DVD Review: Doris Day Screen Goddess Boxed Set

By Andy McKeague Oct 7, 2005, 6:45 GMT

American Sweetheart Doris Mary Ann Von Kappelhoff was born to German Catholic parents in 1924 and at an early age took to dancing. Tragedy struck in the shape of a car accident that stopped this career in its tracks, which led to her taking up singing lessons to relieve the boredom. It would be this that would bring this young girl to stardom and to the hearts of many.

Using a screen name of Doris Day, she would start her movie career in 1948 with ‘Romance in the High Seas’, but it would be a few years later that she would make her indelible mark strapping on some rawhide and singing her heart out in ‘Calamity Jane’. Later, starring opposite the likes of Rock Hudson and Cary Grant, she would swoon in the romantic comedies that would bring her to be one of the most watched stars of the 50’s and 60’s, being voted the top box-office star of 1963 by the Motion Picture Herald. In 1968, after the death of her husband of 17 years, Martin Melcher, she started her own ‘The Doris Day Show’, which ran successfully for five years. Hanging up her acting togs in 1973, she caters to this day to those little critters at the Doris Day Pet Foundation.

The Screen Goddess Collection brings out a boxed set for seven starlets in their prime, and from Miss Day we have six of her wonderfully romantic comedies, so in case you wondered what the recent Ewan McGregor and Renee Zellweger ‘Down With Love’ was about, you need to look no further.

In ‘Young at Heart’ (1954) a remake of ‘Four Daughters’ (1938) and ‘Always in My Heart’ (1942), Day plays Laurie, the eldest of the Tuttle sisters, all eager to fall head over heels in love and sing away the day. They travel around as a singing quartet with their father and fear that their answers are somewhere out there in the big wide world away from the small homestead. That is until Alex (Gig Young) walks into their lives and brings piano man Barney Sloan (Frank Sinatra) with him. Surly Sloan seems a fish out of water amongst the happiness of the Tuttle existence, but this only serves as a mission for the ever so happy Laurie to place a smile on his grim face and change his outlook to the world. Sadly the last act turns a little sour when this romantic comedy turns into a melodrama with an implausible situation unfolding that defies belief. But due to who is starring in this movie you know who will get together regardless how it happens.

On a lighter note is ‘Pillow Talk’ (1959), which is where most of the comparisons can be made with the aforementioned McGregor flick, although in this the party line plot point had to be updated to a more modern equivalent. Filled with sexual innuendo and sparkling wit we have slimy womanising Brad Allen (Rock Hudson) sharing a party line with young Miss Jan Morrow (in an Oscar nominated role for Day). She gets a little fed up with his cavorting and sexual foreplay on here telephone and reports him to the telephone company. Allen decides to play her at her own game and toy with her pretending to be Texan Rex Stetson, a man’s man with a heart of gold who Morrow starts falling head over heels for. Into the mix are wealthy millionaire Jonathan Forbes (the wonderful Tony Randall in his debut role) who not only worships Morrow but also is friends and the boss of the one and only Allen. The movie almost makes you shout at the screen at the weasily Allen changes his roles to play off Morrow from one situation to another until he himself falls for her charms. There are brilliant touches of comedy throughout with most of the best lines coming from Forbes and Alma (Thelma Ritter), the well-oiled housekeeper. We even get a few tunes from Miss Day too. <!--page-->

Made in the same year as ‘Pillow Talk’, is the miss-titled ‘It Happened to Jane’ (1959) starring Jack Lemmon. Lemmon had worked with director Richard Quine in his previous movie, ‘Bell, Book and Candle’ and shines here as the insecure George Denham, a friend and lawyer to the young and upright Jane Osgood (Day) in her plight of the little man against the corporate giant. After the death of her husband, Osgood turns to lobster farming to provide for her two boys. Late deliveries cause her concern and cancelled orders so she decides to go against the penny-pinching train company, which has caused her pain. She becomes the poster girl for the fight of the everyman and this soon becomes a media frenzy. What ensues is a game of chess between Osgood and Train Mogul Malone (Ernie Kovacs) with a donated train and an impossible route being centre of attention. There are more sparks flying between the chess players than any smouldering passion but the leads again are great fun to watch in this one.

We are back in Rom-Com territory with 1961’s ‘Lover Come Back’, again starring Rock Hudson and the outstanding Tony Randall. And yet again we have Hudson, as Jerry Webster, using woman and drink to ill gains and the prim and proper Miss Day as Carol Templeton challenging the order of the day within the advertising industry. This movie shadows ‘Pillow Talk’ in many ways, Hudson’s Webster playing with mistaken identity with Miss Templeton, and Randall’s Pete Ramsey again being the boss of the loathsome scoundrel. And yes you can guess that the opposites attract.

We have an early film outing for director Norman Jewison in ‘The Thrill of It All’ (1963), this time paired with James Garner (Maverick, The Rockford Files). In all her previous movies Miss Day gave voice to the increasingly liberated woman of America and this movie takes this point to its heart. Beverly Boyer (Day) is the happy housewife and mother, until she lands herself in an advertising job that leads to plenty of cash and attention, outstripping that of her boring obstetrician husband Dr. Gerald Boyer (Garner) who now finds his bread winning duties in peril. So in a comedy of manners of the day we have the conflict of 60’s family values versus the career driven woman of the future and although there are no guesses for this ending up happily and all too neatly, there are plenty of chuckles along the way (although some might seem somewhat dated now).

Jewison is back with Day in ‘Send Me No Flowers’ (1964), and so are Rock Hudson and Tony Randall in their third and final movie together, and sadly this is the weakest of the three. This time we have a neurotic George Kimball (Hudson) believing he will be seeing his maker soon and wanting to set his wife, Judy (Day) up with a partner before he goes. One of the problems here is that since they are already a pair, we don’t have the foreplay that was so entertaining in the previous movies. The movie does have a high point, and that is the scene stealing Randall, playing Hudson’s neighbour and having a never ending supply of booze to drown their sorrows. There is the chance of a double act here between Hudson and Randall, and there are some great comic moments but the pairing falls a little flat.

There are a few extras on some of the discs, none particularly of note, and mostly in the shape of very grainy trailers. A few of the flicks too have been cropped in pan and scan, but that is a small grumble.

This delightful boxed set is also a strange one, this set is almost identical to what was previously released through Universal last year, the only difference being that set included ‘That Touch of Mink’ with Cary Grant instead of the pairing with Jack Lemmon in ‘It Happened to Jane’. With so many excellent Day movies in the vaults and released separately this seems a strange choice indeed, but taking this set in its own right, this is a marvellous way to curl up with that loved one on a lazy, rainy Sunday afternoon.

'Screen Goddess Boxed Set - Doris Day' is available to buy now via AmazonUK, and as of yet no US release date has been given.

You can read more about the DVD in our database.