DORIS DAY FILM POLL

[webmaster]

This could be interesting and valuable information over time. You are able to change your selection if you change your mind. Please vote and, if you feel like it, please comment.

Pretend you are on a desert island and you can choose five films only. Which five films would capture her legacy for you, or personally mean something to you - or you just like them the best!

[melancholy]

Well,top-idea!! Had not to think,just hit my favourites,thanks for this topic Bryan.

[webmaster]

Thanks for voting, Dorine. Good to see someone select her first film - hope it will be a varied choice.

[howard]

Awfully tough to pick only five films, but I'll try:
"My Dream Is Yours": I love her look, and her two intimate scenes with her "son" are sweet and touching. When she sings "I'll String Along With You" to the boy, it warms my heart. Have you ever seen two more beautiful faces together in one frame? I also love watching her sing "Canadian Capers."
"By the Light of the Silvery Moon" is no classic, but I thought that Doris and MacRae were an adorable couple. I never get tired of seeing them together.
"Love Me or Leave Me" for obvious reasons. It may well be Dodo's finest performance, and the musical numbers are great. She and Cagney make a dynamite pair.
"Teacher's Pet." Doris has never looked sexier, and despite their age differences, she and Gable had wonderful chemistry. The dialogue is wonderful, Gig Young is a joy, and the film works for me in every way.
"The Thrill of it All" was top-drawer all the way. Carl Reiner's screenplay, Norman Jewison's direction, a great supporting cast, and Doris' totally natural, funny, and endearing performance make this a total joy. I think her chemistry with James Garner is equal, if not better than her chemistry with Rock Hudson. My favorite comedy.

[webmaster]

Thanks for your considered thoughts on this, Howard.

"Love Me or Leave Me" for obvious reasons. It may well be Dodo's finest performance, and the musical numbers are great. She and Cagney make a dynamite pair.

Yes, it's already in the lead.

"Teacher's Pet." Doris has never looked sexier, and despite their age differences, she and Gable had wonderful chemistry. The dialogue is wonderful, Gig Young is a joy, and the film works for me in every way.

Interesting that you say, "Doris has never looked sexier" - that could be a poll in itself -"Which film did Doris look the sexiest in?

[melancholy]

Sure Bryan,it would be a lovely poll!!!!! Always having underrated.LMOLM is Doris' topmovie to me,nobody can call her the girl next door there!

[Johnny]

It is definitiely a tough job to choose, but fun and thought provoking.

My first choice is Calamity Jane because it allowed Doris to break loose and show her skills in being tough and tender in musical comedy. Secret Love is still one of my favouite songs. My second choice is Love Me or Leave Me because it is a film that showed Doris at her best in a drama. The third choice is Midnight Lace. It was a great thriller. The film has it's critics saying Doris' character Kit Preston screamed from the beginning to the end. My question is "Wouldn't you in 1960- if someone was trying to kill you? Doris looked so beautiful in this film. My fourth choice is Lover Come Back. It is so energetic, bright, funny, and generates such good memories. Move Over Darling is my fifth choice. Who wouldn't want Doris for a mother. She was so wonderful with the children and played it just right. Let's not forget James Garner, Polly Bergen and the great Thelma Ritter. I have never watched a funnier massage on film than the one Doris gave Polly. The opening court scene is the best and sets the mood for the entire film. Again, Doris looked so beautiful and unforgetable.

Thanks for the challenge. I loved it.

[jmichael]

I love these polls.

Very challenging to name just five but here are my picks.

Romance On The High Seas: a delight from start to finish and a spectacular film debut for Doris. I loved her sassy comedic style and thought she made the whole film swing. This movie boasts what is probably my favorite song from all of her films: It's Magic. But I won't mention that horrible dress they made her wear in the finale.

Love Me Or Leave Me: this may be the best musical biography ever put on film and the chemistry between Doris and Jimmy Cagney melted the screen. Doris created a vivid portrait of singer Ruth Etting and she showed everyone that she had remarkable dramatic range. Vocally, she knocked every song out of the park with her earthy delivery.

The Man Who Knew Too Much: not my favorite Hitchcock film by a mile, but it gave Doris a meaty dramatic role and she played the neurotic wife to perfection. Her acting throughout the climactic scene at Albert Hall was Oscar worthy in my opinion.

Pajama Game: Another sexy role for Doris. She fit into the cast of Broadway show veterans seamlessly and displayed a winning sense of confidence and womanly integrity in this rollicking musical.

Pillow Talk: this was my first Doris movie so it has the most meaning for me emotionally. PT was another major milestone in her film career and catapulted her to the top of the boxoffice for the next 5 years. I also love the chemistry between her, Rock, Tony and Thelma Ritter and it gets extra points for showcasing Doris as a successful career woman who made it on her own terms.

Runners Up: Lover Come Back, The Thrill Of It All, Calamity Jane and Please Don't Eat the Daisies.

[ray]

Love Me Or Leave Me
Romance On The High Seas
Midnight Lace
The Thrill Of It All
Pillow Talk

[HilB126]

I love the varying opinions on here. It took some time to come up with just five - it's hard for me to rank one above the other. They're all special in their own ways, but these tend to be the ones I watch the most.

My five (in no particular order) are:
1. Move Over, Darling - It was the first movie I ever remember watching as a child. Doris and James Garner are the most attractive, perfect couple so anything with them will be high in the ranks for me. And then it has my favorite scene in all of movie history in it - the Car Wash scene.

2. Lover Come Back - My favorite of the Doris/Rock trilogy. The script was absolutely perfect and clever. The costumes as a whole were (at least for me) the best wardrobe she had for a movie. Their chemistry was spot on. I don't have a bad thing to say about this film. Whenever someone asks me to recommend a movie of Doris' to watch, this is the one I always pick.

3. Romance On The High Seas - I LOVE seeing Baby Doris before she really made it in the movie business. To see her so 'raw' and fresh is quite a thrill. I have to say, for never having acted professionally before you would never, ever know it. I love her and Jack Carson as well, so anything with them in it I enjoy.

4. Teacher's Pet - One of the first Doris movies I watched, but it's still a favorite. It might just be the english major in me, but I absolutely love the plot. The script was excellent. I love seeing Doris play a feisty part. I'm not into submissive Doris roles. She and Clark, despite their age difference, convince me they could be a couple. I saw sparks there, which have been absent in a number of Doris' movies with other actors her age.

5. It Happened To Jane - This one I watch most often. Call me crazy (as there are no other votes for this movie), but I absolutely love Jack Lemmon and her together. The way they bounce off of each other it's almost as if they're the same person with the same type of acting. The script, although not as good as the previous movies I've stated, is one of those cotton-candy types. It's weak but you still love it anyway. I feel it's way underrated and really is something special.

Close runner up is Love Me Or Leave Me. Her acting in here was absolutely amazing. She really could do anything, couldn't she?

[jmichael]

I know many of you love Teacher's Pet but I thought the pacing was a bit sluggish. George Seaton did not have the same knack for nimble pacing that Michael Gordon and Delbert Mann brought to PT and LCB. On the plus side, the script was topnotch and the cast was impeccable. I also love the part that Doris played. She was very convincing as a journalism professor. That comeuppance speech she gives Gable in the elevator is among her finest acting moments.

As for Lover Come Back, I have to admit it is slightly better than Pillow Talk but I have a soft spot in my heart for PT because it was the first Doris film that I saw. Needless to say, it was love at first sight. Technically speaking, the script for LCB is a bit tighter and the satiric jabs at Madison Avenue land with just the right amount of oomph . I rate it a bit lower only because it replicated the same basic formula from PT.

Agree completely that Doris and Jack Lemmon were born to work together, but I've never warmed up to It Happened to Jane. I have trouble staying with that film to the end.

Michael

[unadka]

Here is my voting:

Love me or leave me
Absolutely my # 1 as a dramatic and music role

Calamity Jane
This is the first movie I saw and felt in love with Doris

Pajama game

With six

Lullaby

The close followers are:
I'll see you in my dreams, Tea for two, The thrill, Teacher's pet, Pillow talk, It happened to Jane. It is obviously, that I prefer musicals, but love almost all her movies.

[Jas1]

Michael- I shared 4 of your 5 - missing Romance and substituting it with Teacher's Pet.

Pillow Talk is always my favourite - and it is more evenly scripted for me than Lover Come Back - think the weighing in Rock's favour is to do with the fact Doris' character never gets to inter-act with the 3rd lead - as in Pillow Talk - so Rock as the majority of screen time. Still love Love Come Back though.

[jmichael]

Michael- I shared 4 of your 5 - missing Romance and substituting it with Teacher's Pet.

Pillow Talk is always my favourite - and it is more evenly scripted for me than Lover Come Back - think the weighing in Rock's favour is to do with the fact Doris' character never gets to inter-act with the 3rd lead - as in Pillow Talk - so Rock as the majority of screen time. Still love Love Come Back though.

James, very cool that we are so close with our top picks. Good observation about PT and the fact that Doris did not have any interaction with Tony in LCB. I love Teacher's Pet too but gave Romance a top spot because it was her film debut and she made the movie something special -- much more than what was written on the page.

Michael

[Jas1]

You are right Michael, it is difficult to name just 5 and something has to give....sounds like the name of a song and aborted film...! I understand what you mean about Romance - a remarkable first film role.

[webmaster]

So far it's

1 Love Me or Leave Me
2 Calamity Jane
3 Romance on the High Seas

Interesting result - I thought that Pillow Talk would be in the top 3. Some great films like Jumbo have had no votes yet - I wonder if Where Were You When the Lights Went Out? will get any votes?

Keep the votes coming guys (and dolls!)

[mikeydv]

Just a thought..
Without ROMANCE, there would have been NO DORIS DAY MOVIE STAR. She was on the way back home to her mother and son when she tested for that role. She got the role, and my friends, the rest is history.

[jmichael]

Just a thought..
Without ROMANCE, there would have been NO DORIS DAY MOVIE STAR. She was on the way back home to her mother and son when she tested for that role. She got the role, and my friends, the rest is history.

It was meant to be. Fate stepped in and Doris was ready for the opportunity that was presented to her. Cannot imagine a world without Doris Day on the big screen to help bring all of us out of the doldrums.

Michael

[howard]

Here, here!

[webmaster]

"Hear that, Jack?" "Here where, Doris?"

[webmaster]

I just read a very different story - from Doris herself - about how she got the part in 'Romance On The High Seas':

Doris Day: A Hollywood Legend Reflects On Life

Day's singing career eventually led her to Hollywood, where she got a part in the 1948 film Romance on the High Seas, without knowing she was auditioning for the role.

"I was just out in Hollywood singing, and my manager was with me, and we were going to have lunch," she says. "And he drove out to the studio, and I knew nothing about that. We were standing around, and I said, 'What are we doing?' and he said, 'I'm arranging something.'"

Day's manager told her that a young man was auditioning for a role in a movie and she needed to help him out. That man, unbeknownst to Day, was actually the film's director.

"So I read my lines, and after that, he came up and took my hands and said, 'Darling, you were very good' and I thought, 'How funny' and said, 'Thank you so much, it was nice to meet you.' And with that, we left," she says.

Day was due to leave Los Angeles the following morning, but received a phone call in her hotel room. It was actor Jack Carson.

"And he said, 'Miss Day, this is Jack Carson. I know it's early in the day to be calling you, and I heard that you were leaving for New York. I want to tell you something — you are going to be in the best part, the most important part, in the movie I'm doing next. And I want you to be in it,'" she says.

Day accepted the offer and soon began working on the film. On her second day of work, she was invited into a studio to watch herself on the screen for the first time.

"I went in and I just stood there, and Jack came up to me and he put his arms around me," she says. "And he said, 'Everything is just perfect. And you're the one. And I really enjoyed it today.' And he gave me a big hug."

http://www.krwg.org/post/doris-day-holl ... lects-life

What do you make of that?!!

[Jas1]

Also have a soft spot for Young At Heart- so 1950s America [well from Hollywood's perspective] - but so perfect to me- Doris looked fab starting to sport her DA her do, her clothes were great, she had a great cast, and great songs, and it was the start of the golden period in her career - where she turned in some amazing, under-stated yet highly effective performances.

[webmaster]

Yes, but what do you make of that ROTHS story, Jas - dying to know - could it all have been made up?

[jmichael]

Well, this story does not jive with what Doris recounted in her book or during other interviews over the years. Maybe her memory of the events shifted over time which is understandable, I suppose. Personally, I prefer the fairy tale version of her singing at a Hollywood party where Jule Stye and Sammy Cahn heard her and insisted she try out for the role.

What is consistent across all the versions is Doris never actively pursued a career in films. Someone else facilitated it and she was ready, willing and able -- so to speak.

Michael

[webmaster]

Director Charles Vidor discusses a scene with Cagney and Day.

Good to see "Love Me or Leave Me" in the lead - well deserved and a film that Doris can be proud of.

Some interesting results if you look at them. "Tunnel of Love" has been mentioned in the least favourite poll and get no votes here. I think it was a disappointment to many Doris fans, which probably had to do with high expectations after Love Me or Leave Me. The Man Who Knew Too Much and The Pajama Game - and Tunnel of Love was just a straight light comedy. But it's not a bad film and was directed by the great Gene Kelly.

I wonder what it would have been like with Doris, Rock & Tony rather than with Richard Widmark and Gig Young? In colour and in CinemaScope?


A question of ‘Who’s the daddy?’ in The Tunnel of Love.