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Tuesday, December 10, 2013

That Touch of Mink - A Rant

Last Friday I watched a movie On Demand, and because my parents were watching, too, I couldn't turn it off in frustration. I had to sit through the entire thing. This wasn't the first time I'd seen the movie, but I was kid back then and I must have missed all the things in it that made me insane this time around. The movie? That Touch of Mink with Cary Grant and Doris Day.

For those of you who don't know, Cary Grant plays Phillip Shane, a rich and successful businessman and Doris Day plays Cathy Timberlake, a young woman looking for a job in the big city. They meet after he drives by and splashes her with water from the street. After spending part of the day together, he invites her to go to the Caribbean for some no-strings-attached sex.

Where do I start with my problems with this movie?

How about the fact that Cathy is furious about being splashed until she meets Mr. Shane and then she's simpering breathlessly about how it's her fault she was standing on the street corner?

How about the fact that Cathy decides to go to the Caribbean with him simply because he tells her she's not that type of woman?

How about the fact that while they're down there with the intention of having sex, she's still calling him Mr. Shane?

How about when Cathy develops a rash from stress and Mr. Shane goes to sit by the pool, he runs into a married man whose wife didn't want to have sex with him so he casually mentions hitting her? And when he asks Phillip what he did, he says he "popped" her one. Really? Really?

There's more, but I'll stop there. I can't even tell you how many times I muttered about Cathy being an idiot. Good lord, talk about Too Stupid To Live (TSTL).

Then there was a secondary character who was seeing a psychiatrist who's  wheedling stock tips out of him, using them to profit from insider trading, and sneaking off to make his stock buys while his patient is talking. Because of his sneaking away, he misinterprets that the secondary character is involved in a gay romance. His reaction was incredible.

I do know that homosexuality was very much looked down on when the movie was made (1962), and that my reaction to this plot line is very 2013, but still it was enough to make me grit my teeth.

The rest of it, especially the portrayal of women, was also infuriating. WTF? I wasn't alive when this movie was made so I have no idea if this stuff was all considered normal behavior, but I can't believe it was. Not when I've watched many other old movies and not gotten so angry that I had to mutter to myself while I watched.

So no review, just my rant that this movie was ever made and that anyone ever watched it. What a waste of Cary Grant and Doris Day.