After her long and wholesome run as America’s Sweetheart, Doris Day quit movies with this well-scrubbed picture. With Six You Get Eggroll–oof, what a title–caught the wave of blended-family comedies, coming just after Yours, Mine and Ours and just before TV’s The Brady Bunch. Doris has three sons, and new beau Brian Keith has an 18-year-old daughter (the still-baby-faced Barbara Hershey). It’s family-friendly sitcom stuff, with both Day and Keith doing their comfortable, patented thing; when the two of them are onscreen together it’s like watching a couple of old sweaters mate. This one is straight formula for fans only, although connoisseurs of camp will enjoy the whiff of Aquarius in the otherwise square proceedings (it was 1968, after all) when Doris goes to a nightclub where the Grass Roots are playing. There’s also a hippie gang (featuring Jamie Farr and William Christopher, before M*A*S*H) with ponchos and love beads. The times they were a-changin’, and kudos to Day for bowing out gracefully. –Robert Horton
Doris Day plays a swinging, mod-attired agent of espionage (yes, that’s Doris Day) in this caper comedy directed by Frank Tashlin. Patricia Fowler (Day) is an industrial spy who is hired to work undercover at a cosmetics company. While posing as a low-level employee, she is to get the goods on a new formual they intend to market. However, it turns out that makeup isn’t all this firm has to sell; they’re also involved in an international drug smuggling ring, and she finds herself doing battle with other agents willing to kill to insure the flow of narcotics is unabated. Her adventures cause her to cross paths with Christopher White (Richard Harris), a fellow agent with whom Patricia is soon romantically involved, and together the couple locate the secret lab of cosmetics tycoon and evil genius Stuart Clancy (Ray Walston).
This is not one of Doris’s best films. But truly a must see for diehard Doris Fans. Full of mystery, intrigue and espionage.
The Glass Bottom Boat is about everything that life was about in the 60’s. The Cold War was in full swing, James Bond had become a household name and Doris Day was still the top box office actress. With all of this, how could the film go wrong- what could they lose? Doris Day and Rod Taylor had already lost alot in their previous film Do Not Disturb which many have never even heard of unless you are an avid Doris Day fan. All believed including the man responsible for many Jerry Lewis movies, Frank Tashlin that this would be a success. With Tashlin’s talent for spoofing the times the world was in, Glass Bottom Boat was just what the doctor ordered.
The film begins by introducing the widowed Jennifer Nelson, played by Doris Day. She works at NASA with a part-time job as a mermaid for her father’s Glass Bottom Boat service. When Jennifer gets caught up, literally, she meets Bruce Templeton, played by Rod Taylor. She is not immediately impressed, and thankful that they will never see each other again, or so she thinks.
Send Me No Flowers” is the final big screen teaming of Doris Day and Rock Hudson. They would team three more times, professionally – on a Doris Day musical special on CBS in 1971, on “Good Morning America” for a delightful interview in May of 1983 and for Hudson’s final appearance before his untimely demise, in 1985 on Day’s cable program, “Best Friends”.
Anyone expecting a rehash of “Pillow Talk” or “Lover Come Back” may be disappointed in “Send Me No Flowers”. Those seeking and able to enjoy an adult comedy that is wry, witty, darkly funny and extremely well acted, should find this to be their cup of tea.
Doris Day, the perky, chaste adult star of an odd collection of winking 1960s sex comedies, takes the Irene Dunne role in this remake of the comedy classic My Favorite Wife. As the survivor of a five-year ordeal on a desert island, she returns home the very day her husband has remarried. James Garner, trading his Maverick impish humor and con man cool for a mugging performance of double takes and pratfalls, is her overjoyed husband who is too cowardly to tell his neurotic bride (Polly Bergen). All of this, naturally, leads to a ridiculously complicated plot that combines door-slamming sex farce with mistaken identities (Day poses as a Swedish masseuse) and a goofy sped-up car chase. Chuck Connors, who costars as Day’s hunky, he-man island mate “Adam,” leads a topnotch supporting cast that includes sassy Thelma Ritter as Garner’s no-nonsense mother, Don Knotts as a nervous shoe salesman enlisted by Day to impersonate Adam, Fred Clark at his indignant best, and John Astin and Pat Harrington in early roles. Edgar Buchanan practically steals the film as a gruff, irascible judge who growls through the legal circus that forms the film’s chaotic climax. The cast for the most part rises above the tepid script and bland direction and Day sings two songs. Interestingly, this remake was originally developed for Marilyn Monroe and Dean Martin as the never completed Something’s Got to Give. –Sean Axmaker
James Garner substitutes for Rock Hudson in this hilarious Doris Day outing. Housewife Beverly Boyer (Day) happens by chance to give an executive of Happy Soap an honest appraisal of one of his company’s products. Charmed by her forthright and honest manner, he makes Beverly the company spokesperson. When she becomes an advertising sensation, her husband (Garner) has to deal with the social ramifications of his wife making more money than he does. Day and Garner are both in good form, and Garner nicely portrays the mounting frustration of bewildered husband Gerald.
Gerald’s refusal to accept that Beverly’s new career infringes on her duties as housewife is, of course, outdated thinking today. Nevertheless, the film works and is sincerely funny. No wonder: comedian Carl Reiner cowrote the script. –Mark Savary
Doris Day’s day starts off badly when she is drenched by a passing limo. She gets angry but does not know the limo passenger (Cary Grant) feels bad and wishes to make amends. Later Grant spots Day from his office and sends Gig Young to make sure she is all right and taken care of. Day’s roommate (Audrey Meadows) is her self-appointed protector of her virtue.
Things quickly move forward when Grant and Day first meet face to face and fall in love. Small-town Day is not sure what to make of millionaire Grant at first as he tries to whirl her off her feet. It is obvious that Grant is trying for more than Day is willing to give out (at least at this stage) and events unfold hilariously.
The plot twists and situations would be at home in a Frank Capra movie. The dialogue is snappy and full of innuendo. Day’s character even has far more depth than Meadows suspects. Although she comes from upstate New York, she manages to hold her own both against and with Grant. It all culminates wonderfully in a way few comedies manage. A must see for fans of classic stars and comedies.
There is nothing better than classic Doris Day and Rock Hudson, but throw in Tony Randall, and you can count on a winner. The threesome has appeared together before, but it never gets tiring. One thing that surprised me was that this movie was ahead of its time, as you don’t find many classics that emphasize sexual relationships. A definite keeper – Many hilarious scenes that will make this movie enjoyable to watch over and over again.
Doris Day was nearing her popular zenith, and Jack Lemmon just hitting his stride, when they teamed up for It Happened to Jane, a small-town comedy in the Capra vein. Doris is a widowed mom whose Maine lobster business is snarled by railroad tycoon Ernie Kovacs (hiding behind a skullcap and a huge cigar), the “meanest man in America.” Her lawsuit against him, aided by lawyer-suitor Lemmon, gains national headlines. This is a curious movie: crucial scenes seem to have been left unwritten, while sequences involving Cub Scouts and an oddly impassioned Town Hall Meeting go on endlessly. Director Richard Quine was making some fun movies around this time (Bell, Book, and Candle), but the fizz is only intermittent here, mostly provided by Lemmon’s jack-in-the-box youthfulness. Doris sings a couple of tunes and brings her downhome tomboy routine to New York City, where the movie employs some of the quaint TV personalities of the day. –Robert Horton
Clark Gable’s bluff masculinity is a big part of the story and appeal of Teacher’s Pet, to such a degree that his age (near 60) doesn’t seem like such a problem as he romances perky Doris Day. Gable is an old-school newspaperman who scoffs at the idea of journalism being taught in night school; hard knocks and shoe leather are his preferred textbooks. Naturally, Doris teaches journalism in night school. Gable masquerades as an inexperienced student in order to prove her wrong, which brings forth some fairly labored complications, presented in pedestrian style by director George Seaton. The film is too long for its own good, but as an illustration of movie-star value, it’s a convincer–Gable and Day are completely, effortlessly within their established personas. Gig Young adds pep as a brainy psychologist (whose expertise extends to hangover recipes–he and Gable have a good morning-after scene). Doris sings the incorrigibly catchy title song over the opening credits, but stick around for Mamie Van Doren’s nightclub rendition of “The Girl Who Invented Rock ‘n Roll,” a real eye-roller. –Robert Horton