The Thrill of It All (1963) - film review

The Fraleighs are so ecstatic when they learn they are going to have a baby that they invite their doctor, New York’s leading gynaecologist Gerald Boyer, to dinner.  What should have been an uneventful soiree turns into something quite different when soap magnate Tom Fraleigh takes a liking to Boyer’s wife Beverly.  Convinced that Beverly personifies the ordinary American housewife, the older Mr Fraleigh persuades her to appear in a TV advertisement to sell his Happy Soap.   Lured by the prospect of easy money, Beverly agrees, and within no time she has become a national phenomenon.  The only person who is not impressed by Beverly’s burgeoning career in advertising is her husband, who begins to resent being married to a soap-sud celebrity...

One of Doris Day’s biggest hits, The Thrill of It All is an ebullient satire on feminism and advertising in the mid-1960s.  Effectively partnered with James Garner, Day livens up a conventional comedy and convincingly portrays the dilemma of any woman who finds herself torn between her family and desire to make something of her life.  Norman Jewison’s direction is more workmanlike than inspired, but this doesn’t lessen the film’s entertainment value nor the delightful on-screen rapport of the film’s two instantly likeable stars.

The film perhaps lacks the bite it could have had – its feminist subtext is downplayed, presumably so as not to alienate its audience, and the excesses of the advertising world are explored to greater comic effect in Day’s previous feature Lover Come Back (1961).  There are some misfired gags and an unnecessary plot digression in which Garner tries to make Day jealous by pursuing another woman, but overall the film hits the spot, delivering a happy little bundle of joy - without recourse to an obstetrician.

© Sally Hunter 2010

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