Please Don't Eat the Daisies

Please Don't Eat the Daisies
March 31, 1960
MGM
Comedy, Drama
VHS
C+

Welcome to the 1960s!  OK, it's very early in the '60s, so early that when there's a reference to "an ex-president," it can only be Hoover or Truman.  Still, you can see the cultural shift beginning, particularly with male-female relationships.  There are moments, like when Spring Byington (well cast as Doris Day's mother) gives advice, or when Day uses her "feminine wiles" on husband Niven, that you're not sure where things are going to land.  Is Niven's character right that he's always right?  Is Day really selfish?  Or is it the reverse?  And what's going on with the half-serious seductive actress?  Not to mention the butch doctor who answers a little boy's question of whether she's a man or a woman with "I'm a veterinarian.  That's in between."  Another sign of the times is that I noticed more black extras than in my earlier films (with the exception of It's a Wonderful Life), particularly in the scenes set at Macy's.

The movie is very, very loosely based on Jean Kerr's book, which I reviewed here: http://rereadingeverybookiown.blogspot.com/2012/06/please-dont-eat-daisies.html.   This has little wit in comparison, except for the semi-in-joke about Rock Hudson.  Day sings three songs, including the title song and her trademark "Que Sera Sera," but the only one that really works is her duet (with a heavyset woman) on "Any Way the Wind Blows."  There are four bratty kids, each with a different hair color (although two of them are supposed to be twins), and a big sheepdog, but they don't contribute much to the entertainment.  Patsy Kelly is welcome as always, although she's not playing to her strengths.

Charles Walters also directed Easter Parade.  Marina Koshetz was in Little Women.  Kenner G. Kemp was in Singin' in the Rain and some of my other movies.  Harold Miller was in Auntie Mame.  Hal Taggart might've been in one of my earlier movies, and he would definitely be in Mary Poppins.  Peter Leeds would appear in I'll Take Sweden.  Jack Chefe, who plays the Sardi's headwaiter, would be in Take Her, She's Mine.  Len Lesser, who plays another Sardi's waiter, would be in How to Stuff a Wild Bikini, which would also feature Marianne Gaba as Animal.  Milton Frome would do John Goldfarb, Please Come Home!  Frank Delfino would be in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory and Americathon, but his best known role is probably as a Kaplutian on The Brady Bunch.  Irene Tedrow would be in Foul Play.

We're supposed to feel sorry for them that they bought this house?