Review of That Touch of Mink (1962) by Edith N — 29 Apr 2010

I mean, let's face it. Cary Grant is trying to buy Doris Day with trips to Bermuda and whatever she wants at Bergdorf Goodman's. It's not that I think there's anything wrong with prostitution--in principle, I don't. It's that I wonder how in Gods' names this movie even got made. There's the whole whoring thing--and even if you ignore that, there is definitely [i]sex before marriage[/i] implied, and the Code didn't allow jokes about that sort of thing. There's another mistress at the hotel in Bermuda. There's the shrink who missed the part of the story about how his patient was talking about a [i]woman[/i] being in love with his rich boss, not the [i]patient[/i] being in love with his rich boss. And so forth.

As is usual in this sort of film, a vague sort of tame hilarity starts when Cary Grant's car splashes mud over Doris Day's coat and dress. (I don't understand being mad if a coat gets dirty, though. Isn't that what they're for?) He sends an executive of his to pay her off; when Doris Day continues to be angry, the executive brings her up to Cary Grant's office to yell at him, but of course Day and Grant fall in love instead. (Though there's more chemistry between Day and Rock Hudson, whose name comes up at one point. As an unsuitable husband.) Tame and rather tedious hijinks follow until the inevitable honeymoon sequence. (Maybe that's how they let Doris Day almost Have Sex Before Marriage--the [i]almost[/i] bit.) We also get a weird bit part of John Astin playing a creepy guy who works for the unemployment department.

Nothing in this movie works quite right, though it works well enough for the movie to be at least vaguely enjoyable. In that I vaguely enjoyed it. However, as a whole, it doesn't really work. Cary Grant isn't as visibly into Doris Day as he has been into Leslie Caron, Ingrid Bergman, Audrey Hepburn, or even Mae West--and he [i]despised[/i] Mae West. He treats Doris Day, as do we all, as a vague sort of sister-figure. We don't believe that he'd run after her or follow her to Bermuda or whatever. We believe he'd help her get a job, and we believe he'd get her coat and dress cleaned, or even offer to buy her a new one, but not that he'd follow her on the merry chase she leads him.

I suppose if you're into this sort of film, you'll think I'm wrong. Fair enough. However, I think "romantic comedy" implies more [i]romance[/i] than we get here. Frankly, there should be some wooing, and there simply isn't. There's one day of hauling Doris Day all over the Eastern Seaboard, and then she's expected to not only fall into bed with Cary Grant but to drop everything and become his mistress. What? Do people think like that?

If you'd like to see a great Cary Grant romantic comedy, go see [i]Father Goose[/i]. This is so-so. There are better performances from Doris Day, too, though they're rarer.