Non mangiate le margherite

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.

You're glad they made movies like "Please Don't Eat The Daisies" alright, simply to prove there was a time people were more innocent. Sitting through it is another matter.

The central problem with "Please Don't Eat The Daisies" as it stands today is that it suffers from a major case of indecision: Does it want to be about a theater critic who gets a big head, or does it want to be about a Manhattan mom with four sons who finds a new home in Westchester County? Doris Day stars doing what she does best, throwing off clever one-liners with a maternal glow, doing a little bit of singing, and standing by her man, in this case David Niven as theater critic Lawrence Mackay, who probably doesn't deserve her but as played by the winning Niven keeps our sympathies enough to make us happy he convinces her otherwise.

Mackay is quite taken by his new role as the Frank Rich of Mayor Wagner-era Broadway, but she's worried his becoming an influential quipmeister has made him mean, a candidate for a ride on the "down-a-lator" as expressed by a producer who used to be Mackay's friend until one of Mackay's catty reviews sundered their relationship. The producer, played by Richard Hadyn in much the same jaded manner he brought to his impresario role in "The Sound Of Music" five years later, accelerates Mackay's notoriety by having the starlet of his latest play, "Mme. Fantan," slap Mackay across the face for the benefit of a newspaper photographer after he disses her performance.

There's a great idea for a story here, about a critic coming up against the egos of himself and others, but unfortunately the result doesn't give Day much to do. Niven is neither unfaithful to her nor really all that nasty a critic. Instead of trying to make the story work better, which admittedly would risk running against the grain of a Doris Day comedy, the film throws in a subplot, about the couple and their four sons moving up the Hudson River to the bucolic suburb of Hooton and the resulting mild turmoil that causes. Thus, the entire second half of the film feels as awkwardly tacked on as the musical numbers Day performs in the final third of the programme.

It's all rather stupid, yes, but winsome, too, in that nice way that makes one nostalgic for the early 1960s. The scenery is attractively shot. The supporting actors are fun. Of the Day numbers, one, "Any Way The Wind Blows," is a terrific number with a busy bassline and some nice dipping harmonies that recalls Elvis Presley's "King Creole," fetchingly performed by Day and members of the cast as the "Hooton Holler Players." Never mind that groaner of a name, it's a good routine. The other number, the title song sung by Day and a merry band of children, should have been cut but for the fact it's a Doris Day movie and a drippy song with a kiddie chorus was what her audience wanted.

The same can be said for the whole movie. "Please Don't Eat The Daisies" is charming in a way films wouldn't dare be today. The dialogue is unnaturally whipsmart Neil-Simonesque, even when it's Day talking to one of her sons ("All he does is eat and sleep." "He's a dog. What d'ya want from him, blank verse?"). The youngest boy is clearly overdubbed by a woman with a cutesy voice, saying "Cokee Cola" as he drops water bags on people in a way that's supposed to suggest Tom Sawyer, not lawsuits. The dog jumps into Niven's arms at the sight of a squirrel, and he raises his magnificent eyebrows as only David Niven can at the idea of finding himself in a lightweight suburban farce.

Day makes you glad you stopped by, a suburbanite dream in her snug Capri slacks who finds the humor in every scene. Limited, yes, but very good in her genre, enough to make a film like this at least intermittently entertaining. She and Niven do play very well off each other. Like Michael E. Barrett wrote here in another review, the scene of them in the restaurant together after Niven has had his face slapped is a terrifically acted sequence, underplayed well by both stars.

Unfortunately, the rest of film doesn't rise to that same level of subtlety. Instead, she does her suburban mom thing while he plays the non-vicious critic with a vicious reputation, until at the end we are asked to pretend the twain come to meet and all is resolved. It doesn't, but the nicest thing to be said for "Please Don't Eat The Daisies" is that it's so genial it makes you willing to pretend otherwise.

Although made in 1960, this classic sampling of Doris Day fluff is more a product of the 50s than the coming decade of the 60s. As ever, Miss Day is gorgeous and perfectly turned out, this time the mother of four small boys, an aspiring playwright overshadowed by her theater critic husband, coping with a series of domestic crises while she attempts to move her family from a city apartment to an improbably ramshackle English-style country house. 'Improbable' is indeed the word for the entire plot of this movie, but then probability was seldom the reason we went to the movies in the 50s. Bouyed along by the bright force of Miss Day's personality, the light touch and easy charm of David Niven, and ably supported by Janice Paige, Spring Byington, and Richard Haydn, this pic has all the bouncy sweetness and escapism her fans so appreciate in Miss Day's work. So, if you are looking for a 2-hour time trip to what seems like a kinder and gentler time, don't mind bumping your nose against a few cultural idiosyncrasies of the 50s (and no Day fan can avoid that), enjoy discovering some charming but forgotten musical numbers, appreciate really great vintage clothes, and generally believe it is hard for Miss Day to do any wrong, this seldom-mentioned film is just the ticket!

Based on the popular book by Jean Kerr, PLEASE DON'T EAT THE DAISY is probably the best of Doris Day's 1960s comedies--and it finds her surprisingly paired with David Niven. While the two may seem an unlikely couple, they have extremely good on-screen chemistry, and the film neatly balances its story between the two stars so that neither overshadows the other.

Day plays Kate MacKay, mother of four hellions and the long suffering wife of esoteric drama critic Larry MacKay (Niven.) With her husband under siege by every actor, director, and producer in town, Kate decides to move the family to a home in the country--and in the process leaves her husband open to the temptations of Broadway star Deborah Vaughn (Janis Paige.) Before too long, Larry's swelling ego threatens their happy home.

The cast is expert, with both Day and Niven extremely enjoyable and Janis Paige memorable as the Broadway siren who attempts to lead Niven astray; the supporting roles are also expertly handled by a cast that includes Spring Byington. The script is witty with a dash of sophisticated sparkle, and unlike most of Day's later comedies manages to avoid the feel of frantic farce. A truly enjoyable outing; pure fun all the way.

Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer