Movie Review: The Winning Team (1952)

A baseball biopic, The Winning Team is earnest, straightforward and largely uninspired.

It's early in the 1900s in Nebraska and Grover Cleveland Alexander (Ronald Reagan) is a telephone company employee and amateur baseball pitcher planning to settle down with his sweetheart Aimee (Doris Day). Grover's superior pitching skills are discovered during a game against traveling opposition, and he signs a pro contract, disrupting his domestic plans.

But his seemingly burgeoning career is unceremoniously halted when a blow to the head causes double vision. He marries Aimee and attempts to put baseball behind him, but his health recovers and the dream lives on. Grover makes it to the major leagues where glory and heartbreak await, plus an interruption for a World War.

The name Grover Alexander is unlikely to be well known outside true baseball aficionado circles, and The Winning Team is a workmanlike effort to spotlight one of the game's greatest pitchers from the early part of the 20th century. Alexander is presented as a beaming and wholesome All-American guy devoted to the game and placing his love for Aimee in a close-enough second place to maintain a long-time relationship.

But this is also a relatively low budget effort with a pre-breakthrough Doris Day and a plodding Ronald Reagan in the lead roles. They are not helped by a methodical script that checks off Alexander's life and career milestones with automated soullessness, notwithstanding the unnecessary Hollywoodization of many facts.

The on-field action scenes are introduced in good doses, supporting rather than overwhelming the film. For the higher profile games in Grover's career, real footage (of sometimes irrelevant games) is mixed-in to showcase mammoth crowds and enhance the big-league ambiance.

Director Lewis Seiler tries to uncover a few interesting visual angles from around the diamond, and on the domestic front finally starts to find some traces of humanity and character depth when serious post-war health issues and the bottle enter Alexander's life in a big way.

The pitcher's late-career resurgence with the St.Louis Cardinals provides the groundwork for the movie's best moments, and within the limits of the flat story Reagan and Day are able to conjure up a few moments of self-reflection and supportive affection. Frank Lovejoy is the one notable supporting cast member as fellow baseball legend Rogers Hornsby.

Competent enough and nothing if not well-meaning, The Winning Team is a basic cheerleading routine.

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Movie Review: The Thrill Of It All (1963)

A romantic comedy with a focus on the career versus family dilemma faced by women, The Thrill Of It All is out of step with the times but still offers plenty of laughs.

Beverly Boyer (Doris Day) is a housewife happily married to successful obstetrician Gerald (James Garner). Fully in charge of running the house and raising two kids, she is unexpectedly offered the opportunity to star in a television commercial for Happy soap, and her honest style is an immediate hit with viewers.

The Happy company make Beverly an offer she cannot refuse to become their regular spokesperson, and soon she is appearing on countless television commercials, billboards and in magazines. Her sudden success disrupts the Boyer's family life, Beverly and Gerald barely get to see each other, and he begins to deeply resent her career.

Directed by Norman Jewison and co-written by Carl Reiner, The Thrill Of It All offers an attractive package. The chemistry between Day and Garner is strong, the writing is sharp, the kids are unusually cute, the humour on the sides of the main plot is potent, and the story finds its way to some interesting emotional games between husband and wife.

At the heart of the film are the shifting household dynamics when a woman chooses to pursue a career. Stuck between the traditional 1950s and the turbulent 1960s, the film attempts to find its feet, and does not shortchange Beverly's willingness to try a new role and industry's big-money pursuit of women to represent corporations. But Gerald is the most traditional of traditionalists, and much as he loves his wife he is incapable of elegantly adjusting to her having a career outside the house.

Jewison, in his second directorial feature, surrounds his troubled couple with plenty of wacky animated energy. The two young kids provide wry commentary, a German housekeeper rumbles through the household with tanklike charm, and Gerald's patient Mrs. Fraleigh (Arlene Francis) and her husband Gardiner (Edward Andrews) are fumbling with an unexpected later-in-life pregnancy. Gardiner's old coot of a father (Reginald Owen) owns Happy soap and is still smart enough to recognize a viewers' darling when he sees one. And an overnight swimming pool installation creates opportunities for some good madness.

The film's chosen ending belongs in another era entirely, but does not fully take away from the entertainment value. The Thrill Of It All is a societal relic, but it's a glossy and funny relic.

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Movie Review: Midnight Lace (1960)

A psychological suspense thriller, Midnight Lace is reasonably effective but also repetitive and predictable.

Kit (Doris Day) is an American living in London and recently married to Tony Preston (Rex Harrison), a senior executive at the investment company that carries his family name. Walking home alone in the thick fog one day Doris hears a menacing voice threatening her with death. Soon she starts receiving harassing phone calls. With Tony always busy work, neighbour Peggy (Natasha Perry) tries to help, and the arrival of Aunt Bea (Myrna Loy) for a visit provides some comfort, but the threats continue.

Kit and Tony reach out to Scotland Yard and Inspector Byrnes (John Williams) starts to investigate. Contractor Brian Younger (John Gavin) is working on a construction site next to the Prestons' apartment and seems to have his eye on Kit. Malcolm Stanley (Roddy McDowall) is the good-for-nothing son of the Prestons' housekeeper, always on the lookout for money. And a mysterious man in a black suit and black hat is continuously hovering in the neighbourhood. But when no suspects are apprehended, Kit starts to question her own sanity.

An adaptation of the play Matilda Shouted Fire by Janet Green, Midnight Lace is directed by David Miller and features glossy sets, lavish costumes and handsome London locations. The film shows no signs of being held captive by the stage origins, and Miller along with script writers Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts conjure up a good-to-look-at and fairly engaging mystery. The cinematography is dynamic, and Miller is alway on the lookout for the more interesting angle to shoot from.

But despite the gloss, the story carries echoes of Gaslight, and once the premise is set, the film stumbles with repetitive scenes of Kit receiving the next threat and reacting with hysterics. Miller makes a couple of mistakes: the voice on the other end of the phone is rarely heard, and while this is intended to raise doubt as to whether Kit is dealing with reality or not, the muting of the aggressor defangs the suspense level. Doris Day can only widen her eyes and scream so many times before tired duplication sets in.

The other misstep is in the pacing, and as much as the middle section of the film sags, the ending is rushed, unbalanced and clumsy, featuring the unnecessary traversing of construction scaffolding but not enough exposition to tidy up plenty of loose ends. Some characters disappear, others are introduced in a late muddle and what was a relatively cerebral plot deflates.

There is enough in Doris Day's performance to suggest her career would have benefited from more dramatic roles, and Rex Harrison is sturdy as the husband torn between work duties and an increasingly frantic wife. The supporting cast is unusually strong but also underutilized. Myrna Loy, Roddy McDowall, John Gavin and John Williams could all have benefited from having more to do.

Midnight Lace may not carry its momentum all the way through, but although the tension diminishes, the sleek packaging endures.

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Movie Review: Move Over, Darling (1963)

A lame bedroom comedy, Move Over, Darling over-stretches a flimsy premise to excruciating extremes.

In the courtroom of eccentric Judge Bryson (Edgar Buchanan), lawyer Nick Arden (James Garner) applies to have his wife Ellen declared dead. She has been missing for five years after her flight ditched in the Pacific Ocean. Bryson agrees, and Nick immediately marries his new sweetheart Bianca (Polly Bergen).

As soon as Nick and Bianca set out on their honeymoon, Ellen (Doris Day) reappears, having been rescued off an island by the Navy. She reconnects with her two daughters and her mother-in-law Grace (Thelma Ritter), and chases after Nick and Bianca at their Monterey Hotel. Nick is shocked but also happy to see his wife again, but is also very reluctant to break the news to his new bride Bianca.

Directed by Michael Gordon, Move Over, Darling is the salvaged remains of Something's Got To Give, after that troubled production was abandoned following Marilyn Monroe's death. Day eventually replaced Monroe, Garner stepped in when Dean Martin wisely stepped aside, and Gordon took over the reins from George Cukor. None of them need to have bothered. A re-imagining of 1940's Too Many Husbands, Move Over, Darling is bereft of laughs, strains to no avail, and chews away at a single idea long after all the juice is gone.

The film's central conflict can be resolved within minutes of Ellen's unexpected reappearance, but Nick artificially and repeatedly contrives to avoid facing his new facts, and the comedy wilts and dies along with his dithering. No amount of overacting, arm waving or running around can obscure the fact that these are supposedly smart characters acting in an incredibly stupid manner for the sole purpose of prolonging a movie.

Once the one-man-with-two-wives joke is beaten to death, the film introduces a second, even flabbier source of jealousy between Nick and Ellen, this time involving her behaviour while marooned on the island for five years. Again Ellen could resolve her predicament in seconds, but instead this revelation is an excuse for the likes of Don Knotts and Chuck Connors to make appearances in a further series of scenes choking on protracted misunderstandings.

Move Over, Darling is comedy at its worst, flat humour as a toxic byproduct of imbecilic behaviour.

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The Movies Of Doris Day

All movies starring Doris Day and reviewed on the Ace Black Blog are linked below:

The Winning Team (1952)

The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)

Pillow Talk (1959)

Midnight Lace (1960)

The Thrill Of It All (1963)

Move Over, Darling (1963)

Do Not Disturb (1965)

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The Index of Movie Stars is here.

Movie Review: Pillow Talk (1959)

A stylish romantic comedy, Pillow Talk combines romance, laughs and some prescient social commentary.

In New York City, a shortage of phone lines means that songwriter and womanizer Brad Allen (Rock Hudson) shares a party line with interior designer Jan Morrow (Doris Day). Both are single and live alone, but Brad spends an inordinate amount of time on the phone romancing a succession of women, interfering with Jan's ability to run her business. Without meeting in person they clash frequently over the phone as Jan tries to put some limits on how often Brad uses the line.

Jan is being romantically pursued by wealthy businessman Jonathan Forbes (Tony Randall), who also happens to be bankrolling a new Broadway show with tunes being written by his friend Brad. It's not long before Brad deduces that Jonathan's potential girlfriend is his phone nemesis. After a chance encounter at a restaurant Brad takes on the persona of Rex Stetson, a wealthy Texas businessman, and starts a long and passionate pursuit of Jan. She falls in love with Rex, while all the time receiving advice and warnings over the phone from Brad, who seems to have an uncanny ability to predict Rex's every romantic move. With the affair between Rex and Jan turning serious and Jonathan beginning to suspect that something strange is going on, Brad realizes that creating a real relationship out of an elaborate ruse will not be easy.

Directed by Michael Gordon, Pillow Talk is a jaunty romance, with two strong characters clashing, connecting under false pretenses, and then navigating their way to a resolution. The 98 minutes are packed with a healthy amount of romantic incidents contrived to bring Brad and Jan together via the most convoluted yet entertaining path possible, and the film maintains a brisk pace and a colourful, dynamic aesthetic.

Pillow Talk is a sign post proclaiming the end of the 1950s and the start of a more adventurous, sexually liberated decade, with women exerting much more control over their lives. Jan is happy living alone, nurturing her own business, and being choosy about which man she will decide to settle down with, if any. She is happy to keep Jonathan as a friend and dismiss him as lover, while sparring with Brad over the phone and taking her time to decide if Rex is worthy of her affection. While the ending is consistent with the expectations that come with the genre, Pillow Talk sets the stage for a new equilibrium in the evolution of relationships

Stylistically, the film also takes a modern turn. Gordon makes frequent use of split screens, and finds clever arrangements to enhance the romantic elements with a sexual charge. Day and Hudson (as Rex) in separate bathtubs but with their raised feet connected at the split screen seam is a classic shot, ushering in a new, less inhibited world that would soon take over screen romances.

This was the first of three collaborations between Hudson and Day, and they quickly establish an easy chemistry that mixes fireworks, charm and seductiveness. Tony Randall and Thelma Ritter (as Jan's perpetually hung-over housekeeper) provide the support, with Ritter suffering somewhat from an underwritten role that leans too heavily on her pre-established persona.

Pillow Talk is comfortably fluffy on the outside and stuffed with pleasingly risque feathers.

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Movie Review: Do Not Disturb (1965)

A lame romantic comedy, Do Not Disturb suffers from manic over-acting by Doris Day and an almost total absence of chemistry between any of the couples on display.

American businessman Mike Harper (Rod Taylor), an executive with a wool fashions and textile company, is relocated to England and asked to breathe life into the failing European side of the business. His wife Janet (Day) insists they live in a country house in Kent, a long train commute away from Mike's London office. He starts to spend more and more time at his firm's apartment, and in the company of his attractive assistant Claire Hackett (Maura McGiveney).

Back in Kent, the town's busybody Vanessa Courtwright (Hermione Baddeley) convinces Janet that she needs to arouse Mike's jealousy by pretending to have a lover of her own, and arranges for suave antique furniture dealer Paul Bellari (Sergio Fantoni) to be the pretend lover. But Paul has plans of his own, and whisks Janet away to Paris on a quest for some furniture pieces - and possibly some romance.

Directed by Ralph Levy, who spent almost his entire career in television, Do Not Disturb is a second rate production which never gets going, and is a lot more annoying than funny. Doris Day unleashes all the loud ditziness with none of the seductive cuteness, pushing her persona to intolerable levels of aggravation.The character of Janet is an insufferable dimwit bouncing on the energy of her cluelessness, and it's a wonder that the Harpers have any kind of a marriage to care about or save.

There is not a hint of warmth between the Harpers, while Janet spends most of the interminable Paris trip drunk out of her mind, eliminating the potential for a serious romance with Paul. The most dangerous woman on show is Claire Hackett, who has all the icy attributes of an expert home wrecker, but the screenplay by Richard Breen and Milt Rosen gives her next to nothing to do.

Not all is completely lost, as the film reaches a climax at a business conference attended by all the textile industry magnates with curvy "assistants" rather than their wives. Janet crashes the event to try and reclaim her husband. Levy finally finds some good laughs on a dance floor filled with older men behaving badly, younger dolled-up mistresses vying for their attention by shaking their assets, an orchestra smoothly switching tunes according to who is on the dance floor, and catering staff navigating the flailing limbs with consummate skill. It's a party that would have been worth attending, unlike the rest of this feeble film.

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Movie Review: The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)

Alfred Hitchcock remakes his 1934 thriller into a lush, widescreen adventure. The Man Who Knew Too Much makes excellent use of exotic settings, playful chemistry between Doris Day and James Stewart, and the brisk story of an average couple sucked into an international assassination plot.

Dr. Ben McKenna (Stewart), his wife Jo (Day) and their young son Hank are Americans on vacation in Marrakesh when they encounter the mysterious businessman Louis Bernard (Daniel Gelin). Louis asks a lot of questions and answers few, but nevertheless suspiciously cozies up to the McKennas. Also on vacation and staying at the same hotel are fellow tourists Lucy and Edward Drayton (Brenda De Banzie and Bernard Miles).

While touring a market, the McKennas witness Bernard being chased and assassinated. With his dying breath, Bernard whispers to Ben clues to an assassination plot about to unfold in London. To make a bad day worse, while Ben and Jo attempt to explain themselves to the local police, Hank is kidnapped. The McKennas need to travel to London, uncover the true identity of the Draytons, disrupt the assassination, and rescue their son.

It is irrelevant that the plot details of The Man Who Knew Too Much do not stand up to too much scrutiny. Hitchcock's focus is on planting an everyday husband and wife, already in a strange land, into a perilous situation, and watching them try to wriggle their way out of trouble. Central to the movie is the relationship between Ben and Jo, and James Stewart and Doris Day excel in portraying a loving, sometimes bickering, and realistically capable couple. Neither Ben nor Jo turn into unrealistic heroes, and they make plenty of mistakes. Their support and trust for each other are the only weapons they can rely on, and their ordinariness is what makes the movie special.

Stewart delivers his typical laid-back but thoughtful everyman persona, while Day is radiant in perhaps her most nuanced screen role. Loyal to her husband to the point of abandoning a glamorous stage career to raise a family in Indianapolis, there is nevertheless a steely no-nonsense core of determination to Jo, and a sharp instinct that allows her to smell the trouble surrounding Louis Bernard long before Ben recognizes the danger. The rest of the cast is made up of character actors who do not detract from the stars, and neither do they get in the way of the film as a spectacle.

The film is as much a feast for the eyes as it is for ears. In addition to vivid colours delivered by cinematographer Robert Burks, The Man Who Knew Too Much may be the closest Hitchcock came to a musical thriller. Day's character is a semi-retired musical stage performer, and the song Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be), winner of the Best Song Academy Award, is performed twice and plays an integral part in bringing to life Jo's deep connection with Hank. The film's tense climax includes a long scene at the Royal Albert Hall, with 12 minutes of no dialogue as the assassination plot unfolds and the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Bernard Herrman, plays Arthur Benjamin's cantata Storm Clouds, an apt metaphor for the turmoil being endured by the McKennas.

Drawing on nothing but the extraordinary resourcefulness of loving couplehood, The Man Who Knew Too Much is a masterfully polished suspense thriller.

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