Midnight Lace (1960) In the course of our lifelong unabashed love of Doris Day and her films, , we came across one startling revelation.......
With her long standing reputation as a consummate professional performer, we imagined her acting 'process' was as technically no-nonsense and precise as those British actors trained at the Royal Academy Of Dramatic Arts.........
By that we mean she could bounce in and out her characters with the speed of a light switch flipping on and off.....or so we originally thought.......
We were stunned with the knowledge that Day may have been more of a 'method' actress than Marlon Brando, James Dean and all those accumulated alumni of Lee Strasberg's Actor's Studio....
'Midnight Lace', producer Ross Hunter's slickly crafted pseudo-Hitchcock thriller became Day's very last appearance in anything resembling drama or melodrama........she finished the rest of career in frothy comedies only. Given her experience during 'Lace's production, it's easy to see why.......
Since this film required her to stay in a state of terrified hysteria through almost its entirety, she ended up having actual hysterical nervous breakdowns in the course of its production.
Hitchcock himself might've added some of his much needed nasty quirky touches to this London-set story, confined mostly to backlot Universal sets with only a few standard travelogue shots thrown in. But in a Ross Hunter production, it's more about the high gloss and fashions on display rather than any thrills 'n chills......
Day, an all-American sweetheart newly married to a busy, urbane British executive (Rex Harrison) is suddenly menaced by an unseen stalker threatening to kill her. In the film's opening sequence, by far its best, the creep affects a Muppet-like voice to scare her while she walks through a completely fogbound Hyde Park. Thereafter, the stalker's reign of terror continues with anonymous phone calls, leaving our poor gal Doris in an ever declining mental state......
As Day unravels, to the consternation of her beloved visiting aunt (Myrna Loy), a skeptical Scotland Yard detective can hardly hide his disbelief in her story (he's played by the almost inevitable John Williams, who had the same exact function in Hitchcock's 'Dial M For Murder' )
Then the film busies itself trotting out a wide variety of red herring, would-be suspects for an audience to pick and choose from.......Roddy McDowell as the sneering, sponging son of Day's put-upon housemaid, Richard Ney, Herbert Marshall and Rhys Williams as various associates in Harrison's firm, each with separate agendas, Natasha Parry as Day's friendly neighbor........ and most importantly, John Gavin as a dashing young hunk in charge of a construction project conveniently located adjacent to Day and Harrison's sumptuous apartment.
And if that's not enough suspicious people for you ,look, there's Anthony Dawson, the cadaverous villain of 'Dial M For Murder' and 'Dr. No' skulking around the neighborhood too........that can't bode well, right?
As we've already pointed out, Day goes over the top and beyond in conveying fear. She apparently channeled real memories of her first abusive husband to hurl herself into such a state of distraught madness that she gives those scenes a literally unnerving power that lifts the movie far above its own modest intentions.
That's why, for us, 'Midnight Lace' still counts as a fun re-watch (and a prime example of the kind of polished Hollywood studio product that would soon disappear as the studios began to crumble throughout the 60's and 70's......) And we do briefly get to enjoy Doris as her usual bubbly, cheerful self in a few scenes......at least until the Mad Muppet Creep shows up......4 stars (****).
No comments:
Post a Comment