Axel Nordstrom manages a glass-bottom boat tourist operation in the waters of Santa Catalina Island, California. His widowed daughter, Jennifer Nelson, occasionally helps by donning a mermaid costume and swimming underneath his boat for the passengers' amusement.
One day, Jennifer meets Bruce Templeton when his fishing hook accidentally snags her costume. He reels in the bottom half, leaving the irate Jennifer floating in the water bottomless. She later has a run-in with Bruce at her new place of employment, an aerospace research company in Long Beach, where she works in public relations. After discovering that Templeton is the president of the company, she embarrassedly apologizes to him; he has taken a liking to her.
Bruce's company has created the GISMO, a gravitation control device which the U.S. Air Force plans to put into orbit in a few weeks and whose secret formula is sought after by the Soviet Union. Bruce hires Jennifer for a new full-time assignment: to write his life story, while he works on GISMO. His real purpose is to win her affections. At his home, she meets Julius Pritter, an electronics technician who is installing a Hi-Fi system there, and Edgar Hill, a CIA agent making sure the GISMO project is securely handled. When left alone in a room, Julius starts searching for information regarding GISMO. He photographs a cryptic note written by Bruce while brainstorming ideas about how to win Jennifer's affection. Julius transfers the photos to his handler.
Bruce drives Jennifer to Catalina. His remote-controlled boat malfunctions, throwing Bruce out and landing in a parking lot with Jennifer. After Bruce and Jennifer spend an evening with Axel and his wife, Jennifer's feelings for Bruce deepen.
Bruce is summoned to a meeting with Hill, security guard Homer Cripps and PR executive Zack Molloy. Hill reveals that secret information is leaking, e.g. the note that Julius had photographed. Cripps is very suspicious of Jennifer because of several things he had noticed about her: She dials the same telephone number several times every day, counts the rings and then hangs up with the words "that's enough for now, Vladimir;" she burns papers alone late at night in the office; and she has a shortwave antenna installed in her home. There are innocent explanations for all of these things, which none of the people in the meeting know about: Vladimir is her dog, who gets his exercise by running through the house barking whenever he hears the phone ring. Jennifer had read a note in the office which explained that old documents should be burned so that they cannot be stolen. And she uses her shortwave antenna to communicate with Axel. Bruce explains that the two copies of the formula are stored in voice-activated safes. Bruce begins to have some doubts regarding Jennifer, imagining her as a spy. Air Force General Wallace Bleecker later arrives to watch over the GISMO project.
Julius is confronted by his handler for only providing useless or publicly known information and is pressured into spying at a party which will be held by Bruce the next day. Cripps in turn spies on Jennifer, overhearing her talking to her father and misunderstanding her end of the conversation as more proof of her involvement in espionage.
At the party, Jennifer declares her love for Bruce. They plan to spend the night together, but Bruce is again called away to a meeting with Hill, Cripps, Molloy and Bleecker where they discuss the suspicions regarding Jennifer. When she picks up the phone to call Vladimir again, she is able to listen in on the discussion. She is furious at them for suspecting her of wrongdoing. And even though Bruce defends her and believes in her innocence, his remark that she is not intelligent enough to be a spy infuriates her more. She intends to turn the tables by pretending to be a spy. She arranges for Molloy and Bleecker to have an embarrassing tete-a-tete by promising to meet both at the same time in the guest room. She manages to tie up Cripps, who had tailed her to the powder room. After noticing Jennifer's deeds, Bruce gets angry and locks her up in the closet. She is freed by a hidden Hill, who is revealed to be a spy. He has stolen the formula and put it in Jennifer's purse to smuggle it out of the house.
Returning home, she is confronted by Julius. Then Hill arrives, draws a gun and requests the formula. Julius and Jennifer fight him off, and she flees while Bruce, Cripps, Bleecker and Molloy, who have found out the truth, race in their cars to save her. Hill is stopped by a blow with a nightlamp by neighbor Mabel Fenimore.
Jennifer and Bruce have a honeymoon and ride the boat, which again malfunctions and leaves them in the parking lot on Catalina.
Pearce and Tobias play an inquisitive wife and her disinterested husband, in roles not unlike the ones they played at the time in the television series Bewitched. The film was also released three months after Pearce's death.
Robert Vaughn, famous at the time for playing Napoleon Solo in the TV series The Man from U.N.C.L.E., makes a very brief non-speaking appearance as a sight gag; the theme from his TV series is heard when he is seen onscreen.
Production
Shooting partly took place on Catalina Island from September 13 to 19, 1965.[7] It was Rod Taylor's second film with Doris Day following Do Not Disturb.[8]
The Nautilus boat used in the film sank in the Catalina harbor in 2008. It is currently drydocked in a private part of the island.
The mermaid costume worn by Doris Day in the opening scene is now on display at the Catalina Casino and can be viewed on the Casino tour.
The film stands apart from Day's other 1960s comedies due to animator-turned-director Tashlin's signature penchant for elaborate, cartoon-like gags and humor. This includes Taylor's futuristic, robotic kitchen; a chase scene involving a runaway remote-controlled speedboat; Day accidentally falling into a zero-gravity tank, and a slapstick sequence involving DeLuise as an inept electrician, which closely resembles Tashlin's frequent collaborations with Jerry Lewis.
Day sings a shortened version of "Soft as the Starlight" (written by Joe Lubin and Jerome Howard), which she previously sang in its entirety on the 1957 album Day by Night. The song "The Glass Bottom Boat" is a rearrangement of "Soft as the Starlight" with completely different lyrics and is heard twice in the film: over the opening credits, sung by Day, and again as source music sung by Day, Taylor, Godfrey and Fraser. Day also sings a single verse from her signature song, "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)" (written by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans). Dick Martin sings a brief a cappella rendition of "Be My Love" (written by Sammy Cahn and Nicholas Brodszky).
Reception
The film was an attempt to appeal both to Day's traditional fans and to a younger audience. It was a success financially, earning $4,320,000 in North American rentals by the end of 1966.[9][10]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a critical approval of 57%, based on 7 reviews, with an average rating of 5.6/10.[12]
Day followed up with Caprice (1967), a comedy-thriller more completely in the spy spoof genre, again with Tashlin directing, but it was a critical and commercial failure.
Home media
The DVD of The Glass Bottom Boat (released in 2005) includes three vintage featurettes (Catalina Island, Every Girl's Dream, and NASA), as well as the Oscar-Winning cartoon The Dot and the Line.
Doris Day was an American actress and singer. She began her career as a big band singer in 1939, achieving commercial success in 1945 with two No. 1 recordings, "Sentimental Journey" and "My Dreams Are Getting Better All the Time" with Les Brown and His Band of Renown. She left Brown to embark on a solo career and recorded more than 650 songs from 1947 to 1967.
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