Doris Day...

Discussion of the actors, directors and film-makers who 'made it all happen'
stuart.uk
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Doris Day, the greatest female all-rounder

Post by stuart.uk »

I think Judy Garland was more gifted, but i agree with film critic Johnathon Ross when he said she only scratched the surface of what she was capable off.

I think Doris fufilled her potentail more. the only thing against her was she retired at a young age. who knows what she might have done in the 70s or 80s. i think it's perhaps because she fell into the Elvis trap as i call it with Pillow Talk being her Blue Hawaii. meaning PT was a great film as was Lover Come Back, but it created a formula of movies like Caprice that eventually turned sour. however, i think her last film is one of her best called With Six You Get Egg Role with Brian Keith, playing brilliantly for the only time a short skirted heroine, proving she was able to play women of the 40s, 50s, 60s and possibly even the 70s

my own personal favourite Doris Day roles are Calamity Jane (i think her Secret Love is as good as Judy's The Man That Got Away from a star is born, plus the fact it was shot on location), Young At Heart, Love Me Or Leave Me, The Pyjama Game, Teacher's Pet (IMO her best romantic comedy with Clark Gable) Lover Come Back and one i've all ready mentioned With Six You Get Egg Role.

i think Doris more than any lady singer embraced new trends in music as they came along. starting out she was a big band singer in the style of Vera Lynn with the likes of Sentimental Journey, then she was just about the best of the 50s girls with such classics as The Deadwood Stage, SL, and I'm Ready Willing And Able.

i once got a lot of flak on another forum by suggesting Doris was a great rock an roll singer, but i stand by that. it was just a pity she never got to sing I'm The Girl Who Invented Rock an Roll from Teacher's Pet with a band behind her, as it was it was still great! i also feel The Pyjama Game came close to being a Rock an roll movie with Doris' songs I Was A Woman Who Loved A Man and I'm Not At All In Love IMO giving a Rock an Roll feel to it. my apoligies in advance if people disagree with me in force

if that wasn't enough Move Over Darling was a match for the likes of Dusty Springfield, Diana Warwick. Diana Ross and other great female artists of the 60s
jdb1

Post by jdb1 »

Ugh. Eeccch. Blah. Feh. In other words, I beg to differ.

I can't understand this woman's appeal. I find her film persona hard, unfeminine, aggressive, cold, insincere -- and I could go on and on. She is one of those performers I simply don't believe. I don't believe a word she says onscreen, therefore I don't give a fig what happens to her in her films. I never look at her movies on TV, no matter who else is in them. I'm not that thrilled with her singing either, but I'd rather hear her than see her. And yes, I admit it, as much as I dislike Julie Andrews, I find her preferable to DD, and I do watch JA movies once in a while, though I would never cast a single eyeblink towards DD.

See, Stuart? You can't assume that just because a star is popular, everyone who likes movies must like her. That's why we come here.
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ChiO
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Post by ChiO »

jdb1 said:
I'm not that thrilled with her singing either, but I'd rather hear her than see her. And yes, I admit it, as much as I dislike Julie Andrews, I find her preferable to DD, and I do watch JA movies once in a while, though I would never cast a single eyeblink towards DD.
And here I thought I was the only one with that attitude (toward both of them). I'm convinced that the picture of my Timothy Carey avatar was taken after he saw THE GLASS BOTTOM BOAT.

Wasn't it Oscar Levant who said of DD, "Why, I knew her before she was a virgin."? "Secret Love": Doris Day vs. The Moonglows. Your Honor, I rest my case. But, hey, some people don't like to watch Timothy Carey or Sterling Hayden either.
Everyday people...that's what's wrong with the world. -- Morgan Morgan
I love movies. But don't get me wrong. I hate Hollywood. -- Orson Welles
Movies can only go forward in spite of the motion picture industry. -- Orson Welles
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mrsl
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Post by mrsl »

Ha, ha, ha, ha, (wiping off the laughter tears), Judith, you absolutely slay me sometimes. You have the greatest way with words:

"Ugh. Eeccch. Blah. Feh. In other words, I beg to differ".

I couldn't STAND DD in that string of 45 year old virgins she did, but I have to admit once she admitted she was a grown up I did start to appreciate her more. With Six you get Eggroll, and The Ballad of Josie, and before that junk stuff, It Happened to Jane, Pajama Game, The Man who Knew Too Much, Young at Heart, Calamity Jane, and Silvery Moon and Moonlight Bay were all good movies EXCEPT when she cries - OMG SHUT HER UP PLEASE. In Julie, if it weren't for the other passengers, after 20 minutes of her crying, I wanted her to crash. When she was in her 20's, and 30's she was darn good in the light comedies she made. But also, after about 5 years, I started yelling at the screen, "Grow your hair, dump the DA!!!"

She was only 44 when she did Eggroll, did she really think her audience would not accept a few facial lines? What was her problem that caused her to retire so early? Her contemporaries were all still going strong, some even older than her.

ImdB says she was exhausted and after her husband died in 1968 she quit making movies, does anyone know why she quit? I know she had the TV show, but that was only until 1972.

Anne
Anne


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klondike

Post by klondike »

Wow.
I can usually find some ground from which to play devil's advocate, rather than just chime in with the majority, but this time, on this subject, I gotta squeeze right in between Judith & ChiO!
Ms. Day's face, voice, simple physical presence on film leaves me cold, and oftimes even brings out a hypercritical, defensive mood in me.
Her characters just feel false, regardless of the movie in question; the closest I've ever seen to even a halfway decent performance from her was for Hitchcock in The Man Who Knew Too Much . . and even in that one, she struck me as shrill and jumpy and perceptively dense.
jdb1

Post by jdb1 »

Shrill, Klonny, that's the word I want - the bane of feminists everywhere. And even though DD isn't actually a screecher, there is something of the dentist's drill about everything she does.

IMO, she is of that "Look at me. Look at me! LOOK AT ME!!!!" school of performers. Her fluttery ways, and whispery but insistent voice, which I think she intends to be sexy, really grate on my nerves. Her little eyes drill into you in a very unpleasant way. Everything about her acting, her gestures, the pert little faces, says b**ch and, as I like to say, not in a good way. There are many other female performers who are something like DD, but I don't find that many of the others leave me as cold as she does. I don't know, I suppose as a heterosexual female, I fail to see what any man (or other woman-lover) sees in her - to me, she's about as sexy as an attacking shark (and not in a good way).
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ChiO
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Post by ChiO »

mrsl asked:
after her husband died in 1968 she quit making movies, does anyone know why she quit?
As I recall, there were allegations that Martin Melcher (the husband who died in 1968) had mismanaged some funds and that the TV show was her way of digging out of debt. As to why she went with a TV show rather than movies, maybe it was that her screen persona wasn't going to bring in the late-'60s/early-'70s preferred demographic. I do know that the love-of-my-then-late-high-school-life (circa '67-'68 ) wanted to see EVERY Doris Day (and -- gag -- Elvis) movie possible. Thank goodness, Mrs. ChiO would never do that to me.

And DD is the major reason that I prefer the original version of THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH even though James Stewart is my favorite actor. Whatever will be, will be, indeed.
Everyday people...that's what's wrong with the world. -- Morgan Morgan
I love movies. But don't get me wrong. I hate Hollywood. -- Orson Welles
Movies can only go forward in spite of the motion picture industry. -- Orson Welles
Mr. Arkadin
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Post by Mr. Arkadin »

While I'm not a fan of Doris Day ( the only DD film I own is Lover Come Back [1961]), and I hated her singing voice, I do admire her work for the humane treatment of animals.

While making The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), Day's discovery that the camels that pulled their cart were underfed and abused, caused the whole film to come to a halt until the animals were properly fed and cared for. A person does not have to be a great actor or actress to be a caring human being.

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klondike

Post by klondike »

Mr. Arkadin wrote:While I'm not a fan of Doris Day ( the only DD film I own is Lover Come Back [1961]), and I hated her singing voice, I do admire her work for the humane treatment of animals.

]
Good points, and dead-on target, Mr. A!
As I recall, it was a similar compassion & commitment that moved Kim Novak to paring down, and perhaps even foreshortening, her film career.
Ollie
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Post by Ollie »

I've got the VHS tape of WHERE WERE YOU WHEN THE LIGHTS WENT OUT and I enjoy that, maybe not as much as TEACHER'S PET, LOVER COME BACK or PILLOW TALK, but probably #4 or comparable to GLASS BOTTOM - those would probably be my Top 5 - and that's a solid list of a week's entertainment for me.

Her TV variety show was sometimes memorable, but like all the others, it was a parade ground for guest stars and she was able to bring on older and younger generation types, albeit the plain-vanilla 60s types, not the interesting edgy ones. Her son's choices made me think DD was probably wise to stay from that, uh, bleeding edge variety.

The WHERE WERE YOU tape is one more piece of evidence that makes me wonder where the DVD Gods are and which volcano do we need to throw human sacrifices into?

(And my next question would be, Are politicians capable of enough 'human' value to be considered 'sacrifices' or merely landfill?)
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sandykaypax
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Post by sandykaypax »

I LOVE Doris--completely agree with everything in Stuart's post and can't understand how anyone could not like Doris Day.

I read her autobiography several years ago and found out that Doris had some difficulties in life--she wanted to be a dancer, but an injury destroyed that dream. She also had a knack for choosing the wrong men--her first husband was abusive, and Marty Melcher did mismanage and bilk her out of her savings. She did the tv show to pay back her debts.

I love her performances in The Pajama Game--sexy, and boy, can she belt out those songs--and Love Me or Leave Me, especially.

Sandy K
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Dewey1960
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Post by Dewey1960 »

I'm with Sandy and Stuart on this one; sorry folks, but when I was ten or eleven years old I had a major secret crush on Doris. My folks had an LP of hers that had the song "Secret Love" on it. I would sit and listen to it and wondered if (excuse me, fantasized that) she was singing about me. Poor little Dewey; he was such a dreamer. Still enjoy watching Doris in her musicals and comedies.
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melwalton
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doris day

Post by melwalton »

I'd like to cast a vote FOR Doris Day. I liked her. Admittedly, her singing was a little sugary but not really saccharin and so much better than the noisemakers who came afterwards. She fit with certain songs very well like 'It's Magic'.
She had a rare, almost unique movie career, in that she started at the top and never looked back. She walked away with her first film, 'Romance on the High Seas'. But it did take her about ten years to get in the movies. I don't recall which or how many bands she sang with. The first I knew of was Barney Rapp's band about 1939. They gave her age as 17. Rapp was local ( Cincinnati ) as was Doris. Among her early hit songs was 'Little Sir Echo'. Anyone remember that?
Band singers,in general, had a rough time of it in those days, traveling, staying up half the night ( Radio remotes were live, then ) and sleeping in busses. She got her big break right after the war, with 'Sentimental Journey' with Les Brown's band. Yet she says that the band remote days were her happiest. ..... mel
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movieman
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Post by movieman »

I have to say I've got one of her movies on DVD "Love Me or Leave Me" which is very good. The minus side being, I think, James Cagney got angry two times too many in it.

I've seen "Calamity Jane" on TV, a good movie, but I think she overplays her role. That "I Came In from the Windy City" scene was kind of hard to take.

But, I've got many of her records: three '10 inches' and eleven Long Players (LPs / 12 inches) + 2 CD's.
The compilations "Lights! Action! Camera!", "Doris Day In Hollywood" and "Doris Day Favourites" (UK) are really good. The soundtrack album from "Calamity Jane" is also a standout + the compilation album "Wonderful Day".
I like her singing voice, it really stands out from the crowd. You can hear at once that it's Doris singing. At the same time I can understand that someone don't like her voice.
I don't like Judy Garland's singing that much, but I've got "A Star Is Born" on DVD, which is a great movie. In addition I've got a '10 inch' (which I've played) and two LP's I've never listened to.

Even B
klondike

Re: Doris Day, the greatest female all-rounder

Post by klondike »

JohnM wrote:[

Tell me Stuart, did they change the title card of the film in the UK, from <b>The Pajama Game</b> to <b>The Pyjama Game</b>?

I remember the first time I got an email from a British friend of mine, and in it, he mentioned "pyjamas". I assumed he was doing what Brits think is American, by putting-on a "southern accent" (I read it - "pie-jamas). I came to discover that's how you spell the word!
If my research is correct, you might just have to find a person to ask who's fluent in Hindi, as to the "correct" pronunciation, or spelling!
:roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll:
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