The Thrill Of It All

Flipping through the channels the other night I stumbled across the Doris Day vehicle, The Thrill Of It All. It's a spoof on the advertising industry of the 50's. It's "Mad Men" with goofballs. The movie is also a view of the American Dream circa 1963. It is presented with just as much soft focus as a Doris Day close-up.

The amazing thing is that the movie was not intended to be propaganda. It's a snapshot. Far from a panorama, the image presented is a narrow view of middle-class life: beautiful home, stay at home mom, 1 boy, 1 girl, solid income, and a nation well employed and busy preparing for a future including more of the same.

Not so funny comparison to life today in these United States, The Thrill Of It All is steeped in optimism. In that I think the theatrical image is an accurate portrayal-- at least if you want a snapshot of white middle class America preparing to enter the soon-to-be turbulent 1960's. 50 years later it seems that, what's left of the middle class is concerned with survival more so than growth. Creeping pessimism has supplanted flourishing optimism. Today, rather than reaching for the moon, building and growing, there are more than a few out there who are desperately trying to take us backward. The really pathetic part of it is that there are those-- and they are vocal, visible, and well funded-- who believe the set and setting of a movie like The Thrill Of It All. In their hands such movies, these snapshots of a very narrow slice of mid-century America,  become propaganda, the embellishment of a fictional past as a model for a fantasy future.

I guess all of that is just too much thinking. The movie was written by a couple of brilliant comedy writers in Carl Reiner and Larry Gilbart. And I love, love Doris Day for all her wholesome tomgirl-next-door-who likes-to-kiss-boys good looks and humor. So maybe it's just better if you forget all that. Just watch and let the movie do what it was supposed to: Make you laugh and take you away from all of this.