That Touch of Mink (1962): Delbert Mann’s Romantic Comedy Starring Cary Grant, Doris Day, Gig Young

That Touch of Mink, Cary Grant and Doris Day’s comedy, is one of the last pictures in their respective screen careers.

Grant retired in 1966 at age 62, and Day made her last film in 1968, while still in her 40s.

Too bad that the two popular comedians join forces in such a routine comedy as “That Touch of Mink,” their only picture together, a pale imitation of their better comedies with other co-stars, specifically “Lover Come Back,” starring Day and Rock Hudson.

One of the scribes is Stanley Shapiro, who was responsible for the huge success of the frothy 1959 comedy “Pillow Talk,” which made Doris Day a household word, as well as “Lover Come Back.”

Day plays Cathy Timberlake, a woman of a certain age who’s unemployed; in the first scene, she is standing on line collecting unemployment check.

Typecast in one of his most prevalent roles, Grant plays playboy businessman Philip Shayne. The two meet in a cute (cutesy) way, when Philip’s luxurious limo splashes water and mud on the hapless Cathy, while she’s walking down the street.

In the course of the tale, he invites her to accompany him to Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York, ending in a luxurious Bermuda resort.

Day performs with some familiar charm her screen type, the “world’s oldest virgin,” a professional who demands to be treated with respect and doesn’t believe in living in sin; legit marriage and wedding ring should come before sex. (Just watch the horror on her face, when she notices a single bed in Philip’s Bermuda suite, and her hysterical reaction, breaking with rush and speechless!). After a few complications and misunderstands, Cathy finally gets a proposal out of Philip.

The film is decently acted and handsomely shot (by Russell Metty), turning a fluffy flimsy plot into something more enjoyable than it has the right to be.

Doris Day gets to change many dresses and we are even treated to a fashion show, a retro device of old Hollywood movies.

The impressive supporting cast includes Gig Young as Roger, Philip’s financial advisor, a Princeton University professor who by hs own admission had “sold out,” and Audrey Meadows, as Connie, Cathy’s wise-cracking roommate, who works in the cafeteria at Philip’s building, doing what Eve Arden has usually done in films of the 1940s and 1950s (“Mildred Pierce”).

The ensemble also includes Alan Hewitt as Dr. Gruber, a confused (what else) psychiatrist, John Astin as Beasley, Cathy’s slimy would-be beau, Dick Sargent as a neurotic, insecure honeymooner (who’s afraid of his new wife), and an unbilled Richard Deacon as a letch.

In one of the film’s more amusing scenes, Philip takes Cathy to a baseball game of the New York Yankees, and we get to meet Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, and Yogi Berra.

The comedy was extremely popular at the box-office, occupying the fourth position among the year’s top-grossing pictures.

When Roger is showing Cathy the list of potential husbands for her, one of the names is Rock Hudson, Day’s co-star in Pillow Talk, Lover Come Back, and Send Me No Flowers. Hudson had expected to be cast as Philip, but director Mann wanted Cary Grant.

A big fan of The Honeymo0ners and Audrey Meadows in particular, Grant was responsible for getting her cast as Connie.

In her autobiography, Day wrote that Grant was very professional and exacting with details, helping with her wardrobe choices and decorating the library set with his own books. However, he was a private person, totally reserved, and very distant. Their relationship on this film was amicable, but devoid of give-and-take.

1961 Citroën DS 19 Décapotable Usine

Grant had called the French auto company Citroen to order a new car for the film. The factory shipped “the display model” to the studio without hesitation and the car is prominently featured, garnering key publicity for the new roadster model.

Credits

Running time: 99 Minutes.

Directed by Delbert Mann

Screenplay: Stanley Shapiro, Nate Monaster.

Released: June 14, 1962