Birthday Girl Doris Day's "Midnight Lace" 1960

They redid it for an 80s TV movie and it terrified little old me

It's fascinating to see because Doris Day is so bad in it.

This fabulous picture has a wonderful scene where DD clutches a phone receiver like death is about to strike and, in an almost lusty voice, says,

"You must be INSANE!"

I love watching it over and over. (I have the DVD--please don't laugh at me!)

Here's an old ad for "Midnight Lace." 55 seconds of Doris Day in hysteria mode...enough to send some folks scrambling for the remote! The rest, enjoy!

So the story I've always heard is that someone convinced Doris to try "Method acting" for this movie without her really understanding what it involved, and she tapped into some sort of bizarre emotional trauma from her past that completely overwhelmed her when the cameras rolled.

R5- I also read that. She was said to have had a very difficult time getting through some of her scenes.

In her autobiography, Doris Day wrote that to prepare herself for one of the terror scenes, she recalled a time when her first husband, trombonist Al Jorden, dragged her out of bed when she was ill and pregnant and hurled her against a wall. Day related that in the scene she wasn't acting hysterical, she was hysterical, and at the end of the take, she collapsed in a real faint. She was carried to her dressing room, and Producer Ross Hunter shut down production for a few days while she recovered.

[quote] Doris Day vowed to never make another thriller after this movie, claiming it emotionally drained her. She stayed true to her word. Until her retirement eight years later, the only movies she made were comedies.

[quote]Doris Day vowed to never make another thriller

But what about "With Six You Get Eggroll" ?

She had a great career, but it seems that she came to resent it at some point. She became a recluse for the last few decades.

In her book, Olivia Newton John talked about trying to mount a big screen bio pic of Day, even meeting Doris at her house for lunch. But Day was adamant that she didn't want her life story to be portrayed on the big screen. She told Olivia not to take it personally, but she didn't want anyone to do a movie on her.

Was she that unhappy with how things turned out?

My favorite Doris Day song.

When that man pushes her out of the way of the falling scaffolding she drops her shopping boxes. You can imagine her telling him to please pick them up for her.

John Gavin is so hot. And Doris gets to wear some fab clothes.

R5, R6, R7, and R8, appreciate the backstory but damn, I don't think I'll ever enjoy this flick again. I had no idea. Poor Doris! In his autobiography, James Cagney had nothing but praise for her.

Does she ping for anyone here? Always thought she had a hint of lesbian aura.

Doris is a lot better in "Love Me or Leave Me" with Cagney, which was also a drama with psychological implications (again, she's married to an abusive husband), but it's not quite so nutso. Her biggest problem in it is that she's a little cold when she's not performing as Ruth Etting, but some of her songs are so terrific (the most famous being the superb rendition of "Shaking the Blues Away") that she overcomes it. I think that's why Cagney liked her so much.

Doris was a superb professional, and she had a glorious voice and a great body. but she never really had a director who got her to untap her potential to be a serious dramatic actress. In many ways she just didn't have the time in her life to undergo the dramatic training she really needed beforehand.

She's supposed to be in a panic when talking to Rex but she has time to primp her hair.

[quote] Does she ping for anyone here? Always thought she had a hint of lesbian aura.

R14 Doris sometimes said her favorite role was in "Calamity Jane," in which she played a very butch woman. The 50s being the 50s, the character "reforms" about half-way through the film into a femme. She then sings the beautiful song "Secret Love," which can be interpreted more than one way. "Calamity Jane" was a very gender-bending film for its time. So, it is interesting how much Doris liked her role in that movie.

Kaley Cuoco of all people, is supposed to produce and star in a limited series of her life. Yes, she'll play Doris.

I noticed that, too, R16.

Wow, ONJ would have been perfect to play her.

If anyone wants to watch Mary Crosby in Doris' role in an updated TV remake circa "Who Shot JR?" here it is!

Saw this at the drive in with my family at age 8 . I think it made gay.

I'M NOT ALONE! MY MAID IS WITH ME!!!!

It's Day's funniest performance. She's hysterical in every sense of that word.

Doris in the fog: Who are you? What do you want?!

Voice: It's Russell Metty, Miss Day. Your director of photography. I'm having trouble seeing you.

What's amusing is everyone is so typecast. Especially Roddy McDowall, as the unctuous little weasel!

What exactly does "Midnight Lace" refer to?

What even is "Midnight Lace?"

A lacy dress that Day's character purchases early in the film and wears at the climax.

[quote] Does she ping for anyone here? Always thought she had a hint of lesbian aura.

No, I always thought she had a hint of Dylan Mulvaney.

She was awful in this…sorry not sorry. I get the giggles when she has her breakdown on the stairs of her house.

“AUNT BEA! HAWWWHAWWWW, SOMEBODY HELP ME! HHELP ME! AAAHHHH! AAAAHHHH!

Even worse than when she freaked out in THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH.

Yeah, why couldn't they have just let Doris be bubbly and cute and sing a song or two? She excelled at it and it's what she enjoyed doing.

The most outrageous scene is when Doris is trapped in an elevator that seems to bring on a screaming orgasm from Doris!

Every Ross Hunter movie from this period is just too divinely "de trop"!

Yes, John Gavin was indeed "hot" as seen in ML but he is largely wasted in this role.

As was the case in Psycho, where we at least had the pleasure of viewing his beautiful body shirtless, he was a pretty wooden actor.

Doris and John became "very close" while filming this movie. In the early 70's, he was a guest star on her CBS comedy series.

Did Doris fuck a lot of her co-stars? She had such a squeaky clean image it's hard to picture her slutting around.

“I knew Doris Day before she was a virgin” - Oscar Levant

“Night Watch” with Elizabeth Taylor had a similar plot.

Here's the trailer to "Midnight Lace," with a sample of Doris' emoting! And yes, the plot to ET's "Night Watch" is very similar... maybe they shoulda called it "Midnight Caftan!"

Doris uses vocal-fry in her scene with the inspector.

I remember Night Watch. Either I watched a bad print or the climax appears to be done in darkness with lightning flashes so you're wondering what the hell is happening?!

r11

I do wish that Hitchcock or even Stanley Donen would have directed this. It would have been so much better. David Miller comes across as a hack director.

(R36) Not all of them - just Jack Carson, Ronald Reagan, Gordon MacRae, Howard Keel, Frank Sinatra, Louis Jourdan, John Gavin, James Garner, Rod Taylor and Patrick O' Neal.

David Miller was a decent studio director. Usually directed mature divas in various vehicles, like Crawford. But a stronger director like Hitch or Donen might have beefed up the story and toned Day down a bit...

David Miller's SUDDEN FEAR (52) is one of the great "My Hubby Is Trying to Kill Me!" movies. Sadly, lightning didn't strike twice with MIDNIGHT LACE.

Doris, god bless her, was a HUGE slut and size queen. She had a good girl image, but loved herself some cock. My favorite alleged affair of hers was with Sly Stone.

Also she was the lead singer for a “Big Band” type of deal in the 40s, those women were known to be quite libertine….

Sly Stone AND baseball player Maury Wills.

that 1950s short butch do did Doris no favors.

Doris Day, professional virgin by day...

I read an excerpt from a biography written about Doris that stated she needed a LOT of help with her presentation. She had bad table manners and talked with food in her mouth. The movie studio helped cultivate her image as the girl next door.

The two films of hers I saw as an adult are Midnight Lace and The Man Who Knew Too Much. Because of that, I just don't like Doris Day. A better actress could have improved either film...I would saw that any better actress could have done.

I saw the light comedies as a kid and have seems bits of them as an adult. They are period pieces, giddy and "sugar and spice" girliness for which she had a certain talent, but a shallow one. Window dressing.

Midnight Lace is dreadful. The sets and Myrna Loy and sexy John Gavin are the saving graced and even they can't do the impossible

I love Doris Day. I have since I was 5 years old. But Midnight Lace is one of the worst films of all time mainly because it is so preposterous. Who the fuck hears a voice walking through the park in the fog alone in London? From the beginning it's stupid. Rex Harrison- one of my favorite actors- totally wasted and no chemistry with Day. Doris suffers from a lack of chemistry with foreign men( Cary Grant, Louis Jordan) I believe it is because she is too perky and American to naturally match with a worldly man. Poor Myrna Loy-this was her last film- from the The Thin Man to Ross Hunter bullshit- what an ending to a great career. As for Doris I can't believe she is as stupid, obtuse, and fearful as her character is suppose to be. Doris is always better when she is playing an intelligent woman( Pillow Talk, The Pajama Game, Please Don't Eat the Daisies). In this movie she is playing a woman so dumb you don't care if she dies or not. But her clothes are to die for!

As for John Gavin- handsome yes- also a Reagan supporter and his Ambassador to Mexico

Watching it now. Do you think she was dubbed when she has to use a cockney accent?

Congratulations to the OP for describing the skinny homosexual as an "unctuous underling".

Is it in her contract that every man has to comment on how pretty and glamorous she is?

She is brutally lit in her final scene as she walks away from the house. You can see every pore, freckle and even acne scars. She was so pretty I thought and the cameraman failed her.

Did Gavin ever give a good performance? I’ve seen armor suits with more emotion.

Why are all the British men tanned?

[quote] Did Gavin ever give a good performance? I’ve seen armor suits

He was only ever asked as to play armor suits. I blame the producer.

Anyway this painful movie was produced by the flakiest of homosexuals with a fake name.

I watch it just to see Sexy Rexy.

My favorite DD comedy is "The Glass Bottom Boat". They all look like they're having so much fun. Just fabulous.

The "scary" voice reminds me of Pee Wee Herman...

FUN FACT:

Rex Harrison was nearly totally blind in his left eye due to a childhood bout with measles.

^ Left eye or right?

Harrison should not have appeared in this mess.

I assume it was all concocted on the Universal LA backlot.

R73, It was his second film after enormous success on Broadway in My Fair Lady.

Herbert Marshall was on his last leg in this film...

Herbert Marshall could have done this role sitting down.

Why should a star with his beautiful voice like him be wasted while giving too much screen time to the very dull John Williams.

Rex Harrison was, by most accounts a despicable human being who mistreated the women in his life. He was also a bigoted snob.

[quote] Rex Harrison was a despicable human being [and] a bigoted snob.

And, furthermore, he failed to live up to my superior standards of precious morality.

Rex had the charm of Laurence Harvey!

Rex seemed like a cold fish

Julie Andrews said that Rex suffers from extreme flatulence.

Rex Harrison struck me as a pompous fuck even when I was a young child. It didn't help that he had one volume of speaking: loud.

He's in some good films, but it's never him that the draw for me.

I never knew Herbert Marshall had a prosthetic limb due to WW2 injury..... one of the greats from the golden era...... he deserves his own thread for sure!

On 9 April 1917 he was shot in the left knee by a sniper at the Second Battle of Arras in France.[27] After a succession of operations, doctors were forced to amputate his leg. Marshall remained hospitalised for 13 months.[28] He later recalled in private that after his injury, he had initially over-dramatised his loss and was wrapped up in self-pity and bitterness. Before long, however, he decided he wanted to return to the theatre and learned how to walk well with a prosthetic leg in order to do so.[29] While he was recovering at St. Thomas' in London, King George V visited the hospital. When asked to pick which of the actor's legs he thought was artificial, the king chose the wrong one.[30] Throughout his career, Marshall largely managed to hide the fact that he had a prosthetic limb, although it was occasionally reported in the press.

Marshall suffered from his war injury for the rest of his life, both from phantom pain[31] common to amputees and from the prosthesis.[32] One friend remembered that he kept holes in his trouser pocket so that he could inconspicuously loosen a strap on his prosthetic leg in order to ease sudden discomfort.[33] The pain in his leg became more pronounced later in life, including bothering him on film shoots in ways noticeable to others and exacerbating his usually very slight limp.[34]

the scene where she listens to the inspector's tape collection of phone cranks is a wasted opportunity because we don't hear what she does.

I like this exchange:

Doris: A man said he was going to kill me. Myrna Loy: Have you reported it to the Embassy? Doris: We went to Scotland Yard. Myrna Loy: Yes, there supposed to be good too.

meant to write THEY'RE supposed to be good too.

Interesting how her hair worn off the forehead as opposed to bangs makes her look older.

Greer Garson’s ex, Richard Ney is in this movie too.

R68 - his English accent is ok.

Bosely Crowther on Day's film debut

As much as we all like to welcome new faces and talents to the screen, it is hard to work up enthusiasm for the Warners' new starlet, Doris Day. Maybe this bouncy young lady, who came directly from singing with bands to a leading role in that studio's color musical, "Romance on the High Seas," has ability and personality. But as shown in this picture at the Strand, she has no more than a vigorous disposition which hits the screen with a thud.The fault is not hers entirely.-NY Times

She went to bed still wearing makeup - eye liner, fake eyelashes, and lipstick.

I laughed when she gets pushed in front of the oncoming bus. Clearly a stunt woman and not Doris.

(r95) And yet by the time she did "The Man Who Knew Too Much", 8 years later, Crowther noted: "Doris Day is surprisingly effective as the mother who is frantic about her child..."

the last 30 minutes got better but what an unflattering close-up of Rex when he confessed. Doris' breakdown on the staircase was better than I thought she would do.

[Quote]And yet by the time she did "The Man Who Knew Too Much", 8 years later, Crowther noted: "Doris Day is surprisingly effective as the mother who is frantic about her child..."

and yet R98 unsurprisingly so overly wrought-as she was in dramatic roles.

"Julie" was an afternoon howler for our family back in the '70s! Before there was Karen Black as the hysterical stew... there was Dodo as "Julie!"

I'm not sure about her high fashions. She reminds me of a little girl dressed in mommy's outfits.

I just watched this recently. Certainly not a great film, but it gets points for atmosphere and the over-the-top-ness of it all. Doris is good in it, but not great. As far as dramatic roles go, she was much better in "Storm Warning", where she played the little sister of Ginger Rogers, who discovers that Day's new husband is in the KKK and helped murder a journalist. Poor Doris ends up getting killed in the end during a klan gathering. Quite a brutal movie.

Doris at her breathiest but I actually love this movie, too, OP.

No one can say Doris walked through this movie, that's for sure!

R105 because she couldn’t walk and chew scenery at the same time…

R103=Spoiler alert!

Doris' breakdown scene was hysterically funny.

AUNT BEA! HELP ME! AHHHH-HAHHHHH! SOMEBODY HELP ME!! ROFL.

(r108) Not as hysterically funny as Elizabeth Taylor's in "Suddenly Last Summer"

I like Taylor but for the first time in years, watched this film on TCM last week. Her so-called "emoting" as she described what happened "last summer", was horrible. It truly made me cringe.

R1009, Liz's bad acting is benefitted by her equally thin and shrill speaking voice, which did a lot of the 'heavy-lifting' bad performance-wise.

R109, Many critics believed that scene secured an Oscar nomination for Elizabeth.

I love this

Joe Mank must have told Liz rubbing your forehead is great acting.

R113. I actually think it’s one of Liz’s best performances—especially the climactic monologue. Hepburn is, however, a bit OTT.

Try watching the lame BBC remake with Maggie Smith, Natasha Richardson, and especially, Rob Lowe from '93. Kate and Elizabeth were terrific.

My mother made the mistake of letting me watch this as a child and thereafter I could not resist annoying her by imitating the voice in the fog. Mrs Prestonnn…

That voice reminded me of Pee Wee Herman!