The Glass Bottom Boat

Jennifer is a widow who works on her father's glass-bottom boat tours dressed as a mermaid. One day she meets Bruce, who owns an aerospace company. Bruce is taken with her and hires her to write his biography so he can keep her nearby. The problem is that Jennifer's odd behaviour and the calls she keeps taking make the company's security department suspicious. Before long everyone is convinced she is a Russian spy. Frank Tashlin turns cold-war spy paranoia into comedy. Tashlin's background in animation is everywhere in the narrative: exaggerated visual gags, mechanical inventions, and scenes that ignore the laws of physics. Doris Day plays Jennifer and Rod Taylor plays Bruce, with Paul Lynde and Dom DeLuise in support. It counts as the most visual of Doris Day's 1960s comedies. Who it's for: Viewers who like 1960s Hollywood comedy, Doris Day, and slapstick. Who it's not for: The humour is tied closely to its moment and the pace is scattered. Building the woman's character out of incompetence is also tiring by present-day eyes.