Doris Day amid objects

[Click for a larger view.]

Behold Doris Day in a scene from The Glass Bottom Boat (dir. Frank Tashlin, 1966), in the company of two pillars, four lamps, and one slightly bent telescope. And for good measure, there are half a dozen tall candles on the patio table, now out of view. Elaine and I watched this film last night (it was a new arrival at the library) and turned to each other several times in, well, stark incredulity. Stark, I say. People bumping, pressing, vibrating against each other; hoses and seltzer bottles spraying through the air; a messy banana cream cake; a robot vacuum cleaner with a long, predatory hose: the wink-wink moments and double-entendre props must have seemed racy (to someone) in 1966, but now they look clumsy and juvenile. Which is not to say that The Glass Bottom Boat isn’t worth watching: it’s a nice adventure in cultural studies and sort of, sometimes, funny. With Arthur Godfrey, Dom DeLuise, Paul Lynde (in cop drag and drag drag), Dick Martin, Alice Pearce (Lucy Schmeeler in On the Town), and many more. Collect them all.

Related posts
Diane Arbus meets the Platters (from another Tashlin effort)
“Doris Day parking”