My Classic Movie Pick: Kisses for my President

With the possibility that former First Lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton may run for President in 2016, there is a classic movie that will run on June 30th on Turner Classics that already tackled that topic, a woman President for the United States.

In 1964, Kisses for my President, opened at theatres around the country.  Made by Warner Brothers and starring Polly Bergen as the President and  Fred MacMurray as the First Gentleman.  It’ s a fun exercise about the what ifs of a woman sitting in the Oval Office and the perplexities her husband runs into as the first, First Gentleman of the land.

Leslie McCloud(Bergen) has just been sworn in as President and her husband, Thad(MacMurray), and their two children, Gloria(Anna Capri) and Peter(Ronnie Dapo) are being ushered  into the First family’s  Living Room.  There is a humorous moment when the first couple discover that the President has a very masculine decorated bedroom and the First Gentleman has a very feminine bedroom.    That scene can be viewed here.

As the plot continues, Leslie is extremely busy dealing with issues and doesn’t have as much time for her husband or her children.  There is also a Senator Walsh(Edward Andrews) who covets the White House for himself and  he doesn’t like the fact that there is a woman President.  He’s out to foil Leslie’s Presidency.  There is also a South American dictator( Eli Wallach), Valdez, who arrives in Washington to ask for money.  Leslie asks Thad to show the dictator around town which turns into a misunderstood news story about a bored First Gentleman whooping it up with Valdez.  Senator Walsh is only too happy to use this event as a way to get at Leslie and chip away at her power.  The two children who feel ignored by their parents  begin to get into trouble and then there is Doris Reid(Arlene Dahl).  Doris is a wealthy businesswoman who lives in Washington and just so happens to be Thad’s first love!  She slinks her way into the White House, putting 2 and 2 together: wife is too busy, Thad is lonely and doesn’t know what his role is, so Doris makes a plan to get Thad alone and to try and reignite their past romance, which she reminds Thad  that Leslie stole him from her.

Here are two more clips from the film: MacMurray, in his pjs,  accidentally gets lost looking for the dining room and he encounters tour groups.  Clip One.      The second clip is Arlene Dahl starting to zero in on MacMurray.  Clip Two.

Kisses for my President is pure comedy.  It’s not a serious drama and perhaps audiences in 1964 wouldn’t want to see the topic of a woman president presented in any other way?  The film was conceived by Robert G. Kane and he also wrote the screenplay with Claude Binyon.  Curtis Bernhardt produced and directed the film.    As I mentioned in the first paragraph, the film will air June 30th at 9:00 am EST/8:00 am CST, so be sure to set your dvr to record it.  It is available to buy from TCM’s Shop, and  it is available through Amazon and their instant rent.  Youtube has two clips from the film that can be viewed here and here.

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My Classic Movie Pick: The Thrill of it All

Doris Day celebrated her 90th birthday yesterday.   Day could sing, dance, and was a good actress and pretty  much our whole household has enjoyed her work.  So,  in honor of  her reaching that milestone of 90 years,  I thought I’d focus on one of her romance/comedies,  The Thrill of it All, made in 1963, directed by Norm Jewison  and distributed by Universal Pictures.

 

Doris portrays Mrs. Beverly Boyer, a happily married wife and  mother of two children(Kym Karath and Brian Nash).  Her husband is Dr. Gerald Boyer, an ob-gyn portrayed by James Garner.  The family also has a live-in housekeeper, Olivia, played by comic actress, Zasu Pitts.

One of Gerald’s patients is Mrs. Fraleigh(Arlene Francis) an older woman who has had problems in attaining a pregnancy.   She is so delighted to finally be expecting a baby that  she invites Dr. Boyer and his wife to her home for dinner.  Mrs. Fraleigh lives in a mansion and it turns out that she is the daughter-in-law of Mr. Tom Freleigh(Reginald Owen) the creator of the very successful Happy Soap company.  At the dinner, Mrs. Freleigh requests the television to be rolled into the dining room so her husband Gardner(Edward Andrews) the CEO of Happy Soap, Old Mr. Tom, and Mike Palmer(Elliot Reid) Advertising Executive, can watch the latest commercial for Happy Soap.  Gerald and Beverly think this is very odd, but sit politely and watch the commerical.  The commerical stars a sexy blonde woman in her fancy swimming pool of a bathtub, full of Happy Soap bubbles.   The blonde  purrs how the soap makes her smell like the stars of Hollywood!  With 2 daring shots of the blonde’s lower, bare back, Gardner and Mike concur that it was a fine commercial; Gerald doesn’t object to it either.   Beverly remarks  that Happy Soap had saved her life that day when she had to clean her 2 muddy children.  Old Mr. Tom demands to hear her story and he is delighted with Beverly’s tale.   He hires her to be the new commercial spokesperson  for Happy Soap!

The fun of this movie is the battle between Beverly and Gerald.  Beverly  films  her first  commercial and says the entire experience  was awful and that she won’t  do any more.  Gerald is pleased because he wasn’t in favor of his wife working outside of the home.  Mike Palmer appears the next day to offer Beverly $80, 000 for a 1 year contract to film the commericals.  That amount of money causes Beverly to change her mind fast…she will be the new star of Happy Soap commericals.  Gerald grudgingly gives his approval, but warns her that she can’t let this new venture  get in the way of being there for him and the children.  Beverly assures Gerald that it won’t but shooting the commercials soon get in the way as Gerald feared they would.

Beverly doing a magazine ad

The first commercial

The story for this movie was developed by Carl Reiner and Larry Gelbart, with Reiner writing the screenplay.  He has several amusing cameos as the hero/villain of the Happy Soap Playhouse, his live scenes happening immediately as Beverly is done with a live commercial spot.

Day and Garner with Carl Reiner

There’s miscommunication between the spouses, missed messages, an indignant Olivia who quits, a new German housekeeper who has a very thick accent, a gift of a swimming pool that unfortunately ruins Gerald’s convertible, giant soap suds invading the backyard,  and Gerald’s plan to make Beverly so jealous that she’ll quit her commercials to be with him. The Thrill of it All is a fun movie to view, with a happy ending, and the undeniable charm and chemistry that Day and Garner exude in their scenes together.  This movie is on blu-ray dvd and can be found via Amazon.com and TCM Shop.  To end this post, here are a few more scenes from the movie.

Fighting about the unexpected pool!

Autograph hounds ruining a romantic dinner.

Getting a ticket for stopping traffic in order to see his wife on a billboard!

The children waiting up to see mommy in her commercial.