Three Times the Fun with Doris Day

Doris Day - one of Hollywood's "misunderstood commodities," as Molly Haskell once put it - has finally become a person of interest in terms of DVD releases. Warners has released two richly deserved boxed sets of her work there and at MGM (one set actually due in April), Columbia made one of its rare decision to do the right thing and commit Richard Quine's super "It Happened to Jane" to DVD and Universal has honored her with home-entertainment editions of the fluff comedies she made there with Rock Hudson, James Garner and producer Ross Hunter.

But where, oh, where is "Midnight Lace," the compulsively watchable mystery-thriller that she made for the estimable David Miller and Universal in 1960?
Now - finally - Fox has saw fit to release three comedies she made there in the mid-to-late 60s - Michael Gordon's "Move Over, Darling" (1963), Ralph Levy's "Do Not Disturb" (1965) and Frank Tashlin's "Caprice" (1967), with Garner, Rod Taylor and Richard Harris as her hunky co-stars, respectively. (Day also worked with Tashlin and Taylor on 1966's antic "The Glass-Bottom Boat" for MGM.)

Now, I'm realistic enough to realize that Day was winding down when she made these three Fox comedies. But one has only to look at the state of the rom-com today to realize that Molly Haskell was right. Just thinking about Doris Day makes me feel better. No contemporary star brings me such unadulterated joy. One complaint: Why didn't Fox box these three titles? Curious.

Now, come on, Universal, bring on "Midnight Lace."

(Artwork: Dust jacket cover for the DVD of Fox's "Move Over, Darling")

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