Re: A Doris Day Festival on TCM
Posted: April 4th, 2012, 9:52 am
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YES! I can't watch The Man Who Knew Too Much for that very reason. Doris hysterical makes my teeth itch!Question:
Does anyone else have a hard time watching movies where Doris Day spends most of the film crying and in hysterics? You couldn't pay me to watch Midnight Lace or Julie again because of the awful spectacle of the poor woman coming apart at the seams in both movies--and I like many of the other people in both movies. It just seems voyeuristic and cruel to watch an actress go through this. Either Doris had a lot more technique than I ever knew, or she really was pushed around by that hubby of hers who picked out these roles for her.
Oh, jeez, I'd wiped that one clean off my memory pan, Nancy. One of the few times I HATED Jimmy Stewart* was when he pumped Doris full of pills before telling her that their son had been kidnapped in The Man Who Knew Too Much--but then Doris' reaction was even more excruciating to watch because she was woozy as well as outraged and frightened...not to mention waiting for that key moment with the cymbals and kettle drums near the climax later.knitwit45 wrote:YES! I can't watch The Man Who Knew Too Much for that very reason. Doris hysterical makes my teeth itch!
I know what you mean Moira. It is a difficult watch to see Doris go through these emotions...but it also makes me think it's a testimony to her acting...exhibits another facet of her personality; she feels pain, fear...everything is not always so bright and sunny. But watching it does seem like watching a private moment revealed. Hmmm, actors sometimes go there. I've read that she really did breakdown during that staircase scene in "MIDNIGHT LACE." But I have to say, the hysterics don't stop me from watching either of the movies you cited.[u][color=#BF0000]moirafinnie[/color][/u] wrote:Question: Does anyone else have a hard time watching movies where Doris Day spends most of the film crying and in hysterics? You couldn't pay me to watch Midnight Lace or Julie again because of the awful spectacle of the poor woman coming apart at the seams in both movies--and I like many of the other people in both movies. It just seems voyeuristic and cruel to watch an actress go through this. Either Doris had a lot more technique than I ever knew, or she really was pushed around by that hubby of hers who picked out these roles for her.
I have to admit, I do kind of wait for the scene when she's told about her son's kidnapping. Again, on the acting tip, to watch her play hysterical and anger and woozy simultaneously is amazing (for me) to watch. Now, I can't say I'm smart enough to get a bead on the director's thoughts. But it just seems that women in general in movies are really portrayed as lesser human beings. And what you say here about the man/woman relationship in "The Man Who Knew Too Much", I REALLY find apropos in "THE THRILL OF IT ALL." I have a tremendously hard time with this film for the sexist attitude against women working. (Puny male...ego). I've seen the movie a bunch of times as a kid...but when I got a little older and realized what the movie was saying about women working, I was really appalled (my consciousness having been raised). If a woman wants to stay home and her husband fully supports her, fine...cool. If she wants to work and earn a living as well as her husband, great...fantastic. But to be considered less than a real Wife (less than a Real Woman) b'cuz she's earned money (more money) is sexist drivel...and downright looney tunes. Heck, my advice to Doris in "The Thrill Of It All" is to sock her money away in a separate secret bank account. Look, who wouldn't want to be taken care of by tall, dark & handsome 1960's cleft-chinned James Garner. [Where do I sign up?] But don't give me grief about my money.James Stewart was really creepy in his condescending treatment of Doris' character throughout the movie. I loathed his smug attitude toward her career, her friends, and her intelligence, even while I felt that Hitch was parodying a kind of childish innocence in American women of the period. Hitchcock seemed to be toying with Anglo-American attitudes toward domesticity and women in general throughout his career in movies on this side of the pond and the other, but it is still hard for me to say how he really felt about "the fair sex."
Oh you're going to take him the rye bread? Uh-hunh! Awwww gee Coach!! You never let us have any fun!![u][color=#BF0000]knitwit45[/color][/u] wrote:OK, ladies, both of you HIT THE SHOWERS! I'll calm Mr B. down (wonder if he's heard the bring some rye bread line???)
Sue Sue Applegate wrote:
With this hat, I just feel she should be looking for arid land so adobe bricks will help support the bell tower.
It is just not a chapeau made for cruising....