This week #Bond_age_ remembers D-Day, the only way we know how… with a play on words and a cursory, half-baked connection. On Wednesday June 10th, #Bond_age_ live tweets a pair of Doris Day films from 1966 and 1967. And now you’re thinking “Doris Day? How in the world did we get to Doris Day?” Well, let’s take a trip back to the mid-1960’s in the Way Back Machine.
#Bond_age_ presents the Doris the Spy Double Feature!
By 1965, the spy genre had exploded courtesy of a certain so and so called James Bond. The world had gone spy crazy. I cataloged the list of spy films from the 1960’s on Letterboxd.com and found 85 entries for that decade. By comparison, the 1970’s boasted only 54 spytastic films to call its own.
By casting Doris Day in a spy film, MGM wanted to combine two of the hottest commodities into one seamless package. From 1962-1964, the Motion Picture Herald declared Doris Day to be the #1 box office star in all of Hollywood. She’d had a trio of huge box office successes in That Touch of Mink, The Thrill of It All and Move Over, Darling. Her her most recent efforts (Send Me No Flowers and Do Not Disturb), however, failed to reach that magical $10million dollar plateau. MGM wanted to combine the older, more traditional fanbase of Doris Day with the younger James Bond crowd into one big box office blitzkrieg. Thus, Glass Bottom Boat (aka The Spy with Lace Panties) was conceived. Director Frank Tashlin had been a one-time joke writer for the Marx Brothers and director of 6 early Jerry Lewis films. He also directed the excellent Rock Hudson comedy Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? It should come as little surprise then that Glass Bottom Boat, co-starring Rod Taylor, Dom Deluise, Arthur Godfrey, Dick Martin and Paul Lynde, downplayed thrills (and the perhaps implied titillation of a movie featuring the “oh oh-sex” girl) in favor of a more kinetic, slapstick vibe. The movie became a predictable box office success but again failed to break through that $10million ceiling.
Doris Day followed the success of Glass Bottom Boat by again teaming up with Tashlin for another spytastic film in 1967 called Caprice. Footnote for film historians, Caprice and In Like Flint were the last films made in CinemaScope as most studios moved onto other widescreen processes like Panavision in the late 1960s. Caprice also features the always excellent Richard Harris, Ray Walston and Edward Mulhare, but straight-up flopped at the box office. Critics eviscerated the film. Leonard Maltin gave Caprice film zero stars. Doris Day has claimed that she was unaware that her then husband/manager Martin Melcher had signed her contract to star in the film. The film earned only a hair over $4million. Nevertheless, fans of the kitsch and color of the 1960’s will find much to enjoy. The film oozes mod, and Caprice‘s style and design aesthetic make up for its narrative shortcomings. Which means, ultimately, that it’s an ideal #Bond_age_ live tweet.
Join #Bond_age_ (and Doris Day!) at 8pm (NOTE THE EARLY TIME!) on Wednesday, June 10th for the Doris the Spy Double Feature with Glass Bottom Boat and Caprice. Caprice will begin at roughly 10pm. Follow the #DorisTheSpy hashtag. Embeds will appear on the #Bond_age_ page 1-hour before showtime and disappear immediately after. If you want your taste of Doris Day doing nefarious doings don’t miss the #DorisTheSpy live tweet event.