Maybe it's just me, but in this movie it seems like I was watching Doris Day rather then Marilyn Monroe.
Not that I am complaining, I love Doris Day too, but it just felt more like a Doris Day picture than Marilyn.
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don't think anyone would have bought Doris Day singing My Heart Belongs To Daddy...
I don't know if I felt like I was watching Doris Day when watching this, but I definitely felt like Marilyn was imitating someone else in the film. Mariyln had been quoted earlier in her career saying that she took a lot of what she knew about acting from watching Betty Grable movies and in a lot of her post GENTLEMENT PREFER BLONDES work, I do see some Betty Grable in there, especially in HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE where she Grable worked together. The only exception I would say to this was BUS STOP, which was pure Marilyn and IMO, her finest performance.
shareIt's a Doris Day KIND of movie...a typical sex comedy of the era, with misunderstandings and mistaken identities, etc. Marilyn isn't immitating DD, she's just playing a normal woman for a change--not a gold-digger or a fantasy figure. Only the musical numbers are "Marilyn." I think a much better script and director would have helped--it could have played as a straight light comedy/drama about a girl and two guys, and forget the music. (Tho of course, she is adorable in her numbers, if a bit zaftig.)
shareActually, at the time this movie was made, Doris Day had only starred in one comedy, 1959's PILLOW TALK. All of her other films were musicals or dramas. "The Doris Day comedy movie" as we know it today didn't get into gear until 1961 when she started making almost exclusively comedies up until the end of her screen career in 1968. You are right about Marilyn playing a "normal woman" here not the lovable little lamb that was her stock in trade from GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES to SOME LIKE IT HOT. This is one of Marilyn's few parts that really didn't require a "sexy" actress per se, nearly any light comedic actress could have done it, not just Doris but Audrey Hepburn, Debbie Reynolds, etc.
shareDear Harlow..."Tunnel of Love" Teacher's Pet" and "It Happened to Jane"
were straight comedies, all done before "PT." But you're correct--the "Doris Day movie" was we've come to know it, began with "PT." And I think she should have stopped with "PT." With the exception of "Please Don'T Eat The Daisies" most of DD's post-1959 comedies were pretty lame, tho successful for some time.
___Zaftig? Mae West was zaftig.
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