Meisterschaft im Seitensprung (1960)

Meisterschaft im Seitensprung: Directed by Charles Walters. With Doris Day, David Niven, Janis Paige, Spring Byington. Drama critic Larry McKay, his wife Kate, and their four sons move from their crowded Manhattan apartment to an old house in the country. While housewife Kate settles into suburban life, Larry continues to enjoy the theater and party scene of New York. Kate soon begins to question Larry’s fidelity when he mentions a flirtatious encounter with Broadway star Deborah Vaughn.

“Based on the best-selling novel by Jean Kerr, u0026quot;Please Donu0026#39;t Eat the Daisiesu0026quot; is the story of a New York City family, the Mackays – four boys, a wife Kate (Doris Day) and her husband Larry (David Niven). Suddenly, Larry finds success as a powerful theater critic, and Kate wants to move out to the country, which was always their dream. However, itu0026#39;s not really Larryu0026#39;s dream any longer. Heu0026#39;s heady on New York success and wants to be near Theater Row. Conflict comes with his changing values.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis is a nice story co-starring Spring Byington as Kateu0026#39;s mother and Patsy Kelly as the family housekeeper. It doesnu0026#39;t compare with the sparkling Doris-Rock comedies. I happen to like David Niven in the role – heu0026#39;s what you would expect from a New York critic – above it all, sophisticated, egotistical, well-educated but ultimately likable.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eDay is very good as always and gets to sing, but the whole thing is a little too much. There arenu0026#39;t enough laughs to make it really funny. The brightest part of the movie for me was Janis Paige as Deborah Vaughn, an actress/singer decimated by Mackay in a review who then becomes attracted to him. She looks gorgeous, sheu0026#39;s sexy, and she supplies the bite that the story needed more of. If the writers had built up that part of the story, the movie might have turned out better. The other part they could have built up is the awful play that Larry wrote that ends up being produced by the local community theater. Some scenes from that with Doris would have been great.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eDay, as it turned out, was at her best when Ross Hunter made her over into a glamorous, sophisticated woman herself and teamed her up with Rock Hudson and gave her glossy productions and great clothes. This film was made was right at that transition. Day is a very vibrant presence but she canu0026#39;t elevate this material to more than what it was – a pleasant family comedy.”