Why was Kiss Me, Stupid criticized when it was released?

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Billy Wilder poses in a suit and hat, leaning against a streetlamp with a sign reading Sunset Blvd. in a promotional photo for the film Sunset Boulevard. — Billy Wilder Billy Wilder in a promotional photograph for *Sunset Boulevard* (1950), which he directed.

The 1964 film Kiss Me, Stupid was widely reviled by contemporary critics and condemned by the Legion of Decency upon its release.1

The criticism stemmed from the film's provocative premise, which centers on a small-town songwriter who attempts to sell his music to an egotistical pop singer by offering him the sexual favors of a prostitute, whom the songwriter presents to the singer as his own wife. Due to this controversial subject matter, the film failed at the box office and is generally considered the nadir of director Billy Wilder's career.1