C.D. Review: Doris Day: Hooray for Hollywood Vol II

 Doris Day's Hooray for Hollywood is a two C.D. set with each C.D. released a few months apart.  Vol II was released in January of 1959.  It features Day's clear voice singing show tunes from Broadway and accompanied by the Frank De Vol and his orchestra.  De Vol also arranged the songs.  This includes music from of the the great composers such as Irving Berlin, Ira and George Gershwin, Oscar Hammerstein II and Richard Rodgers.  She sings from several different musics, many of them old and forgotten and others still remembered.  The most recognized song is "It Might As Well be Spring" from State Fair.  "Three Coins from a Fountain" is also very memorable.  The majority of the musicals are from the 1930s.

It is an enjoyable arrangment of songs, but most obscure to me.  

Musical Movie Review: **** Calamity Jane (1953)

 Calamity Jane (Doris Day) is a western woman who dresses in men's clothing.  She is the guard of the stage, and exaggerates how many Native Americans she has killed.  She rescues Lieutenant Gilmartin (Philip Carey) when he is captured by Indians.  She has a crush on him.  Wild Bill Hickok (Howard Keel) has a thing for Calamity Jane, but would like her to wear woman clothes.  Calamity goes to Chicago to recruit and actress, but gets the wrong woman.  She comes back with the maid, Katie Brown (Allyn Ann McLerie) rather than the actress; but Brown she does the best she can.  Calamity and Brown move in together, and Calamity get jealous when Brown and Gilmartin kiss.  She is so upset she tells Brown she must leave.  But Gilmartin really likes Brown.  Hickok finally proposes to Calamity, and everything ends happy.  

The voices of Howard Keel (baritone) and Doris Day are excellent and their singing really carries the musical.  I especially like the song "The Black Hills of Dakota."  They both sing with lots of energy.  "I Can Do Without You" is also very fun.  

Alfred Hitchcock Movie: **** The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)

 Doris Day and Jimmy Stewart star as a couple who happen to be in the wrong place when someone is murdered.  The victim whispers something to Dr. Benjamin McKenna (Stewart) and asks him to tell the authorities.  He and his wife Josephine Conway McKenna (Day) are then in a race to find their son.  They become entangled in an international espionage case when their son is kidnapped to keep them quiet.  They follow their son to England when they realize he has been taken by a British couple who was watching him and they have also disappeared.  They do not tell the authorities but decide to intervene themselves.  They uncover a plot to murder an ambassador.  They are successful in thwarting the plot--but still have not located their son.  They go to the embassy where the think their son is being held, and Conway (Day) who is a famous singer, sings very loudly.  That song, "Que Sera Sera" won the Oscar for best song.  

Movie Review: ***^The Teacher's Pet (1958)

This is a romantic comedy featuring Doris Day and Clark gable.  Gable plays James Gannon ,the newspaper man, who has come up through the business and is now editor of a large newspaper.  Day plays Erica Stone, a professor of journalism, who has asked Gannon to be a guest lecture for her class.  At at first declined, in a nasty letter.  However his boss insists he go, and after Stone reads the letter, he is too embarrassed to admit he wrote it, but is intrigued by Stone, and stays for the class, and even enrolls.  He becomes her best student.
As far as the romance goes, Gannon feels he has a competitor in Dr.  Pine (Gig Young) but in fact they are collaborating on a book.  There is some fancy competition between the two in terms of who can hold their liquor.
The romance goes well, until, as it always does, Stone discovers the deception.  Now these two people who like each other, must figure out how to get past this indiscretion.
This play is a bit short on comedy, but I enjoyed it, having been a journalism student for a time.
Another tid-bit, Day had first intended to be a dancer.  She does do some dancing in this movie with Dr. Pine.  

Movie Review: That Touch of Mink (1962)

That Touch of Mink is a Doris Day and Cary Grant romantic comedy.  Grant portrays Philip Shayne, a multimillionaire, whose driver happens to splash water on Doris Day's character, Cathy Timberlake.  From this develops a relationship.  Shayne is intent on taking Timberlake to Bermuda where he can have his way with her.  However Timberlake, even though she goes with him, feels enough guilt that extramarital sex is not permissible.  They have fallen for each other, but the question is if they will ever get together with this difference of philosophies.