Main Cast: Doris Day, Rod Taylor, Arthur Godfrey, John McGiver, Paul Lynde
Release Year: 1966
Country: US
Run Time: 110 minutes
Plot
The Glass Bottom Boat is hardly a high point in the careers of star Doris Day and director Frank Tashlin, though it is a better-than-usual example of that pure-'60s genre, the "spy spoof." Day plays Jennifer Nelson, a PR worker at NASA in Florida. She also doubles as a "mermaid" for her father, Axel (Arthur Godfrey), the skipper of a glass-bottom tourist boat. While garbed in her skimpy mermaid costume, she has a run-in with handsome space technician Bruce Templeton (Rod Taylor). Through a series of misunderstandings, Bruce is led to believe that Jennifer is an enemy spy, determined to steal scientific secrets. Several other characters enter into the plot, including bumbling secret agent Julius Pritter (Dom DeLuise) and prissy security chief Homer Cripps (Paul Lynde). Also on hand are TV favorites Dick Martin as Jennifer's erstwhile beau and Eric Fleming as a man of mystery. A few cute celebrity cameos round out this ribtickler, while Doris Day, as always, gets a few opportunities to sing. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Spy spoofs were a fad in the 1960s, so it was probably inevitable that top box-office draw Doris Day would eventually find herself starring in one. Fortunately, The Glass Bottom Boat is less concerned with spy movie conventions than with allowing Day and her co-stars the chance to engage in a great deal of slapstick while coming to terms with the twists and turns of the film's romantic plot. Boat is about as featherweight as a film can get, but as long as viewers are in the mood for something light, silly, and insubstantial, they're probably going to be entertained by this piece of fluff. Certainly Day is appealing and very much in her element; she knows this isn't exactly Hamlet, but she treats it with the right level of seriousness to make it all work. Rod Taylor isn't quite loose enough for the proceedings, but he works well with Day, and the supporting cast is very much in the right spirit, led by an incredibly game Paul Lynde, an amusingly oafish Dom DeLuise, and the always-dependable Alice Pearce. Director Frank Tashlin has filled the screen with his favorite bright colors and gets to give rein to his penchant for machine-oriented gags. Tashlin's cartoony approach gets to be a bit much occasionally, but it's fun to see a director enjoying himself as much as Tashlin. A brainless little bubble, The Glass Bottom Boat floats along quite enjoyably, if aimlessly. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Axel Nordstrom operates a glass-bottom boat tourist concession in the waters of California'sCatalina Island. His daughter, Jennifer Nelson, occasionally helps out by donning a mermaid costume and swimming under the boat for the passengers' amusement.
One day she accidentally meets Bruce Templeton when his fishing hook snags her costume and he reels in her mermaid tail, leaving an irate Jennifer bobbing bottomless in the water. She later discovers that Bruce is the big boss at her place of work, (a NASA research lab).
He recognizes Jennifer and, as a ruse, hires her to be his "biographer" in an attempt to win her affections. There's one problem: the facility's security chief Homer Cripps becomes convinced that she's a Russian spy and, to prove his suspicions, has Jennifer placed under surveillance. When she catches on to the scheme, Jennifer turns the tables on the bumbling Cripps.
The 2005 DVD release includes three vintage featurettes (Catalina Island, Every Girl's Dream, and NASA) as well as the Oscar-Winning cartoon The Dot and the Line.
