That Touch of Day Ja Vu for Cary Grant
It has to be said that when it comes to Doris Day's romantic comedies they all had a certain formula to them, that being Doris Day playing opposite a handsome and often amusing male lead and with at least one comedy side kick thrown in for good measure. "That Touch of Mink" is no different as it sees Doris Day paired up with the charming and smooth Cary Grant, but instead of one comedy side kick we had two in Gig Young and Audrey Meadows. But the set up is not the only thing which feels familiar because whilst "That Touch of Mink" is a different story it's still a typical tale of romantic turmoil's between the main characters. Not that all this familiarity stops it from being fun and entertaining, it just means that there is little if anything to make it stand out from Doris Day's other romantic comedies.
On the way to pick up her unemployment cheque, out of work computer technician Cathy Timberlake (Doris Day - Lover Come Back) is splashed when rich business man Philip Shayne (Cary Grant - The Philadelphia Story) drives through a puddle. Sorry for what he's done he sends out his employee and friend Roger (Gig Young - Teacher's Pet) to find the attractive young woman and pay for any damages. But Roger has other plans and on finding Cathy returns to the offices so that she can confront Mr. Shayne. Well immediately Cathy falls for the charming Philip and he equally falls for the cute and pleasant Cathy. But where as Cathy is a traditional girl who expects to get married, Philip has other plans which soon become apparent as they jet off together causing trouble in their whirlwind romance.
"That Touch of Mink" actually starts quite well with the puddle incident and some establishing scenes which manage to introduce us to all the important characters. It's amusing especially the scene in the automat as Cathy gets extra food from her friend Connie. Even when it moves on with romance blossoming between Cathy and Philip it's all fun and quite sweet. But once we have the set up done and dusted with, "That Touch of Mink" starts to suffer from feeling a bit repetitive as it goes too and throw with the romantic turmoil's. The thing is you know where it will inevitably end up, its a romantic comedy so predictability isn't an issue, it just becomes weak the longer the will they wont they get together element goes on, making it drag and even feel a little dull.
Aside from the repetitiveness "That Touch of Mink" is filled with all those expected elements that fill up Doris Day's romantic comedies, even the use of split screen for phone calls. So that means we get plenty of comedy with Day pulling various faces when she's either happy or indignant and we get Cary Grant turning on the charm as he woos her. It's certainly fun although it all seems a little one sided because whilst Doris Day works her magic when it comes to being funny and also looking like she's fallen in love the spark you would expect with co-star Cary Grant never seems present. Yes Grant turns on the charm brilliantly but at times he almost feels awkward in Day's company and just doesn't deliver the humour which Rock Hudson managed in his collaborations with Day. In fact Rock Hudson even gets a mention during "That Touch of Mink" in a list of eligible bachelors which is sort of amusing.
The strangest thing is that in the scenes which Doris Day shares with Audrey Meadows as her friend Connie the whole thing works so much better. The same can be said of the scenes which Cary Grant shares with Gig Young as his employee and friend Roger. It's these fun moments which help to inject humour when all the repetitive romantic scenes become a little tiring.
What this all boils down to is "That Touch of Mink" is a pleasant entertaining movie which pairs up Doris Day and Cary Grant. It does end up feeling a little repetitive and ultimately very familiar with a romantic storyline not that much different to what we've seen Doris Day do before. But with Audrey Meadows and Gig Young putting in good turns in basically comedy side kick roles it has enough amusing scenes to distract from the repetitiveness.
