Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1960)

Director:

Charles Walters

Writers:

Jean Kerr (book)
Isobel Lennart (writer)

Release Date:

2 June 1960 (West Germany)

Genre:

Comedy | Family | Romance

Tagline:

The Uproarious Movie From The Big Best-Seller!

Plot:

Drama critic Larry McKay, his wife Kay, and their four sons move from their crowded Manhattan apartment to an old house in the country...

Plot Keywords:

Theater | New York | Critic | House | Professor

Awards:

1 win & 4 nominations

Cast

Doris Day	...	Kate Robinson Mackay
David Niven	...	Lawrence Larry Mackay
Janis Paige	...	Deborah Vaughn
Spring Byington	...	Suzie Robinson
Richard Haydn	...	Alfred North
Patsy Kelly	...	Maggie
Jack Weston	...	Joe Positano
John Harding	...	Reverend Norman McQuarry
Margaret Lindsay	...	Mona James
Carmen Phillips	...	Mary Smith
Mary Patton	...	Mrs. Hunter
Charles Herbert	...	David Mackay
Stanley Livingston	...	Gabriel MacKay
Flip Mark	...	George MacKay
Baby Gellert	...	Adam McKay

Runtime:

112 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Finland:S | Sweden:Btl | Australia:G | UK:U

Filming Locations:

Washington Square Park, Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Euterpe

Trivia:

After Doris Day and Janis Paige first had worked together in Romance on the High Seas (1948), Miss Paige had triumphed on Broadway as the feisty union official, Babe Williams, in the Tony Award-winning musical of 1954, "The Pajama Game." When Warner Bros., the former home lot of Janis and Doris, recast Babe Williams for the delightful 1957 film version, Babe then turned into - Doris Day!

Goofs:

Continuity: While Kate is talking to Alfred North in the drawing room where the coats are kept during the party, she stands next to him with her right hand on her hip in some scenes and in front of her in other scenes.

Quotes:

Alfred North: For a critic that first step is the first printed joke. It gets a laugh and a whole new world opens up. He makes another joke, and another. And then one day along comes a joke that shouldn't be made because the show he's reviewing is a good show. But, as it so happens, it's a good joke. And you know what? The joke wins.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Killing Floor (2007)

Soundtrack:

ANY WAY THE WIND BLOWS

enjoyable Doris Day film

Based on the best-selling novel by Jean Kerr, "Please Don't Eat the Daisies" is the story of a New York City family, the Mackays - four boys, a wife Kate (Doris Day) and her husband Larry (David Niven). Suddenly, Larry finds success as a powerful theater critic, and Kate wants to move out to the country, which was always their dream. However, it's not really Larry's dream any longer. He's heady on New York success and wants to be near Theater Row. Conflict comes with his changing values.

This is a nice story co-starring Spring Byington as Kate's mother and Patsy Kelly as the family housekeeper. It doesn't compare with the sparkling Doris-Rock comedies. I happen to like David Niven in the role - he's what you would expect from a New York critic - above it all, sophisticated, egotistical, well-educated but ultimately likable.

Day is very good as always and gets to sing, but the whole thing is a little too much. There aren't enough laughs to make it really funny. The brightest part of the movie for me was Janis Paige as Deborah Vaughn, an actress/singer decimated by Mackay in a review who then becomes attracted to him. She looks gorgeous, she's sexy, and she supplies the bite that the story needed more of. If the writers had built up that part of the story, the movie might have turned out better. The other part they could have built up is the awful play that Larry wrote that ends up being produced by the local community theater. Some scenes from that with Doris would have been great.

Day, as it turned out, was at her best when Ross Hunter made her over into a glamorous, sophisticated woman herself and teamed her up with Rock Hudson and gave her glossy productions and great clothes. This film was made was right at that transition. Day is a very vibrant presence but she can't elevate this material to more than what it was - a pleasant family comedy.