preppy-3
Housewife Beverly Boyer (Doris Day) accidentally becomes a TV star overnight selling soap on commercials. Her successful doctor husband (James Garner) isn't too happy about it and believes she should stay at home and bring up their kids like all women do. This leads to "hilarious" complications.Day and Garner are both charming and great in their roles but the sexual politics and unfunny comedy sometimes make this heavy going. The movie is continuously making it clear that a woman having a career is not a good thing and Garner's antics to get her to stop working are hardly funny. Also some of the comedy is beyond silly--the section with the back yard pool (all installed in a few hours) and soap is just dumb. Still, it was well done and the Garner and Day play off each other very well. If you can ignore the outdated attitudes in this movie you should enjoy it. I give it a 5.
Dunham16
A sixties screwball, it is James Garner's only comedy. He handles the slapstick episodes surprisingly well. He is paired with one of the final movies in which Doris Day played the no songs, screwball comedy housewife, a magic pair. One of the highlights is the relatively supporting presence of several major stars of television variety shows of the era not normally doing full length movies, one thinks first of Arlene Francis and Carl Reiner whose antics decorate the silly cotton candy plot. One expected plot twist is the wife feeling she can leave her husband out, then the husband thinking he can win her back by leaving her out, then the artificial, sanguine reconciliation at the final credits. Another is the maid done for cardboard laughs, first a final senior citizen appearance by ZaSu Pitts who smacks Garner with a baseball bat, then an unknown character actress playing her replacement who speaks almost no comprehensible English and moves clumsily. Some of the highlights are the pool episode and Garner speeding through stalled motor traffic on a borrowed police mount in medical scrubs. How one reacts to the dated gender stereotypes and the nostalgia of the sixties determines how much one really digs this movie. This may be a personal opinion not affected by any honest recommendation.
jjnxn-1
Cute comedy that is hampered by outdated attitudes to a woman's place in the world. However if you can ignore the admittedly terribly sexist attitudes this has amusing situations and some wry observations about advertising and the gullibility of the public. It also has Doris Day at her most engaging looking beautiful in one gorgeous gown after another, the matching beaded dress and coat in the restaurant scene is amazing, as the Happy girl. James Garner's character is an almost unbelievably sexist jerk and it's a tribute to the actor's charisma and likability that he comes across so well. On the supporting end of the film Arlene Francis is dignity and grace personified as the late in life expectant mother with Edward Arnold as her sweetly befuddled spouse. Reginald Owen is a stitch as the crusty old head of Happy Soap and Elliott Reid adds a touch of normalcy as the level headed ad exec. Alice Pearce, Herbie Faye and the marvelous ZaSu Pitts also stand out in small roles, the kind that would be meaningless if not filled by a distinctive and capable character actor or actress.A frothy, silly and dated film but the talented cast makes it worth checking out.
Peter Zullmmann
This is the first time I write a comment about a film. Considering that my favorite films, since I discovered the movies, are by Scorsese, Gonzalez Inarritu, Polanski, etc. What am I doing selecting a Doris Day comedy for my first review. Okay, let me tell you. I was overwhelmed by the sheer brilliance of the lady. I've always heard about Doris Day but I had never seen her (The Man Who Knew Too Much is my next one). She is extraordinary because in the midst of all the zaniness there is an unquestionable truth. I believed completely in her character I never thought for a moment she was trying to sell me something. I recognized her, I knew who her character was and then, of course, I laughed, loud and hard. So the reason that I've selected "The Thrill Of It All" as my first review is because that's what cinema is all about. Surprises and discoveries. Thank you Doris Day, you've given me something new to look forward to.
AD
