Vale Doris Day

[Belle]

It was a remarkably long life and, fortunately, she died quickly. Her wonderful career saw her mellifluous singing voice combined with a flair for comedy and a talent for acting. She'll be best remembered for her role as Ruth Etting in "Love Me or Leave Me" with James Cagney. She was also wonderful in "Midnight Lace" and Hitchcock's "The Man who Knew too Much". I didn't ever watch the television series at all.

Doris Day had an excellent singing voice and I loved this: her laser-accurate pitch was phenomenal!! And she had grace, manners and refinement - sadly missing in our brutal modern world. She was the role model of post-war American optimism and values, I feel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KniqM8GOHc0

Those films with Rock Hudson from the 1960s were often hilarious. At 14 minutes here the gags come thick and fast about the hypochondriac George Kimball (Hudson) who just won't be happy until he finds he has something terminal:

https://ok.ru/video/272042166947

And the 'seduction' scene at 1:10:00 is funny because of its improbability with Hudson.

And here she is singing with the Andre Previn Trio in 1960. Both artists now gone:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gSCEW0uAGs

[jserraglio]

Tribute to Doris Day at fellow Clevelander, Buster's . . .

Big-Ten-Inch Record blog
http://big10inchrecord.blogspot.com/201 ... s-day.html

AND

Swinging Singles blog
http://bustersss.blogspot.com/2019/05/d ... discs.html

When I dug out my mono Columbia CL 1210 yesterday and played it, my wife of the Carly Simon generation yelled, 'Take that off!'.

[Belle]

Presumably she wasn't talking about your clothing!!

I watched "Love Me or Leave Me" again yesterday. It's a good film and Cagney is absolutely brilliant as 'the gimp' Marty Snyder, a small-time thug who controlled Ruth Etting's career and beat her up. Cagney captures the aggression and violence which is mixed with insecurity and fear that so exemplifies this type of man. And Doris was a wonderful foil as the strong-willed singer who marries Snyder. Doris Day had talent in spades and, of course, a magnificent flair for comedy.

This scene in "Send Me No Flowers" (at 1:16:00), when Rock Hudson has been pretending to be a Texan (Rex Stetson) and is then exposed as the womanizing composer (Brad Allen) on their party line is gorgeous and terribly funny; the music is a huge part of the gag!!

https://ok.ru/video/383090559728

[jserraglio]

I admit i've never seen any of her movies, but like so many female vocalists (viz. her inspiration, Ella Fitzgerald) who fronted a big band (Les Brown), she was a damn good singer.