I came to love Doris in reverse order, first her television sitcom, then her winning trifecta of Rock Hudson-Tony Randall movies, and now taking it from the top and watching all her films in order. Doris is an amazing entertainer, talented actress and gifted singer.
I loved ROMANCE ON THE HIGH SEAS! It was an almost perfect film with all the right stars and a perfect balance of comedy and music. It left me smiling and feeling uplifted. Just the opposite feeling followed MY DREAM IS YOURS, which boasted the same director and many of the same stars. What went so wrong with this picture? Answer: The eminently unlikeable Martha Gibbons, the girl we're supposed to be rooting for to win fame and fortune.
No reflection on the actress Doris Day, but the character of Martha was an impossible one to warm up to and cheer. Overlooking her breaking the rules of her job by auditioning on Franklin Pangborn's time, her first crime then becomes her colossal gall in presuming she could bring her son Freddy along on the trip to Hollywood on Doug's dime. Instead of disclosing to Doug that she's a single mother with a child and asking if he could accompany her, maybe offering to pay his fare, she just shows up at the airport with him presuming that of course he'll be going. Couple that with the fact Martha gets to the airport only moments before departure and then loses her son in the airport. Who tells a four-year-old to wait at the baggage counter while she and her uncle take off to do what?
Interestingly, this same scenario played out again twenty years later in the "Doris Gets a Job" episode of THE DORIS DAY SHOW. After accepting a job but neglecting to disclose to new employer McLean Stevenson that she's a single mom with two kids, she suddenly ambushes her new boss with kids in tow and displays the same presumptuousness: This is my situation, deal with it.
Displaying his own brand of inconsideration, Doug parks Martha with his business partner Vi. Eve Arden played well the put-upon friend forced to suffer insufferable indignities. Martha packed her baggage like the star she aspired to be, and festooned Vi's room with framed pictures and clothes hanging from the light fixture. Adding insult to injury, after the two women crawl into their beds, Martha decides on a whim to pluck up the phone and make a long-distance call to her son in New York. Only after a glare from Vi does Martha say she'll reverse the charges. What nerve. And what a lack of consideration in (a) subjecting Vi to her inane chatter and obnoxious apple chomping, and (b) waking up her son because, assuming Martha and Vi went to bed at 10 o'clock, it would be one in the morning in New York!
Doug, laser-beam focused on moonshotting Martha to stardom, later boosts her morale by moving Freddy, Uncle Charlie, and their proto-Ladadog to Hollywood where they all pile into Vi's already crowded quarters. The ever-increasing impositions are played for laughs, brushed off as an "investment," but nagging at me was Martha's narcissism and implication she didn't care or even notice she was upending the lives of others.
To be fair, Martha did feel compelled to land a singing gig on her own at a dive bar Doug wouldn't even consider. I believe she sincerely wanted to earn some money to repay the generosity of her hosts. That led to a highlight scene of Doris exchanging witty barbs with future TV producer Sheldon Leonard. Getting a drink tossed in her face by a hapless husband's Helga wife was both humiliating and humbling and Martha learned to trust Doug's leading.
But Doug's leading was often compromised by his simmering feud with radio singer Gary Mitchell. Martha's infatuation with Mitchell only exacerbated the two men's clash of titanic egos. I initially thought Martha, out of consideration for Doug, should end the relationship with Gary, but she was star-struck and swooning and who knows, maybe Gary's singing on the Hour of Enchantment helped heal her broken heart in the wake of her husband's death in the war? I withheld judging Martha on this count, despite the pain it caused Doug, suspecting that these lopsided love triangles will eventually right themselves for the better.
It's no spoiler to say Martha achieved the superstardom she felt was her due. I was happier for Doug and Vi than for Martha. I just couldn't celebrate the underdog getting her day like I did in ROMANCE ON THE HIGH SEAS. Martha was too brassy and unsympathetic a character to win me over to her side.
I loved ROMANCE ON THE HIGH SEAS! It was an almost perfect film with all the right stars and a perfect balance of comedy and music. It left me smiling and feeling uplifted. Just the opposite feeling followed MY DREAM IS YOURS, which boasted the same director and many of the same stars. What went so wrong with this picture? Answer: The eminently unlikeable Martha Gibbons, the girl we're supposed to be rooting for to win fame and fortune.
No reflection on the actress Doris Day, but the character of Martha was an impossible one to warm up to and cheer. Overlooking her breaking the rules of her job by auditioning on Franklin Pangborn's time, her first crime then becomes her colossal gall in presuming she could bring her son Freddy along on the trip to Hollywood on Doug's dime. Instead of disclosing to Doug that she's a single mother with a child and asking if he could accompany her, maybe offering to pay his fare, she just shows up at the airport with him presuming that of course he'll be going. Couple that with the fact Martha gets to the airport only moments before departure and then loses her son in the airport. Who tells a four-year-old to wait at the baggage counter while she and her uncle take off to do what?
Interestingly, this same scenario played out again twenty years later in the "Doris Gets a Job" episode of THE DORIS DAY SHOW. After accepting a job but neglecting to disclose to new employer McLean Stevenson that she's a single mom with two kids, she suddenly ambushes her new boss with kids in tow and displays the same presumptuousness: This is my situation, deal with it.
Displaying his own brand of inconsideration, Doug parks Martha with his business partner Vi. Eve Arden played well the put-upon friend forced to suffer insufferable indignities. Martha packed her baggage like the star she aspired to be, and festooned Vi's room with framed pictures and clothes hanging from the light fixture. Adding insult to injury, after the two women crawl into their beds, Martha decides on a whim to pluck up the phone and make a long-distance call to her son in New York. Only after a glare from Vi does Martha say she'll reverse the charges. What nerve. And what a lack of consideration in (a) subjecting Vi to her inane chatter and obnoxious apple chomping, and (b) waking up her son because, assuming Martha and Vi went to bed at 10 o'clock, it would be one in the morning in New York!
Doug, laser-beam focused on moonshotting Martha to stardom, later boosts her morale by moving Freddy, Uncle Charlie, and their proto-Ladadog to Hollywood where they all pile into Vi's already crowded quarters. The ever-increasing impositions are played for laughs, brushed off as an "investment," but nagging at me was Martha's narcissism and implication she didn't care or even notice she was upending the lives of others.
To be fair, Martha did feel compelled to land a singing gig on her own at a dive bar Doug wouldn't even consider. I believe she sincerely wanted to earn some money to repay the generosity of her hosts. That led to a highlight scene of Doris exchanging witty barbs with future TV producer Sheldon Leonard. Getting a drink tossed in her face by a hapless husband's Helga wife was both humiliating and humbling and Martha learned to trust Doug's leading.
But Doug's leading was often compromised by his simmering feud with radio singer Gary Mitchell. Martha's infatuation with Mitchell only exacerbated the two men's clash of titanic egos. I initially thought Martha, out of consideration for Doug, should end the relationship with Gary, but she was star-struck and swooning and who knows, maybe Gary's singing on the Hour of Enchantment helped heal her broken heart in the wake of her husband's death in the war? I withheld judging Martha on this count, despite the pain it caused Doug, suspecting that these lopsided love triangles will eventually right themselves for the better.
It's no spoiler to say Martha achieved the superstardom she felt was her due. I was happier for Doug and Vi than for Martha. I just couldn't celebrate the underdog getting her day like I did in ROMANCE ON THE HIGH SEAS. Martha was too brassy and unsympathetic a character to win me over to her side.