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Please Don't Eat the Daisies from 1960 with Doris Day, David Niven, Janis Paige, Spring Byington, Richard Haydn and Jack Weston
Hollywood made many lighthearted battle-of-the-sexes romcoms around this time, but even these movies needed some real bite to fully work. And if the romcom couple involved is married, the marriage has to look truly rocky to give the story some friction.
Please Don't Eat the Daisies is pleasant as all heck, but it doesn't have the courage of its convictions to make it a great battle-of-the-sexes romcom. It's funny, often witty and its leads are incredibly likeable, but you never buy that their marriage is wobbling.
Doris Day plays, as always, the nicest singingest mother who is the wife of a charming and only a tiny bit grouchy man played by David Niven. Niven, a drama professor, just took a job as a Broadway theater critic at a major New York City newspaper.
Theirs is the marriage you want. They genuinely like being with each other, can pleasantly complete each other's sentences and have a rhythm to their homelife that makes their small NYC apartment, crowded with four young boys and a large, lazy dog, chaotic but happy.
The problem comes as Niven, heretofore an obscure professor, becomes a popular critic after he pillars a play. Even though we know Niven is a fair man, he gets a reputation as a critic who enjoys "destroying" playwrights and actors.
At the same time, Day is pushing to have the family move to “the country,” which Niven doesn't want since he's becoming "the toast of Broadway." As is true today, many young NYC families, needing more space, kid themselves into calling the suburbs “the country.”
That sets up what little plot conflict there is: Day is a bit put off by Niven's new professional snarkiness, which is really tame, while Niven is irritated about having to move to the suburbs and commute into the city.
There are a few more wrinkles, one involves Janis Paige playing a stage actress whom Niven lambasted, but her idea of revenge is hitting on him to break up his marriage. In truth, though, she's a nice woman who really doesn't want to do any harm.
Another wrinkle has Day starring in the kids' school production of a play that, unbeknownst to her or Niven, Niven wrote in college. It's an awful play that an angry Broadway producer, whose play Niven criticized, is trying to use to embarrass Niven.
If that sounds silly and convoluted that's because it is. While the "climax" tries to sell us on the idea that the marriage is on the rocks, Niven never shows any real interest in Paige and Day never really believes that Niven would be unfaithful.
What you are left with is two really nice people who have a good marriage. Yet it is one with all the bumps that even good marriages have, especially when you throw four young boys and a big lummox of a lovable sheepdog in the mix.
You're also left with a lot of funny and witty scenes, sharp dialogue and great on-screen chemistry between Day and Niven. It's almost like a series of good sitcom episodes strung together. (Not surprisingly, the premise was subsequently turned into a TV sitcom.)
The supporting actors all add to the movie's easy-going chemistry. Spring Byington as Day's quirky but good-hearted mom, Richard Haydn as Day and Niven's best friend and Jack Weston as a taxicab driver wannabe playwright are fun and pleasant characters.
The early scenes of Niven adjusting to his new job as Day manages the household, while still meeting Niven for lunches and dinners, are the movie's highpoints. Their banter is sharp and funny and the entire atmosphere is New York City mid-century cool and enjoyable.
The later plot twist of moving to "the country," which becomes a harmless version of Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, loses some of the movie's spark, but it does allow Ms. Day to belt out a few songs as she rehearses for her kids' school play.
Please Don't Eat the Daisies is too nice to even rise to the level of a true battle-of-the-sexes romcom. But darn it, Niven, Day and their sheepdog are so freakin' likable and the script has enough good barbs, that you can't help enjoying this harmless piece of fluff.