Do Not Disturb (1965)

Good movie but grossly overrated

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

One of the lesser of Doris Day's last dozen years of Hollywood film making: mostly non-musical romantic sitcoms, with various mostly high profile men. I mostly prefer her earlier musical romantic comedies, mostly costarring high profile male singers, such as Gordon McRae, Howard Keel, and Frank Sinatra, perhaps peaking with "Calamity Jane". Of her '60s films, I most enjoyed "Lover Come Back", with Rock Hudson, the musical romantic comedy ""Billie Rose's Jumbo", with help from veterans Jimmy Durante and Martha Raye, and 'The Ballad of Jose", which as I see it, is basically a non-musical, historically relevant remake of "Calamity Jane", which ends with the same basic take home message about the independent woman trying to make it in a traditional male role, which by then was no longer politically correct.In this film, she plays the dumb blond kept trophy wife of a wealthy American wool textiles company executive(Rod Taylor, as Mike Harper), who has been assigned to move to England and figure out why their European market has been doing so poorly , and figure out how to fix it. Thus, Doris is playing the ideal stay-at-home '50s wife she became at the end in "Calamity Jane" and "The Ballad of Josie". The problem is that this is the mid-60s world of women's lib political change. Doris has become bored with her very limited scope life and lack of children, and feels her husband has been neglecting her and possible fatherhood in deference to promoting his career. She seems not too bright in adjusting to her new situation, having much trouble figuring out the UK money system of the time, and proving worthless in finding the way to the commuter train station, to get her husband to work. She spends her time figuring out ways to spend her husband's money in often needless home improvement and decoration projects for their new rented mansion, in taking in some rather unusual house pets(red fox, goat, and chickens), and ultimately being convinced by her busybody landlady, Vanessa, that her husband is having an affair with his new secretary: Claire Hackett, hence justifying her countering with an affair of her own. Her tongue lashing of the fox hunters and their hounds is hilarious. Vanessa arranges for romantic gifts to arrive for Doris, who confesses to her husband what is going on. Vanessa also recommends to Doris a Paul Bellari as a good dealer in exquisite home furnishings. Paul, a married man with several kids, flies Doris to his shop in Paris. He takes her to lunch in a fun café, and she gets drunk on too much champagne. Can't fly home because of a heavy fog, so they return to his shop, get locked in from the metal store front shutter, she passes out from more champagne, and her husband arrives in the morning to punch Paul and leave.Her husband is also in Paris for a wool textiles exposition. No wives allowed is the rule of dominant textiles buyer Langsdorf. So, Doris decides to pose as her husband's assistant: Miss Hackett. In her stunning yellow-orange sparking gown, she is the hit of the evening party, which includes many young female escorts. She dances with Langsdorf and other textiles buyers. Langsdorf wants her for his personal assistant and bed partner for the night, but she politely declines. She makes up with her husband over the Bellari affair, then dumps a fruit salad on him when Miss Hackett unexpectedly shows up, presumably as his escort. A little later, she overhears Miss Hackett talking to a handsome French buyer, saying that she wants to become his assistant, as Doris's husband doesn't seem much interested in her. Thus, Doris wants to make up with her husband again, but Miss Hackett gives her Langsdorf's room number instead. She puts on her minimal nightie and gets into bed with a sleeping man, only to realize later it's Langsdorf. He chases her all over his large room, until his wife shows up(?). Doris runs into an adjacent room and hides under s sheet on the bed. Her husband arrives and they bounce around on the bed, which collapses. The take home message is that husbands should not neglect romancing their wives sufficiently, in deference to their career ambitions and other interests, especially if their wife doesn't have sufficient other sources of meaningful activities and ego gratification.This film rests entirely on Doris's intrinsic likability. After the first segment, most of the humor relates to several suspected cases of infidelity, Doris's doings while drunk, and her impersonation of Miss Hackett: none of which are terribly side-spitting, aside from the flying olive down the back of her dress caper, and the terminal bedroom mix-up farce. Aura McGiveney, as Miss Hackett, is hardly credible competition with Doris for her husband's romantic attention. We don't find out whether her husband achieved his goal of increasing European textile sales, nor whether he learned his lesson long term relating to Doris. Doris as a kept woman, and she and her husband being uptight about little infidelities, was out of sync with the then women's lib and youth counterculture movements. As a young woman, Hollywood actress Hedy Lamar was actually in the situation of being a kept trophy wife, by a much older rich European. She rebelled against her cloistered life and escaped to the US.

To watch DO NOT DISTURB with so many years hindsight, it's both a pleasure (as always) to see 'our Doris,' but sad to see that while the time were changing, the formula for Ms. Day's films did not.DO NOT DISTURB is a typical Doris Day film; mistakes, misunderstandings are all about (this time with Doris and her husband, Rod Taylor), and Doris is thrown into one chaotic situation after another. In MOVE OVER DARLING, Doris got soaked in the car-wash. In DO NOT DISTURB, Doris gets drunk in Paris.To me, the saddest thing is that While Doris gives it her all - the script does not allow for the turbulent changes that were happening. This film was made 2 years after the Beatles shook America, 3 years after the death of Kennedy. However, things just 'bop' along in DO NOT DISTURB.It's important to point out that Doris was offered the role of Mrs. Robinson, in THE GRADUATE - a movie that was made only 2 years after DO NOT DISTURB, but, in terms of culture - eons before. (Yes, I know that Doris turned down THE GRADUATE, but, I think if Doris had more faith in herself, and her (solid!) audiences ability to allow her to stretch and grow, she would've been awesome.As it is, while DO NOT DISTURB is full of all the familiar stock & trade of Ms. Day's earlier films, it's sad for this viewer - to view this film knowing how radical the world was changing outside of Doris' film universe.

I'm afraid the title - sequence sets the tone for "Do not disturb". Shoddy,clichéd,badly thought - out and not funny. The establishing shot of London,England is accompanied by a faux Nelson Riddle arrangement of "Rule Brittania",we see Miss Day make her entrance in a London,England Taxi Cab,to be met at the kerb by a London,England,Bobby who wears his helmet strap as if he fears it might blow off.We have some amusing dialogue about how confusing English money is before she pays eight shillings and sixpence,assisted by an English City Gent and a "cockney" cab driver.O.K.,enough already,we're in England. Just to make sure we get it,the same cab turns up outside Doris's big house in rural Kent (Nah,Guv,no can do,it's outside the twelve mile limit). She and hubby Mr R.Taylor(not at all comfortable) have a nice Morgan which neither can drive,and nearly every car on England's roads seems to be a pastel - shaded MGB Roadster. Miss H.Baddeley is as you might expect as the posh owner of dear Doris's house. We have long drawn - out Foxhunting jokes,misunderstandings between Doris and Rod,and an obligatory drunk scene before it all ends happily. Co - produced by Doris's hubby,"Do not disturb" should have been left to "proper" film makers who might have been able to breathe a bit of life into it. As it is,it sinks weighed down by its mediocrity.Sorry,Doris.

You can't ever complain about a Doris Day film, she brings a smile to the screen whenever she appears. This particular film, however, isn't quite in the league of most of her others. I'm not certain why that is, maybe it's because I find Rod Taylor very 2D or maybe it was because the plot became annoying as it got more contrived. This was obviously a film made from a play and you struggle to buy-in to the fact that this couple don't have a really serious problem if they are so swiftly prepared to believe in each other's infidelities.The drunken Doris in Paris is almost upsetting because you just want to protect her and the modern view of the rest of the goings-on that the business convention seems to require don't sit comfortably. Doris is tremendous throughout, of course, and it's good to see the feisty side as well as the cute. I wasn't going to bother re-watching it if it came onto the telly again, but now I know you can spot Raquel Welch in the hotel lobby I might. A Doris and Raquel film.....there's a thing!