Doris Day
Doris Day's movie career began after she was
cast in the lead role for the film Romance On The High Seas
made in 1948. Previously, Doris Day had been a popular singer
and the success of this Romance On The High Seas established
her as a popular film personality, and provided her with another
hit recording It's Magic and in 1950, U.S. servicemen in Korea
voted her their favorite star. Doris Day soon became the first
choice of producers and directors to play lead roles minor
and frequently nostalgic period musicals such as Starlift,
On Moonlight Bay, By the Light of the Silvery Moon, and Tea
For Two for Warner Brothers, but in 1953 Doris day broke the
type-cast she had found herself stuck with when she played
the pistol-packin' Calamity Jane in what has become one of
Hollywood's most enduring musicals, winning the Academy Award
for Best Original Song for Secret Love, her fourth U.S. No.
1 recording.
After filming Young at Heart in 1954 with the
great Frank Sinatra, Doris Day chose not to renew her contract
with Warner Brothers, instead deciding to freelance under
the management of her third husband, Martin Melcher. After
that her range of acting broadened to include more dramatic
roles. In 1955, she received some of the best notices of her
career for her portrayal of singer Ruth Etting in Love Me
or Leave Me, co-starring with James Cagney. Doris would later
call it her best film. She continued to be paired with some
of Hollywood's top stars, including Jack Lemmon, James Stewart,
Cary Grant, David Niven, and Clark Gable.
In Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much,
made in 1956, Doris Day sang the now famous song, Que Sera,
Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be), which won an Academy Award
for Best Original Song. According to Jay Livingston, who wrote
the song with Ray Evans, Day preferred another song used briefly
in the film, "We'll Love Again", and skipped the
recording for Que Sera, Sera. When the studio pushed her,
she relented, but after recording the number in one take,
she reportedly told a friend of Livingston's, "That's
the last time you'll ever hear that song." The song was
used again in her film, Please Don't Eat the Daisies, made
in 1960 where she starred with David Niven, and was reprised
as a duet with Arthur Godfrey in The Glass Bottom Boat. It
also became the theme song for the television shows Doris
Day made from 1968 to 1973. The Man Who Knew Too Much was
her only film for Hitchcock and she was initially concerned
at his lack of direction. She finally asked if anything was
wrong and Hitchcock said everything was fine and if she wasn't
doing what he wanted, he would have said something.
I particularly remember Doris Day in the hilarious
Pillow Talk with Rock Hudson and the funny and poignant The
Thrill Of It All with James Garner.
Tim Rees
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