The Thrill of it All!

Hi all,Just got done re-watching "The Thrill of It All" and here are my reactions:First I think the film is light-hearted fun, and a great look back to the golden days of people living "The American Dream". As usual, Doris was superb as Beverly Boyer, a suburban housewife content to be home caring for her husband and two children and doing amazingly domestic activities such as bottling her own ketchup!! Wow!While Doris looks as I remember her, I was quite taken aback by the youthfulness of James Gardner, whom we have seen on-going on television and movies so have had the opportunity to see him "age" gracefully in front of our eyes. I couldn't surpress a chuckle when the good doctor, frustrated with growing friction with his wife, lights up a cigarette in his hospital office. That's something we pretty much won't see in a hospital these days! :)As much as I liked Gardner as Dr. Gerald Boyer, I wasn't too sympathetic with his disdain for his wife's decision to also take on a career. It was 1963, however, and the career woman was still more exception than the rule, so I tried to see it from that lens. The film seemed to be on the cusp of the stirrings of women entering the work force in larger numbers because when Dr. Boyer was objecting to his wife working and having a career, he was more than once referred to as a "victorian" man, in a most unflattering way. Perhaps writer Ross Hunter (producer), Carl Reiner (writer), and Norman Jewison (director) were trying to push the envelope a bit here by suggesting that women having careers was not contrary to American values of a stable homelife and happy families.Having said all of this, part of me yearned for the days when the world seemed a happier place and everyone lived with a "can do" attitude. I know it is myth mostly, but the early 60s were a time before the great social divides brought on by the assasination of President Kennedy and protests against the Vietnam war. America, it seems, still was living in a "Norman Rockwell" picture perfect era where most had a beautiful home, the proverbial 2.5 children, and a dog and/or cat. The romance of this rosy colored view of life is certainly an attractive escape from our modern world problems of terrorism, rampant drug abuse, poverty, and violence. Watching "Thrill of It All" was like a mini-vacation, taking us back to a time when perhaps we all felt safer, more secure, and optimistic about the endless possibilities that laid ahead for us. Since I was only 3-4 years old at the time, I know I was certainly optimistic! :)About casting: I think Doris and James showed great chemistry throughout the film. I think casting Arlene Francis as Mrs. Fraleigh was a bit of a stretch however, as much as I admired her presence in the film, because she was already 58 years old in real life, so the likelihood of her becoming pregnant would be almost nil. But she rose to the occasion and played the role of a pregnant rich woman to the hilt. It was a great hook for bringing Beverly and Gerald into the lives of The Fraleigh's and their elderly father, the founder of Happy soap, thus providing the backdrop for further escapades! All quibbling aside, I think Arlene was fun in the role. A small note: Arlene died 3 years ago this month in San Francisco of complications from Alzheimers and cancer.I really enjoyed watching the cars in this film. The cars added an additional element of nostalgia as I looked back at America's earlier vehicles. I was thinking the film had been made in early 1960, but as the limo driving the Fraleighs to the hospital gets stuck in a traffic jam, and Mr. Fraleigh keeps asking this aggressive man for a shoe lace or an unused newspaper, my eyes did a double take! The guy in the car next to them was driving a 1963 or 1964 Mercury Monterey with the "breezeway" window in the back. That was my Grandfather's last car, he died in 1965 or 4, can't remember now, and my Gram kept using the car into the early 70s. Because I was particularly close to my Gram, seeing the car again touched my heart and made me smile.I'm sure most of my women friends would disagree with the film's premise that babies are what give women purpose in life, but one can certainly enjoy the romantic fun at the end of the film as the Boyers decide to make good on Mr. Boyer's promise to bring a baby home if "mommy helped with it". I couldn't help laughing at the twin beds in the Boyer's bedroom however, which begged the question "how easy was it to make babies in a space so little?" :-)All in all a fun escapist comedy, highly recommended if for nothing else than Doris' classic facial responses to goings-on around her. It's time to get your own copy of the film and see what a "The Thrill of It All" it really is.Tom

I just love this funny classic with my favorite actor Doris Day! You watch this movie over and over and over

Nice typical Dorris Day humorous Classic... you know it is older as the Doc is a smoker...lol

A delightful story about an everyday, '60s housewife who stumbles into a career, and turns her OB/GYN husband's life upside-down in the process. A well-written script that doesn't smack viewers in face with a moralistic message, a decent mixture of overt & subtle humor, and appearances by several well-known character actors of the era make this movie a great way to spend your afternoon! Highly recommended!

Great movie and a great price and it came right when you said it would I'm enjoying it very much thank you

Between "Pillow Talk" and "Send Me No Flowers", Doris Mary Kappelhoff could do no wrong. Though Rock Hudson and James Garner were in the MAJORITY of films she was in back then, (except for one pic, she was usually MARRIED to Garner and chased by bachelor Hudson,) all the flicks she made were funny, topical and great family entertainemnt skewed for adults no matter who her leading man was. This is a shining example.In this one, Doris plays Beverly Boyer, wife of a successful ob-gyn, played by Garner. They live in a burb in a nice split level with a huge, vintage Chevy Impala convertible for him and a Chrysler station wagon for her. One day, a soap manufacturer's wife, a patient of Garner's, invites them to have dinner with her and her husband and father-in-law out of gratitude for her becoming pregnant under his care in her late middle-age. At this dinner, Do-Do/Beverly charms the father-in-law, a curmudgeon with an eye for his own p.r., and Beverly is suddenly the spokesperson for "Happy" Soap, the soap she herself uses to wash her kids, because the pine tar shampoo smelled, according to her little daughter, "ookie".What follows are the complications that ensue following Bev's popularity as the soap's spokesperson...everybody takes to her genuineness and wholesomeness. She's never at home when either Garner or the kids need her, dinner goes uncooked, Garner is going nuts from blueballs....the list is endless! The kicker is when the head of "Happy Soap" has a swimming pool installed in the Boyers' backyard, and Garner, coming home one day, drives that huge Chevy ragtop right into it.Game show perennial Arlene Francis stars as Mrs. Fraleigh, the woman who becomes pregnant under Garner's care and Edward Andrews, who had an entire career based on starring in movies just like this, usually for Disney while Walt was still alive, plays her husband, Gardner Fraleigh, the younger head of "Happy Soap". Reginald Owen plays Mr. "Have A Nut", Andrews' character's dad, "Old Tom" Fraleigh. Eliot Reid, another Disney perennial, plays the smarmy p.r. man for the company who shows signs of rivaling Garner for Bev's affections while she's making the commercials. Oddly enough, Reid and Andrews were in another movie together....They were both in the original "Absent Minded Professor"...where Reid played almost exactly the same sort of role.If you like good, clean fun and don't want to get TOO safe with your family entertainemnt, you can do no wrong in just picking randomly among the movies made by the great Doris Day, (who, at 83 STILL looks good,) between "Pillow" and "Flowers". (Though "Flowers" is the weakest of the lot...they broke formula with that one...in "Flowers", she was MARRIED to Hudson instead of chased by him....)However, this one is one that I heartily recommend!

great value

My mom and my kids and I love having a day every now and then we call a Doris Day day, we love her comedy’s. This may be one of our favorites , my kids have picked out lines from this movie they love to repeat and we laugh about it. It’s been agreed tht it is all of our favorite of Doris Day’s comedy line.