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THE GLASS BOTTOM BOAT ![]() ![]() The film itself washes into virtually instantaneous forgettability. Director Frank Tashlin was a former Warner Brothers animator and had previously directed eight Jerry Lewis films, including Cinderfella (1960) and Its Only Money (1962). You cannot help but feel that The Glass Bottom Boat is a Jerry Lewis vehicle in all but name that just happens to have been cast with Doris Day. There is not a whole lot more to The Glass Bottom Boat than a series of slapstick set-pieces Doris Day getting her mermaid tail hooked in Rod Taylors fishing line, her heel caught in a vibrating platform, Dom de Luise and cream cakes. Some of these are occasionally inspired, like the foot in the trash can gag, the scenes with Doris Day and an out-of-control speedboat, and a kitchen amok piece that prefigures Woody Allens Sleeper (1973). However, there is a shapelessness to the film overall. The latter half dissolves into inane slapstick chaos and some tiresome chases centred around the confusion over Doris Day being a spy. Moreover, Doris Day fails to give the slapstick scenes the enlivening presence that you can imagine Jerry Lewis would have brought. There is a minor science-fiction content to the film automated kitchens, remote-controlled speedboats. Mostly the backdrop of NASA and the Space Age has been appropriated for slapstick purposes.
Doris Day is far too scatter-brained in her performance but Rod Taylor is present and brings the warm, geniality he did to all his roles. Both Paul Lynde and Dom de Luise are typecast in the familiar one-dimensional buffoon roles they made careers out of.
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