Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Konterr Brilliant and touching

Brennan Camacho Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Edwin The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

TheLittleSongbird 'The Glass Bottom Boat' was seen as part of my completest quest for the films of Doris Day. Most of her films have been seen already, a few many times and among my favourites, but being a fan there was the want to see the ones not already viewed.Of these first time viewings, 'The Glass Bottom Boat' is one of the better ones. Not quite one of her best ('Calamity Jane' and 'Pillow Talk' are especially great), but a long way from being one of her worst, even as a fan will admit that not every single film of hers is good let alone great (both early in her career and later), and actually one of her better later (meaning her 60s output) films. Also the better of the two Day and director Frank Tashlin collaborations, the other being the critical and commercial failure 'Caprice'.Sure the story is silly, but the film knows it and one is just too caught up in the non-stop entertainment to care. There maybe could have been more of the romance between Day and Rod Taylor, there certainly is some, it has the right amount of sweetness and Taylor has charm as a leading man if not quite enjoying himself as much as the rest of the cast, but it is a little under-utilised and occasionally gets lost amidst everything else.However, 'The Glass Bottom Boat's' production values are great, one of Day's best looking films to me. The locations and fashions are fabulously lavish and it is beautifully photographed with gorgeous use of colour, bright, bold and rich. There is some fine music too, energetically quirky while also lush. The title song is unforgettable, the little snippet of "Que Serra" is even better used than in 'The Man Who Knew Too Much' and "Soft as a Starlight" is lovely. They suit Day's beautiful voice perfectly, and Day's musical understanding and sincerity shines through all.It's an exceptionally funny film too, which is something not always found in later films with Day. Very slapstick-heavy which is delivered with tons of energy and like the supporting cast in particular were having a ball, but also with some intriguing social satire, some ahead of the time use of technology (would do anything for a kitchen like that, despite being more than content with the kitchen in my flat, but the kitchen is just too cool). The title sequence is super.Story goes at a bright and breezy pace, 'The Glass Bottom Boat' is a never dull film, and has charm and fun aplenty, the silliness and slightness of it is pretty much forgiven. Tashlin's experience as a cartoonist comes through loud and clear with the delivery of the humour and he keeps things thick and fast with the gags and zany dialogue being packed into the film without feeling too much. The ending section is a riot, as is Paul Lynde in drag (goodness doesn't he look good in it) and Dick Martin and Edward Andrews in bed is quite a sight (don't worry it's more innocent than it sounds).Day perky and luminous, has deftly witty comic timing, sincerity and just charms everybody every time she's on screen in front of the camera and to the viewer watching. Satire comes easily to her. Taylor is charming if a little underused, while Lynde, Martin and Andrews are hilarious scene-stealers. Dom DeLuise provides some inspired seemingly improvisational comedy. A cameo from Robert Vaughn is also fun.Overall, extremely entertaining film with so much to recommend. One of Day's better later efforts if not quite one of her best overall. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Robert J. Maxwell Frank Tashlin, a former cartoonist and animator, made a couple of hilarious comedies in the 50s -- "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?" and "The Girl Can't Help It." The material was good to begin with but Tashlin buffed it up to a high gloss.The same can't be said for "The Glass Bottom" boat, a story which is unfocused and a little slapdash. The wit is almost entirely slapstick or absurd in a curiously shivery way. You want something from the early 60s? You'll find it in here somewhere. There's Rod Taylor as the head of some super-duper space project involving the CIA, Russian spies trying to steal the secret formula, and security agencies trying to prevent it.There's Doris Day as the cute, very sun-tanned, and infinitely desirable woman he hires to help him write his autobiography but is really there just to be around him. She's mistaken for a Soviet spy because her dog is named Vladimir. There are Dom DeLuise and Paul Lynde at odds with each other. DeLuise gets his foot stuck in a trash can filled with banana cream cake. Day, trying to help him, gets her foot stuck too. This is known as a funny scene. Paul Lynde dresses in various disguises and tries to fool Day into revealing her true identity. This is also funny.Well, as they say, if you don't have eggs you can't make an omelet. No, wait. That's not what they say. They say -- wait a minute -- yes, they say you can't make an omelet without breaking eggs, and the problem here is that the eggs are kind of soft boiled. The gags just aren't very funny.I'll give you an example. Doris visit Rod's house in order to bake him a cake. First, he has to show her around his ultra-modern kitchen. It's full of robotic gadgets of various kinds, each accompanied by its own boop-boop-de-doop electronic sounds as it does its business. Let's see. There's the automatic incinerator, run by "a photoelectric cell." Then there's the robot egg beater. Then there's the sentient vacuum cleaner that zips out of a panel in the wall and sucks up whatever happens to be dropped on the floor. (I could use one of them.) A full FIVE MINUTES is spent on demonstrating these modern labor-saving devices. And the last one -- when the vacuum cleaner comes out and begins sucking on Day's big toe, which is not a bad idea in and of itself, and after a tug of war finally makes off with her flip-flop and dashes back into the wall with it -- why, that's a real knee slapper.Rod Taylor is really quite good, confident in his Aussie masculinity. But Day, over 40, looks great. Everything about her body and face is chipper and tan, and wardrobe has given her a lot of white garments, including an infinitely inviting pleated white skirt, that sets off her tawny legs in an almost salacious fashion.It's clumsily done and crude. The kids will get every gag in it. But if you're desperate for diversion, this may do the job. You get to hear Doris Day sing a song that sounds like "Hush, Little Baby, Don't You Cry," but the subject of which is sea food.

edwagreen Funny Doris Day vehicle made memorable with Rod Taylor as her co-star and a terrific ensemble of supporting players-Dick Martin, Dom De Luise, Eric Fleiming, Ed Andrews and Miss Alice Pearce along with Ellen Corby.This is essentially a spy caper and Doris is the prime suspect. The only one who believes her innocence is her boss and new lover, Rod Taylor.My only objection to the movie was the casting of Arthur Godfrey as her father. Godfrey belonged in the same league as Mel Gibson, and they certainly could have gotten a person to play the father role.Day is really original here as she assumes the role of a "klutzy" woman caught up in mayhem. The scenes in the kitchen of the future, on board a motorboat and others are uproarious in laughter.Sadly, the film marked the end of cancer stricken Alice Pearce, who died shortly after making the film, as well as the tragic passing of villain Eric Fleming in a drowning accident off Peru shortly after the film. This film showed the technological advances that were to come years later. They certainly used these advances to their benefit to poke fun of the society that would make them.

Michael DeZubiria I say eventually because it takes about three quarters of the film before it appears to have a thought in its head, and even then it's not by much and only briefly. My problem with the movie is that for the vast majority of it, Doris Day's character Jenny is the typical stupid blonde, cheerfully grinning like a moron and twirling her hair, clueless to what is going on around her. I have a hard time getting over this kind of thing when I see it in the movies because I dated one or two girls that acted like that because they thought it was cute and it drives me out of my mind.It's incredible to me that the romance between Jenny and Mr. Templeton was ever considered romantic, it's so contrived and pretentious. The slapstick situations are shallowly manufactured, badly acted and thus not funny, but the heavy hand of the sixties is all over the movie, so at least it is a slightly interesting look at a different time as well as the kind of thing that was considered entertaining and romantic forty years ago. The movie takes a turn for the better when Jenny figures out what's going on by listening in on a phone call between Templeton and his military buddies and then decides to turn the tables on them, although it should be noted that during that phone call he insists that Jenny simply can't be a spy, she hasn't got the brains. She's offended and so are we, until we remember that he's right. Afterwards, she begins to display an intellect which had been largely absent thus far, but unfortunately, everyone else in the movie turns stupid in order to lead to a lot more goofy slapstick. It is telling that one of the first things that brings suspicion onto Jenny is a series of misunderstandings stemming from the fact that her dog's name is Vladimir. Strangely enough, the reason I watched the movie is because I took my girlfriend to Catalina Island recently for her birthday, and we took a tour in the exact same glass bottom boat which was used in this movie, and I thought it would be interesting to see the film shot in the boat I was sitting in, as well as to see what the astonishingly beautiful Avalon (the tiny town on Catalina Island) looked like in the mid 1960s. Needless to say, I was surprised to see that Avalon looks almost exactly the same, and that the glass bottom boat appears in the first five minutes or so of the movie and is never seen again. Odd that they would name the film after such an irrelevant plot device. Also don't miss the extra features on the DVD, one of which is a short video in which MGM claims that every girl's dream is to visit the MGM Studios in Culver City.