Caprice | |
---|---|
Directed by | Frank Tashlin |
Written by | Jay Jayson Frank Tashlin |
Produced by | Aaron Rosenberg Martin Melcher Martin Hale |
Starring | Doris Day Richard Harris |
Cinematography | Leon Shamroy |
Edited by | Robert L. Simpson |
Music by | Frank De Vol |
Distributed by | 20th Century-Fox |
Release date |
|
Running time | 98 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $4,595,000 [1] |
Box office | $4,075,000 [2] |
Caprice is a 1967 DeLuxe Color comedy-thriller film directed and co-written by Frank Tashlin starring Doris Day and Richard Harris. It was Day's second and last film with Tashlin, after the previous year's The Glass Bottom Boat . This film and In Like Flint (1967) were the last movies made in CinemaScope, with most studios moving to Panavision and other widescreen processes. [3]
Patricia Foster, an industrial designer for Femina Cosmetics, owned by Sir Jason Fox, is arrested for trying to sell a secret formula to rival company May Fortune, owned by Matthew Cutter. After her release, she is fired from Femina and hired by Cutter. All of this is actually a scheme devised by Sir Jason for Patricia to steal the formula for a new water-repellent hairspray, invented by Dr Stuart Clancy, May Fortune's head chemist.
Christopher White, Cutter's right-hand man, convinces Patricia that he, too, secretly works for Sir Jason. Patricia visits the apartment of Su Ling, Clancy's secretary, and finds her unconscious on the floor. She takes a sample of the powder lying on her table. Patricia also finds a bottle of the hairspray and takes it with her. Christopher catches Patricia and threatens with telling Sir Jason that her real name is Felippa Fowler.
Patricia is the daughter of Robert Fowler, a man who was murdered while on the trail of a narcotics ring. Although finding Robert's killer is her main objective, Patricia is still devoted to Sir Jason, to whom she plans to give the hairspray. Purposely breaking the bottle upon hearing this news – but noticing that it is an expensive Swiss one not used by Cutter – Christopher says that Clancy has Swiss connections – he is married to a Swiss woman still living in Switzerland.
Patricia goes to Switzerland and finds Madame Piasco – Clancy's mother-in-law – who is the actual expert who invented the formula. She gives a bottle to Patricia for free, stating that May Fortune now has the distribution rights and it will soon be on the American market.
Patricia goes skiing on the same hill where Robert died and comes under fire from a masked skier. Arriving in a helicopter, Christopher rescues her. Patricia realizes that neither Christopher nor Sir Jason were ever after the hairspray. Clancy used to be the chief cosmetics chemist for Sir Jason but was an utter failure at it, and Sir Jason's true goal was to discover and hire the chemical mastermind behind Clancy, whose identity he still does not know. Regardless, Patricia plans to give the hairspray to Sir Jason, which was her agreed mission. Christopher and Patricia profess their love for each other, but he requests one more job from her concerning Sir Jason.
Later, Christopher secretly records Patricia while she speaks to Clancy. She offers Clancy a job as Femina's head chemist, with an illegal under-the-table bonus. Clancy declines, saying that Cutter already knows about Piasco, and if Cutter does not care, he is happy where he is. At his office, Cutter watches the film of this encounter. He tells Christopher that this footage will ruin Sir Jason.
Patricia visits Sir Jason, who tells her he convinced Piasco to come and work for him. Patricia finds this incredible. Sir Jason also mentions the analysis of the black powder, which contains a narcotic. Patricia already had the powder analyzed herself. This other analysis was a test to see if he would tell the truth or lie, the latter of which would implicate him in Robert's murder. Sir Jason reveals that Cutter's sent the film to the police, who are now after her for bribery.
As the police arrive, Christopher snatches Patricia away. He admits that he works for Interpol. Patricia tells Interpol that the narcotics were smuggled as May Fortune face powder, which was harmless until incinerated, when it turned into a hallucinogen. Nobody believes that Cutter is smart enough to be the head of the narcotics ring.
Donning a microphone to Interpol while searching through Cutter's Paris office, Patricia tells an arriving cleaning lady that she need not clean there. The lady turns out to be Clancy in disguise, with a gun – he was Robert's killer. Patricia fights Clancy, who is shot and dies. Sir Jason, the co-conspirator of the narcotics ring, arrives wielding a gun against Patricia. With Clancy dead, Sir Jason will have the cosmetics market all to himself. He forces Patricia into a helicopter and takes off. Christopher shoots him dead from a distance, while Patricia flies the helicopter back to Paris and lands it atop the Eiffel Tower.
Arthur Godfrey, who played the father of Doris Day in Tashlin's previous comedy, The Glass Bottom Boat , plays her father once again but is only seen in a photograph.
In February 1966 John Cohn, who co wrote the film, was announced as producer. [4] Filming started in May. [5]
The 20th Century Fox release was a box office bomb, failing to place in the top 20 movies for 1967. According to Fox records, the film needed to earn $7,200,000 in rentals to break even and made $4,580,000, meaning it lost money. [6]
Film critic Leonard Maltin’s review of the film was quite negative. He gave the film zero stars and said the film was a “terrible vehicle for Doris.” [7] In The New York Times , Bosley Crowther called the film "a jumble of wacky and feeble comedy." [8] Roger Ebert was more amused, writing that "When everything has been said and done, you really have to stand back and admire the sheer professional competence of the people who make Doris Day movies ... If her movies never go anywhere, at least they don't take all day about it. They're directed with a light touch, skillfully edited, and get it over with in no time." [9]
In her memoir, Day recounts an argument she had with her manager-husband Martin Melcher over the script for Caprice, unaware he had signed her name to the contracts before she had the chance to say no. [10] On the DVD commentary, authors Pierre Patrick and John Cork discuss the ways the screenplay was rewritten, ostensibly to please the star. They speculated that recent interest in Tashlin's signature mixture of slapstick, satire, and adventure—coupled with its Mod design—has acquired renewed respect from film buffs and, possibly, from Day herself. Several writers have commented on the "meta" moment in which Doris Day "dashes into a movie theater, where the movie Caprice is playing." [11]
The title theme sung by Doris Day was released as the flip-side to her final single release on the Columbia Records label, the A-side being a more uptempo number, "Sorry."
The screenplay by Jay Jayson and Tashlin was novelized by Julia Withers and was published in paperback by Dell in February, 1967.
Initially only released on VHS in the UK, the movie was eventually released in a deluxe edition Region 1 DVD in January 2007 in widescreen and includes several extra features.
The Graduate is a 1967 American independent romantic comedy-drama film directed by Mike Nichols and written by Buck Henry and Calder Willingham, based on the 1963 novella by Charles Webb, who wrote it shortly after graduating from Williams College. The film tells the story of 21-year-old Benjamin Braddock, a recent college graduate with no well-defined aim in life who is seduced by an older married woman, Mrs. Robinson, but then falls for her daughter, Elaine.
Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? is a 1957 American satirical comedy film starring Jayne Mansfield and Tony Randall, with Betsy Drake, Joan Blondell, John Williams, Henry Jones, Lili Gentle, and Mickey Hargitay, and with a cameo by Groucho Marx. The film is a satire on popular fan culture, Hollywood hype, and the advertising industry, which was profiting from commercials on the relatively new medium of television. It also takes aim at the reduction television caused to the size of movie theater audiences in the 1950s. The film was known as Oh! For a Man! in the United Kingdom.
Miracle on 34th Street is a 1947 American Christmas comedy-drama film released by 20th Century-Fox, written and directed by George Seaton and based on a story by Valentine Davies. It stars Maureen O'Hara, John Payne, Natalie Wood, and Edmund Gwenn. The story takes place between Thanksgiving and Christmas in New York City, and focuses on the effect of a department store Santa Claus who claims to be the real Santa. The film has become a perennial Christmas favorite.
Without Remorse is a thriller novel, written by Tom Clancy and published on August 11, 1993. Set during the Vietnam War, it serves as an origin story of John Clark, one of the recurring characters in the Ryanverse. Without Remorse introduces Clark as former Navy SEAL John Kelly and explains how he changed his name. G.P. Putnam's Sons paid $14 million for the North American rights, a record for a single book. The book debuted at number one on The New York Times Best Seller list.
Rabbit-Proof Fence is a 2002 Australian epic drama film directed and produced by Phillip Noyce. It was based on the 1996 book Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington Garimara, an Aboriginal Australian author. It is loosely based on the author's mother Molly Craig, aunt Daisy Kadibil, and cousin Gracie, who escaped from the Moore River Native Settlement, north of Perth, Western Australia, to return to their Aboriginal families. They had been removed from their families and placed there in 1931.
Hairspray is an American musical with music by Marc Shaiman and lyrics by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, with a book by Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan, based on John Waters's 1988 film of the same name. The songs include 1960s-style dance music and "downtown" rhythm and blues. Set in 1962 Baltimore, Maryland, the production follows teenage Tracy Turnblad's dream to dance on The Corny Collins Show, a local TV dance program based on the real-life Buddy Deane Show. When Tracy wins a role on the show, she becomes a celebrity overnight, leading to social change as Tracy campaigns for the show's integration.
Kiss of Death is a 1947 American film noir directed by Henry Hathaway and written by Ben Hecht and Charles Lederer from a story by Eleazar Lipsky. The story revolves around ex-con Nick Bianco and another hoodlum, Tommy Udo. The movie also starred Brian Donlevy and introduced Coleen Gray in her first billed role. The film has received critical praise since its release, with two Academy Award nominations.
Hairspray is a 1988 American comedy film written and directed by John Waters, starring Sonny Bono, Ruth Brown, Divine, Debbie Harry, Ricki Lake in her film debut, and Jerry Stiller, with special appearances by Ric Ocasek in his final film and Pia Zadora. Hairspray was a dramatic departure from Waters's earlier works, with a much broader intended audience. Hairspray's PG is the least restrictive rating a Waters film has received; most of his previous films were rated X by the MPAA. Set in 1962 Baltimore, Maryland, the film revolves around self-proclaimed "pleasantly plump" teenager Tracy Turnblad as she pursues stardom as a dancer on a local TV show and rallies against racial segregation.
The Glass Bottom Boat is a 1966 American romantic spy comedy film directed by Frank Tashlin and starring Doris Day, Rod Taylor, and Arthur Godfrey, with John McGiver, Paul Lynde, Edward Andrews, Eric Fleming, Dom DeLuise, and Dick Martin. It is also known as The Spy in Lace Panties.
June Caprice, born Helen Elizabeth Lawson, November 19, 1895 – November 9, 1936, was an American silent film actress.
Susan Slept Here is a 1954 American romantic comedy film directed by Frank Tashlin and starring Dick Powell and Debbie Reynolds. Shot in Technicolor, the film is based on the play of the same name by Steve Fisher and Alex Gottlieb. Tashlin later revised the film's plotline and reused it in 1962 for the production Bachelor Flat. Comedian Red Skelton has a minor role.
Please Don't Eat the Daisies is an American sitcom that aired on NBC from September 14, 1965, to September 2, 1967. The series is based on the 1957 book by Jean Kerr and the 1960 film starring Doris Day and David Niven.
Made in Paris is a 1966 American romantic-comedy film starring Ann-Margret, Louis Jourdan, Richard Crenna, Edie Adams, and Chad Everett. The film was written by Stanley Roberts and directed by Boris Sagal.
Fathom is a 1967 British spy comedy film directed by Leslie H. Martinson, starring Raquel Welch and Anthony Franciosa.
The Lieutenant Wore Skirts is a 1956 American comedy film directed by Frank Tashlin and starring Tom Ewell, Sheree North, and Rita Moreno. It is a comedy about a man whose marriage begins to fail when his wife enlists.
Flare Path is a play by Terence Rattigan, written in 1941 and first staged in 1942. Set in a hotel near an RAF Bomber Command airbase during the Second World War, the story involves a love triangle between a pilot, his actress wife and a famous film star. The play is based in part on Rattigan's own wartime experiences, and was significantly reworked and adapted for film as The Way to the Stars.
The Girl from Rio is a 1969 spy-fi film directed by Jess Franco and starring Shirley Eaton, Richard Wyler, George Sanders and Maria Rohm. Written and produced by Harry Alan Towers, the film follows a tribe of Amazonian women, as, led by their queen, they attack wealthy men as part of a long-term plan to take over the world. A co-production between West Germany, Spain and the United States, the film is a sequel to The Million Eyes of Sumuru (1967), and is based on Sax Rohmer's Sumuru character. Nevertheless, Sumuru's character is referred to as either "Sumitra" or "Sunanda".
Marry Me Again is a 1953 American comedy film written and directed by Frank Tashlin. It stars Robert Cummings and Marie Wilson.
A Notorious Affair is a 1930 American pre-Code drama film, produced and released by First National Pictures. It was directed by Lloyd Bacon, starred Billie Dove, and featured Basil Rathbone and Kay Francis. The film was adapted from the play Fame, which was written by Audrey and Waverly Carter.
Stuber is a 2019 American buddy cop action comedy film directed by Michael Dowse and written by Tripper Clancy. Its plot follows a mild-mannered Uber driver named Stu who picks up a passenger who turns out to be a cop hot on the trail of a brutal killer. Iko Uwais, Natalie Morales, Betty Gilpin, Jimmy Tatro, Mira Sorvino, and Karen Gillan also star.