightfully free of the later Matthau "persona." Credit goes to director Richard Quine for these performances; though the director can't be blamed for not being able to overcome the clichéd and often annoying script, he can be criticized for the unimaginative use he makes of the "unusual" house that Douglas is designing, which might have added some flavor. Strangers' predictable screenplay keeps it from being a better film, but the cast makes it worth viewing.