Touches You

People are voting emotionally.

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

James Garner is an OB-GYN kind of doctor and Doris Day is his perky wife with two mischievous but cute kiddies and a live-in maid. It's a wonderful life. The only problem is that Doris has nothing else to occupy her interests, just the PTA and the ketchup she bottles at home. Garner and Day are invited to dinner at a brash old tycoon's house. The media mogul decides that Day would be the perfect television spokesperson for his shampoo. She's hired. It upsets the routine and their home life. Garner resents his wife's working and her absence from her "wifely duties." The maid quits, they hire a new one who speaks only German, there are missed messages that lead to confusion and -- well, I don't know what all.Garner is as placid as the script allows him to be, and Doris Day is always chipper and sexy. She does an expert double take. The kids are a fulsome nuisance with their constant nattering and should be stomped on like little bugs.The story was written by Carl Reiner and Larry Gelbart, who know comedy when they write it, but they must have just overdosed on an "I Love Lucy" marathon.It isn't so much that the movie reflects the attitudes of the 1950s. That's not only not bad, but inevitable. "Pillow Talk" used the same axiomatic framework and was very funny. No writers can be held accountable for not predicting the Zeitgeist that lies fifty years in the future.It's that the jokes themselves are weak, sometimes so weak as to be embarrassing. Upon hearing that her salary will be $80,000, Doris Day collapses and sits back into a crate of ripe tomatoes. (Gag.) You want to know the joke I thought was most successful? At the TV studio in which Doris Day tapes her commercials for the shampoo, there is a dramatic "Playhouse 90" sort of production going on. Day has to watch it while she waits for the commercial break. In the first scene of the drama that we witness, Carl Reiner is a Nazi officer, sneering and threatening while trying to get a French girl to squeal on the Maquis. She splashes a proffered glass of wine in his face. He sputters and orders her out of the room with an oath.The following week, Reiner is some kind of gangster or something and a girl splashes wine in his face. He curses and has her thrown out. The following week, he's a jealous ex lover in a fancy restaurant and his girl throws wine in his face. "FLOOZIE!" he shouts at her as she storms out.The big wigs are sitting around with cigars watching these shows. And Doris Day asks if this isn't the same scene they've already witnessed. "Similar," says one, "but the public doesn't pay enough attention to notice the similarity." Cut to Day's house, where her two little kids are watching the show and one whines, "It's the same as last time!" There. Now you know the best joke in the movie and I've spared you the inconvenience of watching the rest of it.

An immensely enjoyable movie. Doctor's wife Doris Day is suddenly TV's "it" girl when she starts appearing in soap commercials. Domestic mayhem ensues. Husband James Garner is none too happy and Day finds juggling home-life, work-life and instant celebrity pretty difficult. It's a pointed satire in the guise of a 60s glossy comedy directed with a very sure hand by Norman Jewison and written by the great Carl Reiner (with an assist from Larry Gelbart). Day is terrific and has plenty of chemistry with Garner. The colorful supporting cast includes Arlene Francis, Edward Andrews, Zasu Pitts as a daffy housekeeper and Reginald Owen as Day's chief benefactor. Reiner himself pops up in a series of cameos that get progressively more ridiculous. Russell Metty provided the high gloss cinematography.

This is the first time I write a comment about a film. Considering that my favorite films, since I discovered the movies, are by Scorsese, Gonzalez Inarritu, Polanski, etc. What am I doing selecting a Doris Day comedy for my first review. Okay, let me tell you. I was overwhelmed by the sheer brilliance of the lady. I've always heard about Doris Day but I had never seen her (The Man Who Knew Too Much is my next one). She is extraordinary because in the midst of all the zaniness there is an unquestionable truth. I believed completely in her character I never thought for a moment she was trying to sell me something. I recognized her, I knew who her character was and then, of course, I laughed, loud and hard. So the reason that I've selected "The Thrill Of It All" as my first review is because that's what cinema is all about. Surprises and discoveries. Thank you Doris Day, you've given me something new to look forward to.

This movie has always been one of my two top favourites. I love many of Doris Day's pictures, but "The thrill of it all" stands out for me. Probably that is because of James Garner's involvement, (he is another of my favourite stars). I love the chemistry between these two in this movie. I had seen it a couple of times on TV growing up, and then not for many years. My memory of it had faded a bit over time, but I remembered enough to motivate me to track it down about a year ago,(after doing a bit of research to find out the title), and now the DVD is in my collection.It's light-hearted, funny, witty, romantic, and easy to watch many times over. I never get sick of it, as with most Doris Day movies. Maybe part of my romance with this sort of film is that it takes me back to a time when life was simpler and more innocent than today, and made more sense.It's good to see the likes of Bernie Kopell and Hayden Rorke in roles other than those which made them so familiar to us. I noted the query on the Message Board re Buddy Hacket in the swimming pool soap sud scene, and had already picked the voice as one of the actors from Top Cat, Maurice Gosfield, but I didn't know his name. I also like seeing Robert Strauss, the guy who is the chief of the clean-up gang. You'll pick his gruff voice straight away as "that guy who's in all those movies"; and watch out for the butler, he's a real crack-up!!I love this film for so many reasons, and I highly recommend it for all the family. It's even safe for the kids to watch, which is getting harder to say these days!! By the way, the kids really make this movie for me. The twins are so natural that they make the whole family even more believable. You can just imagine them being in your own household. This is a fantastic film. 10/10 !