User Reviews

Other reviewers have been quite scathing about this program's perceived lack of contributors who knew Doris Day, save for James Garner. There has also been a query raised as to why Day herself did not appear. The fact that she has remained out of the public eye for more than four decades seems to have been overlooked. Given the time constraints, this documentary does a more than creditable job of explaining Day's significance in post-war American culture as an on screen icon; someone cast in stereotypical roles as the pliant wife or the perpetual virgin who nonetheless challenged such stereotypes. Likewise in the Sixties her sex-comedy roles in PILLOW TALK had a risquéness that seemed innovative at the time they were made. The fact that the times changed, rendering her screen persona obsolete, was not her fault. The documentary also illuminates her turbulent private life, from her traumatic relationship with her father, her first two failed marriages, her long-standing third marriage to a man who lost all her earnings, and a brief fourth marriage. It is only in retirement - from the screen - that she has discovered some kind of tranquility as a campaigner for animal rights. Contributors to the program such as the director Terence Davies bear witness to her power as a star; someone whom audiences could fall in love with the moment she appeared on screen. Marilyn French considers her shifting roles of womanhood thoughtfully, while Molly Haskell looks critically at her film career. Liberally illustrated with clips from her movies as well as recordings, this is a comprehensive yet sympathetic portrait of an enduring star.

I love Doris Day, her films and her voice. This documentary doesn't show enough of her, or clips of her films. The few clips we do see are great and she looks great.

We have a woman 'film expert' speaking so fast we couldn't make out what she was saying and she kept getting her words mixed up. She mistakenly said Doris broke both legs, ruining her love of dancing, yet we were told earlier in the programme that she broke an ankle.

We have Richard Carpenter talking about Doris, and its clear he never met her.

We have a very strange man sitting in a cinema gushing over Doris and telling some odd stories about........ Himself! He added nothing to the programme. He tries to explain the public's change of interest in her: 'We find goodness repellant and sentimental now. She makes goodness truthful because she's truthful. But our culture dismisses this as trivial, and she's not'. Even more annoying are the silly re-enactments, out of focus as they are obviously not Doris, and this just cheapens the programme. There must be enough footage of her to show viewers - she must have given interviews, and had a TV show!

Programme makers should note that we viewers want to watch a programme about Doris Day and see Doris. Yes there has to be input from people who knew or worked with her, but the re-enactments (obviously not Doris!) were plain silly, and why they felt a 'film lecturer' and a 'film director' who'd never met even Doris, could add anything useful is beyond me. A very poor attempt at making a biography of a very talented and well loved actress and singer.

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DORIS DAY: VIRGIN TERRITORY is a passable if overly familiar documentary on the life and career of legendary movie star Doris Day produced by BBC Wales in 2007. The documentary suffers from a lack of participation by Doris herself and the limited contribution of only a few people who actually worked with her (James Garner, Jackie Joseph, one or two others). The program (narrated by American actor Michael Brandon, there are very few British people in the documentary despite her enormous popularity there) merely features comments by famous fans like Richard Carpenter, a few ordinary fans, comments on the era and her impact by feminist writers Marilyn French and (the always tiresome) Molly Haskell and a handful of very short movie clips with the story of Doris' life being acted out by shadowy faceless actors as the narration tells of incidents in her life.

The goal of the program appears to be reevaluating Doris' works and acknowledging her as a major talent (hasn't that always been the case?) and trying turn her into a iconic symbol like Marilyn or Audrey but when trying to create interest in a subject, shouldn't your program be interesting itself? It's particularly disappointing that the program doesn't really delve into the international popularity of this thoroughly American actress other than acknowledging she was loved worldwide. It could have given the show a more unique twist among the many such television documentaries of this nature.

Despite the lament in some quarters of Doris not being as celebrated as a Monroe or Hepburn, she clearly still has her public as the huge number of CDs and DVDs on the market more than proves. Those releases say a lot more about her enduring appeal than a documentary like this is able to do.