Here's Where You Realize How Long Ago 1963 Was ...
Doris Day Trades R. Hudson For J. Garner in The Thrill Of It All
Better home and appliances as background to dated
domestic comedy, producer Ross Hunter replacing 50's floral arrangment for
60's bathroom tile and electric ranges to die-for. Doris Day/James Garner show
how an upper- middle couple got by in days when having a live-in maid was still
conceivable (is that done anywhere anymore?). The plot matters less than
accessories: Doris is a housewife who becomes
a TV advertising sensation (for soap). What's interesting is her doing it on
color television, that emphasized throughout Thrill via tie-in Zenith sets, a
crisp/clear picture for once replacing lousy reception we usually see when
movies depict home viewing. TV was near enough swallowing Hollywood to demand positive imagery for its
hardware, and I can envision much patronage crossing streets from first-run The
Thrill Of It All to first purchase of a color tube. Like Doris Day's previous
Lover Come Back, Thrill celebrates advertising and big money it generates. For
doing weekly ads, the Doris character gets
$1500, her yearly $78,000 a neat emasculation of Dr. Garner, who must bring her
to wifely heel by pretend-cheating with less ambitious partners, this an
aspect moderns may find odious. Best to view Thrill through prism of luxury as
defined by a gone Madison Avenue, Retroplex's HD broadcast like magazine ads
from 1963 brought to colorful life.
First saw THRILL at Myrtle Beach in summer of 1963. Then saw it again when it came to the old home town. I still enjoy it. Edward Andrews and Reginald Owen are quite enjoyable. Zasu Pitts had to be replaced half-way through shooting via a fast re-write. She died shortly afterwards.
And I can't stand the security code hoops we must jump through to post a comment. Know you the host can't control that, but it's worse than taking shoes off at the airport. Will I be lucky and slip through on the first attempt?
Just today, TRAILERS FROM HELL features the trailer for THRILL OF IT ALL. The feature I've seen many times (am always a sucker for any old pic hooked onto advertising and/or agencies) but I had never seen the slightly offbeat trailer before. Then again, the sixties were the golden years for offbeat coming attractions.
The bit about Day and Garner's children being able to predict the stories of the TV dramas that Day was doing commercials on was taken from Reiner's own experience.
Garner and Day are great, but this one has that extremely weird pre-credits sequence where Arlene Francis triumphantly announces she's pregnant. Not what one expects from the movie's poster. And Arlene, though charming, is at this point 56. A youthful 56--but still. Extremely weird.
5 Comments:
First saw THRILL at Myrtle Beach in summer of 1963. Then saw it again when it came to the old home town. I still enjoy it. Edward Andrews and Reginald Owen are quite enjoyable. Zasu Pitts had to be replaced half-way through shooting via a fast re-write. She died shortly afterwards.
And I can't stand the security code hoops we must jump through to post a comment. Know you the host can't control that, but it's worse than taking shoes off at the airport.
Will I be lucky and slip through on the first attempt?
Were it not for that security code, Greenbriar would be deluged with spam comments filled with links to product and services of all sorts.
It's pretty much a no-win situation, but as you say, there's nothing the host can do about it.
Just today, TRAILERS FROM HELL features the trailer for THRILL OF IT ALL. The feature I've seen many times (am always a sucker for any old pic hooked onto advertising and/or agencies) but I had never seen the slightly offbeat trailer before. Then again, the sixties were the golden years for offbeat coming attractions.
The bit about Day and Garner's children being able to predict the stories of the TV dramas that Day was doing commercials on was taken from Reiner's own experience.
Garner and Day are great, but this one has that extremely weird pre-credits sequence where Arlene Francis triumphantly announces she's pregnant. Not what one expects from the movie's poster. And Arlene, though charming, is at this point 56. A youthful 56--but still. Extremely weird.
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