Drug smuggling in the cosmetics industry, with Doris Day and Richard Harris as industrial spies. Wild Frank Tashlin slapstick--funny gadgets, double agents--mixes curiously with serious action sequences involving a sniper; there's also a transvestite reveal (!) and at least one movie in-joke (Day's father, seen in a photograph, is Arthur Godfrey, who played her dad in Tashlin's "The Glass Bottom Boat"). Certainly an odd choice for Day, who later claimed her manager-husband signed her to the project before she could read the script (it was later tailored to her--and very well). She's dryly sarcastic throughout, and very appealing in her scenes with Harris. Incredible Leon Shamroy cinematography, terrific locations, plus a hilarious bit by Michael J. Pollard as a hippie. A strange one, indeed, but fun. *** from ****

It's puzzling this Doris Day comedic spy-thriller never developed more of a following among her fans--must be because 20th Century Fox never released it on video (the DVD belatedly arrived Jan. 2007). Doris plays an industrial designer for a cosmetics firm in Paris who gets caught spying; she's picked up by a competing agency based in Los Angeles, where she is teamed with Richard Harris, who's working as a double agent. "Caprice" has many twists which render the plot nearly superfluous (it's wispy-thin to start with),but director Frank Tashlin keeps it all moving fast, helped by Leon Shamroy's colorful cinematography and the incredible '60s outfits. Day and Harris reportedly weren't fond of this picture (nobody was at the time),however it looks good today, and has some very funny set-pieces such as a chase in an apartment complex, a satirical episode in a movie theater (with Doris watching this movie, trying to get a snip of a girl's hair),and in the elevator, where Doris does a priceless comic turn with a cup of water. A fun time, loose and swinging, and quite different from what Miss Day was turning out at this point in her career. ***1/2 from ****

The spy Who Came in from the cold cream? Yep, that's what Doris refers to herself in this spy caper comedy spoof that fails to be funny. It is the nadir of her film career, leading to several more years of mediocre comedies which managed to be half a star or a star higher than this one. Doris truly looks uncomfortable in all the bizarre situations and outfits she is forced to be in because of contracts signed by her husband at the time, and seems anxious for it to just be all over. she has absolutely no chemistry with leading man Richard Harris and is surrounded by usually capable character actors who overacts and make absolute fools of themselves in the process.

Certainly, Ray Walston deserves an award for the worst supporting actor of all time, playing a scientist how to protect his formula for a hair spray that prevents hair from being wet when submerged in water. Doris is a corporate spy caught in one stem in Paris and soon involved in another one when she returned to the states. She encounters Harris in Paris, slugging him when he makes improper advances to her, and it's soon made clear that they actually know each other.

Doris spends much of her time with a giant pair of scissors trying to swipe a bit of the hair of one of the guinea pigs used for the hairspray, getting into all sorts of jams and being knocked about in unflattering ways. She encounters Michael Pollard in a movie theater where the title song is heard over on an apparent Doris Day film playing on the screen, and the audience is forced to watch him make a play for day who is sitting behind him while let me to get the water repellent embracing his girlfriend whom she is trying to swipe hair from.

The only thing that comes out of this with the exception of some beautiful locales is the fact that the audience is actually very supportive of the plight of Doris ibeing forced to do this film. An absolutely awful, juvenile screenplay and mishmash direction makes this nearly impossible to watch.