the audience applauded

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

One who watches this movie simply for the comedy would be hard-pressed to rate it more than six stars. Viewing it only as a story about a family may earn it six or seven stars. Then there's a story about career and family conflict, about love, and what's most important. And, how about a standard theme of a man who works late or away from home and is enticed toward infidelity? What about the drama of a major change in one's profession and how it affects a person and one's spouse? Then there is the move from the city to the country, and associated major changes in lifestyle.A number of reviews have doted on that last point, seeing this film as a leftover from other films such as "George Washington Slept Here" of 1942, or "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House" of 1948. But the whole plot of those films revolves around the move from the city to the country and renovating a condemned property. If that's all I saw in this film, I would rate it no better than 4 or 5 stars. Because it doesn't have the humor of those two true comedies.But, "Please Don't Eat the Daisies" is much more than a simple plot film. It's really four or five or more plots neatly interwoven. 1st plot – Laurence Mackay (played by David Niven) moves from teaching theater at a major college (Columbia University?), to writing a book and becoming the latest Broadway critic for a major New York newspaper. 2nd plot – His loving and devoted wife Kate (played by Doris Day) manages four young boys in their Manhattan apartment with the help of a maid. She rushes to join her husband for the opening of a musical play being staged by a long-time friend and godfather to their children – Alfred North (played by Richard Haydn). Laurence struggles over his review with Kate. Finally, he has to tell the truth. He pans the play.3rd plot – North is furious about the review and vows to get even; and the star of the play, Deborah Vaughn (played by Janis Paige) joins his vendetta to get even with Laurence. 4th plot – The family moves from the city to the country, with all that entails – and it's a lot. 5th plot – Kate sees changes in Laurence as he has his new position of power. He's now more self-righteous and self-centered. He's unkind, even mean. He doesn't see it at first, naturally. More subplots fit in here – the community is going to put on a play and Kate is part of it. Deborah makes a play for Laurence, and although he is in unconformable situations with her, he remains faithful to Kate.Now, if one watches this movie from this standpoint, it is much more interesting and enjoyable. It's a movie about a major job change for the main breadwinner. It's a movie about a change in personality. It's a film about a feud with one's closest friend. It's a film about moving from the city to the country and upending of lifestyle. It's a film about raising four small boys and all that goes with that. It's about a couple who are madly in love with one another and who struggle with all of these things. And with this, there are sprinklings of humor here and there. Now it's a different movie, much more interesting, and even fun in places.Now it earns 7 to 8 stars – and I go for the 8 for two reasons. First, it has a fine cast all of whom give very good performances. Second, it's based on a best-selling 1957 book of essays by Jean Kerr with the same title. It's autobiographical, and the people and situations were real. Kerr was an author, playwright and songwriter. She wrote two books, several plays and stage scores and scripts for several musicals. Her husband was Walter Kerr, a writer, lyricist and director of several plays. So, his character in real life succeeded on the stage where Niven's character in the movie doesn't succeed. And, in real life, Walter Kerr was theater critic for the New York Herald Tribune from 1951-1966, and for The New York Times from 1966-1983.To top it all off, the couple collaborated on several musicals and they won two Tony awards for "Golidlocks" in 1958. In 1978, Walter won a Pulitzer Prize for criticism. The couple was married for 56 years and they had six children. Walter died in 1996 at age 83, and Jean died in 2003 at age 80. References about the couple state that Laurence Mackay in this movie is based on Walter Kerr. All of this would seem to lend credence to this film as being based on real people and events, with many interwoven plots.And, here's a closing punch that some may find interesting. It's a true example of how Walter Kerr could be a harsh critic if the play was bad in his eyes. It's from early in his career as a critic. The original musical of "Candide" opened on Broadway Dec. 1, 1956. It was directed by Tyrone Guthrie. In his New York Herald Tribune critique of the musical on Dec. 3, 1956, Kerr wrote, "Three of the most talented people our theater possesses – Lillian Hellman, Leonard Bernstein, Tyrone Guthrie – have joined hands to transform Voltaire's Candide into a really spectacular disaster. Who is mostly responsible for the great ghostly wreck that sails like a Flying Dutchman across the fogbound stage of the Martin Beck? That would be hard to say, the honors are so evenly distributed." The musical was a box office disaster. It had just 73 performances and closed after two months.

The four brats in this movie are appalling. Both parents are totally out of control. They need that nanny of a recent TV series. Seriously, the parents need some education. Besides, who nowadays have four children in ten years? What college graduate woman nowadays defers her career and her sanity to make all those Quick Quaker Oats of three-time (I saw them) product placement? Another product placement was North American Van Lines. I love oatmeal, but I always buy the Brand-X version.Niven was very good. His character became obnoxious, however. He did not appreciate his self-sacrificing wife, although both, as mentioned, needed coursework in childcare and loving discipline. Niven's attention to the bimbo (Paige) was appalling, and her attention to him predated later decades of women asking men out, asking men to marry them, etc. You would never have caught Deborah (Paige's character) dishing out the oatmeal. She may have smacked the kid, however, not putting him in the cage. Nowadays (again, I am harping on 2013), the kid would have used his smarts to call the police and put her in jail for child abuse.Patsy Kelly was good to see, although I wished she had appeared in greater space of time. It was also good to see Spring Byington. I thought her pet shop was just too divine. Richard Haydn was good to see, also, he of Sound of Music appearance.Doris was just wonderful, as always. I thought the dog was Tramp from My Three Sons (was that dog Tramp?), though his name was Hobo. My Three Sons was represented here, anyway, by Stanley Livingston (Chip). I loved Doris singing and dancing, and having the lead in the local play was shortchanged to me the audience. I hoped the finale would have her in the actual play, and not just at rehearsal where her husband got hopping angry.It took me tons of decades to see this movie. Thank you, TCM. I always remembered the theme song.Inside reference: Doris talked to her husband about having a possible affair with Rock Hudson. That was priceless. I think Rock was more famous than Janis Paige, IMHO.This was a very enjoyable movie. It spoke for much of the time period, with frustrated, unfulfilled women plus out-of-control children. I think the children needed the sedatives, however.

You're glad they made movies like "Please Don't Eat The Daisies" alright, simply to prove there was a time people were more innocent. Sitting through it is another matter.The central problem with "Please Don't Eat The Daisies" as it stands today is that it suffers from a major case of indecision: Does it want to be about a theater critic who gets a big head, or does it want to be about a Manhattan mom with four sons who finds a new home in Westchester County? Doris Day stars doing what she does best, throwing off clever one-liners with a maternal glow, doing a little bit of singing, and standing by her man, in this case David Niven as theater critic Lawrence Mackay, who probably doesn't deserve her but as played by the winning Niven keeps our sympathies enough to make us happy he convinces her otherwise.Mackay is quite taken by his new role as the Frank Rich of Mayor Wagner-era Broadway, but she's worried his becoming an influential quipmeister has made him mean, a candidate for a ride on the "down-a-lator" as expressed by a producer who used to be Mackay's friend until one of Mackay's catty reviews sundered their relationship. The producer, played by Richard Hadyn in much the same jaded manner he brought to his impresario role in "The Sound Of Music" five years later, accelerates Mackay's notoriety by having the starlet of his latest play, "Mme. Fantan," slap Mackay across the face for the benefit of a newspaper photographer after he disses her performance.There's a great idea for a story here, about a critic coming up against the egos of himself and others, but unfortunately the result doesn't give Day much to do. Niven is neither unfaithful to her nor really all that nasty a critic. Instead of trying to make the story work better, which admittedly would risk running against the grain of a Doris Day comedy, the film throws in a subplot, about the couple and their four sons moving up the Hudson River to the bucolic suburb of Hooton and the resulting mild turmoil that causes. Thus, the entire second half of the film feels as awkwardly tacked on as the musical numbers Day performs in the final third of the programme.It's all rather stupid, yes, but winsome, too, in that nice way that makes one nostalgic for the early 1960s. The scenery is attractively shot. The supporting actors are fun. Of the Day numbers, one, "Any Way The Wind Blows," is a terrific number with a busy bassline and some nice dipping harmonies that recalls Elvis Presley's "King Creole," fetchingly performed by Day and members of the cast as the "Hooton Holler Players." Never mind that groaner of a name, it's a good routine. The other number, the title song sung by Day and a merry band of children, should have been cut but for the fact it's a Doris Day movie and a drippy song with a kiddie chorus was what her audience wanted.The same can be said for the whole movie. "Please Don't Eat The Daisies" is charming in a way films wouldn't dare be today. The dialogue is unnaturally whipsmart Neil-Simonesque, even when it's Day talking to one of her sons ("All he does is eat and sleep." "He's a dog. What d'ya want from him, blank verse?"). The youngest boy is clearly overdubbed by a woman with a cutesy voice, saying "Cokee Cola" as he drops water bags on people in a way that's supposed to suggest Tom Sawyer, not lawsuits. The dog jumps into Niven's arms at the sight of a squirrel, and he raises his magnificent eyebrows as only David Niven can at the idea of finding himself in a lightweight suburban farce.Day makes you glad you stopped by, a suburbanite dream in her snug Capri slacks who finds the humor in every scene. Limited, yes, but very good in her genre, enough to make a film like this at least intermittently entertaining. She and Niven do play very well off each other. Like Michael E. Barrett wrote here in another review, the scene of them in the restaurant together after Niven has had his face slapped is a terrifically acted sequence, underplayed well by both stars.Unfortunately, the rest of film doesn't rise to that same level of subtlety. Instead, she does her suburban mom thing while he plays the non-vicious critic with a vicious reputation, until at the end we are asked to pretend the twain come to meet and all is resolved. It doesn't, but the nicest thing to be said for "Please Don't Eat The Daisies" is that it's so genial it makes you willing to pretend otherwise.

I found this film to be pretty mediocre overall. The story couples Doris Day and David Niven as a couple who are moving from the city to the country just as the husband, Niven, is beginning to become a famous drama critic. Various entanglements of course arise in their new life in suburbia and in Niven's busy social life. They are surrounded by an unusual tandem of kids including one who is kept in a cage for safety reasons.The best thing you can say about it is that it is "charming". The production is competent, the supporting cast is decent, the dialogue is good. But it's just not the type of film I personally enjoy.