Please Don't Eat the Daisies

WOW, the comments here are nastier than an open sewer!

I get that 1950s-style family comedies are perhaps a hard sell even for modern-day classic film fans, but the hate PLEASE DON'T EAT THE DAISIES gets is staggering to me. It's hardly the funniest or greatest film of all time, but I found the central relationship between Doris Day and David Niven's characters mature and realistic. There's a decided lack of dated "father knows best" stereotyping-- everyone is flawed and real-- and there's no contrived melodrama either. It's slow, sure (when you watch old movies regularly, you expect that), but I found the movie charming and relaxing.

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.

i really like this film. unlike some other reviewers i think the chemistry between niven and day is strong - they presented like a genuine married couple. the script is versatile, witty on the one hand, but also able to shift to the more dramatic. the argument between day and niven as he reveals his desire for professional success is very well done. niven himself was laugh out loud funny on many occasions, and the portrayal of parenthoood was quite charming. the song at the school doesn't do anything for me, so i tend to fast forward past that scene. however that is a matter of personal preference: i enjoy doris day as an actress much more than as a singer. it's an amusing, easy going, light hearted film, perfect for afternoon viewing.

Please Don't Eat The Daisies is an updating of Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House from the woman's point of view. It's taken from a humorous book of the same title by Jean Kerr, wife of the New York Herald Tribune theater critic Walter Kerr. The Kerrs have four boys instead of two girls so we're talking about double the trouble.

Trouble the children are indeed. The film actually opens with the four boys getting their baby brother to drop water balloons on poor passersby of their Manhattan apartment. Which in itself is getting too crowded. But when the real estate agent starts showing the apartment off just as their lease is expiring, Doris Day and David Niven have to move and move quickly.

Like Cary Grant and Myrna Loy, they sink quite a bit of dollars into what we would now call a fix-it-up. But where Cary was hip deep in his involvement in the new house, David Niven is all caught up in his work as one of New York's drama critics. It's up to Doris to keep the household together and get the house livable.

Niven's got his own troubles too, he breaks a friendship with an old friend Richard Haydn when he gives producer Haydn's play a bad review. Not to mention a public slap at Sardi's from Haydn's star Janis Paige who will match her fanny with anyone's. Janis did have quite the derrière back in the day.

Haydn's really got a great scheme to get back at Niven for the bad review. It's a pip, you have to see Please Don't Eat The Daisies for.

Doris gets to sing three songs, including the title song which became a big hit for her. It's perfectly suited to her style.

She sings well and David Niven is as debonair and charming as he always is on the screen. The film even spawned a television series later on in the decade. Please Don't Eat The Daisies still holds up well as good family entertainment.

'Please Don't Eat the Daisies' is another Doris Day film that was seen recently as a quest to see all of her films not yet seen. After seeing it, 'Please Don't Eat the Daisies' is worth seeing, it is not quite as fresh as a daisy but sticking with it and seeing it grow is worth it.

Day has certainly done much better films, as has David Niven and Charles Walters, but Day has also done worse. 'Please Don't Eat the Daisies' at its best is delightful and doesn't try to do any more than necessary and be more than it is. Its reputation seems to be mixed to lukewarm, count me in as those who thinks it deserves better. It is certainly not without its faults.

Like in 'It Happened to Jane', and almost as badly, the children are badly cast, try far too hard to be cute and end up being so sugary cutesy it'll give one toothache and are at their worst rather obnoxious. The film does drag a little towards the end, as a result of trying to do a little too much, and a couple of scenes at this point are not placed as comfortably as they could have been.

Likewise with the otherwise pleasant songs, the title song coming off best. Once again Day sounds beautiful, musically and in an interpretative sense she's spot on and there is a lot of sincerity in her singing.

Day is a sheer delight in 'Please Don't Eat the Daisies' too. She is perky and charming with a naturally sparkling presence and deft comic timing. David Niven is debonair and urbane and the two gel so well and dazzle together. Niven is particularly good with Janis Paige however, which boast some hilarious moments. Great support from lively Janis Paige, ever scene-stealing Spring Byington and suitably stuffy Richard Haydn.

Charles Walters seems comfortable with the material, and handles it and the cast well and mostly handles the various subplots adeptly. There is a lot going on here with five subplots, the story could easily have been bloated but manages not to be and it's all done in a way that's fun and relatable.

Much of 'Please Don't Eat the Daisies' has a fast, snappy pace, only being bogged down towards the end. The script is easy to relate to, very funny in a light way and has a surprisingly sophisticated edge.

Visually it's all very colourful and stylish with exemplary use of CinemaScope, while the music has energy and nuance.

In conclusion, not perfect but a nice film that passes the time inoffensively, and is more than a just for completests film. 7/10 Bethany Cox