Your Top 5 and Bottom 5 Doris Day Leading Men

[mikeydv]

Mend Your Fences, boy!

[melancholy]

Surely this is Doris's movie.Howard Keel is a very impressive man and yet one tends to forget about him in Calam.Eventhough he had some grand movies he stared in to me he is the line of Steward Granger etc.
The strong character in Calamity Jane is wonderful.
Dorine

[Bixby]

Doris and Howard didn't hit if off did they? Howard seemed a little resentful that it was a Doris film.

[webmaster]

I don't think that's true, Bixby. I've seen several interviews with him talking warmly about her and he said something to the effect that she seemed to know what she was doing on the film so he just let her 'have her head'.

Wasn't he mostly an MGM star? They must have loaned him to Warner's and, of course, he'd already done "Annie Get Your Gun", which wasn't too different from his point of view, so he wasn't breaking new ground in the way Doris was.

Anyway, my impression is they got on very well together, unless you know something I don't know?

[Bixby]

I know she always talks about how much fun she had making Calamity, so maybe I misconstrued what I heard. In fact, it is only one small clip that I did hear and he was talking about one scene in Calamity when he had to pick Doris up and put her in the wagon. He tried to discuss it with her on just how they were going to do that and it sounded as if she kind of blew it off. So, when it came time for the scene, it was a little rough and he said she didn't want much to do with him after that. I also thought it was funny that he seem to make a big deal of her size, because I've always thought he was pretty big guy.

[melancholy]

"Showboat" was a great impressive movie as I remember it.
Dorine

[howard]

I think he liked her. I read somewhere that he would have loved to have had Doris appear with him in the film version of "Annie Get Your Gun." He said something to the effect of imagining her great voice singing that fabulous music score!

[Bixby]

I'm glad to hear that, because I always like Howard Keel.

[howard]

Now that I think about it, I believe I got that information from his autobiography entitled "Only Make Believe: My Life in Show Business."

[pillowtalk]

I've heard that Howard and Doris got along well also. I read that Howard didn't get along well with Betty Hutton, though.

[Jiminy Cricket]

He didn't like Betty because he wanted to do the movie with Judy ...
Now, with Doris, I'm sure they were friends. After all, he was a guest of the "Doris Day's Best Friends", right?

[Bixby]

Thanks for persuading me otherwise everyone. I really haven't read much on Howard Keel and was a bit upset when I heard that clip, because I thought I liked him, so I am glad to hear all the good things and especially that he liked Doris.

[Jas1]

I too was going to say about Howard Keel being on Best Friends: I think that says a lot.

[Toby_Martin]

James Garner (they looked more believable to me as a couple
Rock Hudson
Jimmy Stewart
Danny Thomas (again they seemed really believable as a couple, faults and all)
Brian Keith
Howard Keel (i can do without you!) haha (a close 5)

bottom 5

Ray Bolger
Robert Cummings
Richard Widmark
Peter Graves
Stephen Boyd

[Toby_Martin]

Top 2nd bananas:

I love all the co stars!

Tony Randall
Eve Arden
Gig Young
Thelma Ritter
Dom Deloise
Ed Andrews
Jimmy Durante
Jack Carson
Janis Paige
S Z Sakall
Mary Wickes
Paul Lynde



Bottom 5

Gene Nelson

[melancholy]

"Showboat" was a great impressive movie as I remember it.
Dorine

you can remove this Bryan,please,it sort of looks off,picture of Calam and talking about Showboat,thanks,
Dorine

[webmaster]

You should be able to delete your own posts, Dorine, but I think it's fine to leave as we are talking about the films as well.

Great pic but I'm slightly confused by it as she seems to be wearing the outfit she wore on the horse singing "Secret Love" rather than the dress she fell into the creek in, below:

When Doris Day prepared to take a bath on the set of Calamity Jane there was excitement throughout the studio. It was to be a mud bath.

At one side of the sound stage a huge trough was filled with the finest San Fernando Valley’s finest earth. Studio workmen thoughtfully heated the water which they poured on the dirt with all the tenderness and care a chambermaid might lavish upon the Queen’s bath. All this preparation was for a sequence in which Doris, thoroughly drenched and muddied from falling into a creek, enters her cabin home where Howard Keel, Allyn McLerie and Philip Carey are awaiting the arrival of what they expect will be a beautifully gowned young lady.

When director David Butler announced he was ready to shoot the scene, Doris, wearing a yellow dress crated by famed fashion designer, Howard Shoup, stepped into the trough of mud with all the pleasant anticipation she might display at dipping into a perfumed bubble bath. “It’s wonderfully warm, though a bit lumpy,” declared the star. “This is like walking around in fudge. You must give me your recipe, boys.” But before Doris had a chance to say another word the boys grabbed her and politely, but firmly drop her full length into the trough. When she stood up she was covered from head to foot with mud and the Shoup dress was thoroughly deglamorized.

The director, however, still was not satisfied so he spread more mud on Doris, who was still enjoying every minute of this supposed ordeal. “How times change. As a little girl I was scolded for getting my party dress dirty while playing in the mud. Now I get paid for doing the same thing,” she remarked.
Derald Hendry

http://www.dorisday.net/calamity_jane.html

[BabeWilliams]

Janis was so good in that part that she made many people hate her. And she took it to the precipice of caricature without going over the edge. Ralph McKnight was spot on in his comments about her performance.


Michael H

Wow, I didn't mean to stir so much up. I think you misunderstood me, or maybe I didn't convey my feelings correctly. I didn't like her character, not her. I think she's just fine, wasn't she the one to play Babe Williams on Broadway??

[jmichael]

Janis was so good in that part that she made many people hate her. And she took it to the precipice of caricature without going over the edge. Ralph McKnight was spot on in his comments about her performance.


Michael H

Wow, I didn't mean to stir so much up. I think you misunderstood me, or maybe I didn't convey my feelings correctly. I didn't like her character, not her. I think she's just fine, wasn't she the one to play Babe Williams on Broadway??

No problem at all. I totally get your point. I just wanted to clarify that I felt she was terrific in the part, although the character she played was anything but nice or appealing. Janis was talented enough to make her mark without going too far, which is not as easy at it sounds on paper. And, yes, she originated the part of Babe Williams on Broadway. It speaks to the character of both women that professional jealousy and envy never impacted their friendship over the years. Thanks for responding to my comments.

Cheers,
Michael

[mikeydv]

The same can be said (in a different way) about Doris friends like Kitty Kallen, who took Doris' big hit, IF I GIVE MY HEART TO YOU, several years later, and brought it back to the top 40 lists. Doris never considered that as competition...it was part of the friendship. I am not sure that is true regarding Doris and Dinah Shore. After all, Dinah was #1 at Columbia Records until Doris came along. I am not sure Dinah ever forgave Doris for knocking her off the top of the record sleeves where top artists were listed.

[TCMMovieFan]

OK - Top 5 & Bottom 5 of Leading Men !
This is only my opinion friends - I sincerely hope I do not rattle any cages !
TOP 5 -
1. Gordon MacRae - Both his fine baritone singing and likeable screen presence were a perfect match for Doris. He was Doris' most frequent leading man.
2. Jack Carson - likeable actor. Sunny disposition - good match for Doris at the earliest stage of her film career.
3. Howard Keel - only 1 film together but both the voices and the personalities blended well.
4. James Garner - they were quite similar in their approaches to 'natural' acting. Both delivered their scenes together with plenty of zest but there was also some personal warmth that came across well on the screen.
5. Jack Lemmon - again only 1 film together but both had a good screen chemistry plus a fine conversational style of acting.
Bottom 5 --
1. Frank Sinatra - Opposites here do not attract. Personalities like night and Day (pun intended !) Not a good combo.
2. Ray Bolger - No screen chemistry at all ! Period.
3. Richard Widmark - Good actor but not a comedian. Doris of course was brilliant in comedy so there seemed to be a wall between them in their only film.
4. Richard Harris - Somewhat chilly atmosphere between them.
5. Stephen Boyd - Could have been better but Boyd seemed somewhat stiff in JUMBO and also somber - not enough smiling.