The Glass Bottom Boat

I hadn't quite intended to do two posts on Doris Day movies within a relatively short amount of time, but I notice that The Glass Bottom Boat is going to be on TCM tomorrow at 4:00 PM, so I figured that now would be a good time to watch it and do a post on here.

Day plays Jennifer Nelson, a widow living with her dog Vladimir who does some work for her father, Axel Nordstrom (Arthur Godfrey). He runs a tourist boat doing cruises off of Catalina Island, the glass-bottomed boat of the title, and when he tells the tourists that they might even see a mermaid, Jennifer is supposed to dive under the boat wearing a mermaid costume. The two communicate by radio, each having transmitting equipment in their houses.

On one of the cruises, Jennifer accidently gets hooked by fisherman Bruce Templeton (Rod Taylor). As you can guess, Jennifer isn't very happy about it and at first doesn't necessarily like Bruce. But you know that Jennifer and Bruce are going to meet again in fairly short order. That meeting comes because they both work at the same firm, an aerospace comapany doing research for NASA and the space race. Jennifer is in public relations, while Bruce is doing the heavy lifting on scientific research.

And indeed, Bruce has discovered a secret formula which will allow NASA spaceships to overcome some of the problems that stem from weightlessness. The importance of the formula means it's naturally something that America's rivals like the Soviet Union would love to get, so there's substantial security around Bruce and business partner Zack Molloy (Dick Martin) in the form of General Bleecker (Edward Andrews) and security guard Homer Cripps (Paul Lynde). And unsurprisingly, trying to get the secrets is bumblinb spy Julius Pritter (Dom DeLuise).

Homer overhears Jennifer on the phone calling up her dog to get him some exercise running around the house, and that's one of the first things that gets people to think that perhaps Jennifer might be one of the spies. She isn't of course, and Bruce doesn't want any part of believing it as he and Jennifer fall in love. But there's a true bad guy who can use that to his advantage by making certain the CIA go off in the wrong direction in pursuit of the spy.

Eventually, the Three's Company-style misunderstandings lead the authorities to believe that the information drop is going to happen at a party Bruce is giving at his fabulously 1960s house. At that party, Jennifer overhears the authorities first suggesting that she's the spy, and then arguing that she might be too stupid to do it well, which enrages her and has her try to turn the tables on everybody. Except that she winds up with the secrets, and running for her life from the real spies.

The Glass-Bottom Boat was directed by Frank Tashlin, who got his start in World War II making cartoons (indeed, he directed one of the Pvt. Snafu shorts made to train servicemen during the war). As such, the movie is directed not just as a romantic comedy, but an over-the-top spy spoof -- watch for the cameo from Robert Vaughn, who at the time was the star of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Unfortunately, the movie doesn't always work, as some of the comedy feels too frenetic and forced. It also goes on a bit too long, being about 110 minutes when it probably should have been 10-15 minutes less.

On the plus side are the sets, with great 1960s houses and fashions, and the futuristic look of Bruce's kitchen, especially the pre-Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner which is used in several scenes. Doris Day and Rod Taylor are also a very appealing couple. It's not Day's best movie, but anybody who's already a fan of hers, as well as people who are into vintage 1960s set designs, will find a lot to like in The Glass Bottom Boat.