Themes: Starting Over, Foibles of Marriage, Parenthood
Main Cast: Doris Day, David Niven, Janis Paige, Spring Byington, Richard Haydn
Release Year: 1960
Country: US
Run Time: 111 minutes
Plot
In this entertaining comedy by Charles Walters, everyone seems to get in on the act, even the dog and especially the four overactive kids in a wildly challenging family. David Niven co-stars with Doris Day as Lawrence and Kate Mackay, distinctive parents struggling with home, life, and family. Lawrence opts for leaving his job teaching at Columbia University in New York for a post as a drama critic for a Gotham newspaper, bringing new problems to the pile the family already owns. First, they are forced to move out -- far out -- to the countryside with their brood and canine. And next, while Kate handles home, hearth, and hellions, Lawrence proceeds to alienate one of his best friends with a shattering review. That unhappy beginning to his new career also brings in one of the actresses damaged by his cutting remarks (Janis Paige), who wreaks her own form of havoc on poor Lawrence. In the meantime, Day gets to sing some songs which add to the light-hearted attitude of it all. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
Review
Its premise (Broadway as seen through the eyes of a major theatrical critic) aside, Please Don't Eat the Daisies could easily have been indistinguishable from any number of 1960s family comedies. Yet, while it's not a classic film for all time, Daisies is surprisingly bright, genial, and, yes, genuinely funny and charming. Credit surely must go to screenwriter Isobel Lennart, but pinning down exactly why her screenplay works so well is rather difficult. It's well-structured, certainly, but so are many lesser comedies. It also has its share of contrivances and artifice, which should work against it -- yet somehow, those flaws don't amount to much. And while there's genuine comedy in some of the lines and situations, it's not the kind of wit that produces quotable moments. Of course, it helps that the characters, while familiar, are also individuals, people that surprise us in small ways and that therefore seem more real than the characters in similar films. Daisies is also directed with a very sure hand by veteran Charles Walters and is blessed with a lovely cast. Doris Day turns in a perfectly tuned performance, never too heavy and never too light, and always appealing and believable. David Niven matches her step for step, and the supporting cast includes delightful turns by Richard Haydn, Jack Weston, and Spring Byington, and a devilishly dominating one by Janis Paige that is pretty sensational. Please Don't Eat the Daisies has its flaws, including a very extraneous musical number between Day and a group of children, but for the most part it's an engaging little film. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Patsy Kelly - Maggie; Jack Weston - Joe Positano; John Harding - Rev. Dr. McQuarry; Margaret Lindsay - Mona James; Charles Herbert - David Mackay; Stanley Livingston - Gabriel MacKay; Flip Mark - George MacKay; Madge Blake - Mrs. Kilkinny; Jhean Burton - Actress; Kathryn Card - Miss Yule; Richard Collier - Salesman; Bobby Darin - Man; Burt Douglas - Young Man; Amy Douglass - Martha; Milton Frome - Gus the Waiter; Marianne Gaba - Girl; Dog: Hobo; Marina Koshetz - Jane March; Peter Leeds - Larry's Secretary; Len Lesser - Waiter; Mary Patton - Mrs. Hunter; Carmen Phillips - Mary Smith; Charles Seel - Upholstery Man; Guy Stockwell - Young Man; Irene Tedrow - Mrs. Greenfield; Geraldine Wall - Dr. Sprouk; Frank Wilcox - Interviewer; Wilson Wood - Photographer; John Brennan - Young Man; Benny Rubin - Pete; Gail Bonney - Woman; Donald Foster - Justin Winters; Anatole Winogradoff - Paul Foster
Credit
George W. Davis - Art Director, Hans Peters - Art Director, Robert Sidney - Choreography, Morton Haack - Costume Designer, Charles Walters - Director, John McSweeney, Jr. - Editor, David Rose - Composer (Music Score), Doris Day - Songwriter, Ray Evans - Songwriter, Jay Livingston - Songwriter, Dunham - Songwriter, Joe Hooven - Songwriter, Marilyn Hooven - Songwriter, Jay Lubin - Songwriter, William J. Tuttle - Makeup, Robert J. Bronner - Cinematographer, Joe Pasternak - Producer, Henry W. Grace - Set Designer, Jerry Wunderlich - Set Designer, Isobel Lennart - Screenwriter, Jean Kerr - Book Author
