Where Were You When the Lights Went Out?

Stagy adaptation of Claude Magnier's 1956 French play of the same name incorporates the New York City blackout of 1965 into a stagnant roundelay involving an actress, her husband, an agent plus a young embezzler. Dim comedy doesn't even utilize the central calamity for pointed jokes about life in the Big Apple, instead becoming a strained sitcom plunked down in suburbia. Doris Day never lets a bad script get the best of her; even under the most trying of circumstances, the star gives 100% and usually comes out unscathed. Spoofing her own goody-two-shoes image, Doris gets some laughs later in the picture when she's meant to be (comically) sedated; however, Day's male co-stars (Patrick O'Neal, Robert Morse and Terry-Thomas) are not well-suited to her, and neither is the shapeless hairdo she's sporting. For her part, Doris was quick to dismiss the film as "an alleged comedy", noting it was one of several pictures her husband-manager signed her to without her consent. *1/2 from ****

The story of this movie seems to be a set up for Doris Day's last film ( she actually had one after it ). Doris plays Margaret Garrison a stage actress who constantly gets type cast as a virgin ( hmmmm any similarity to what happened to Doris in real life??). While giving an interview for playboy magazine Margaret spills the beans that she would like to have a baby.... Well her hubby does something naughty and Doris goes running for the home in the country. Doris Day's performance is engaging.. especially when she is medicated !! Although Doris was forced into this movie by her manager husband ( her husband had lost all of her money in bad investments ) it is a delightful 60's film. So set a Sunday afternoon aside and hope that the lights wont go out when you put in the video!!

Although Where Were You When The Lights Went Out is based on a French sex farce I doubt the original play was anything like this film. Especially since there is no French equivalent for Doris Day, no such thing as a virgin, an all French version on their big screen.

I well remember the 1965 blackout on the East Coast, just settling down to dinner with my parents and everything electric went out. But we didn't have half the adventures this cast had.

Doris plays herself essentially, an actress with an All American virgin image locked into a long running play with neurotic director Terry-Thomas at the helm and married to Patrick O'Neal an architect. When the blackout strikes there's no evening performance and Doris returns home to find O'Neal with magazine writer Lola Albright who had been doing a feature interview with them before she left for the theater.

In the meantime a jealous Robert Morse being passed over for promotion by his boss Robert Emhardt's idiot son steals two million in cash, something he had been planning for a while. The blackout puts a real crimp into his getaway plan.

All the principle players manage to wind up at Doris and Pat's Connecticut home and the bedroom comedy begins.

It wasn't the Code that put a damper on this film, it was rather Doris Day and the studio's attempt to remain true to the virginal image that her public expected. This was one of those films toward the end of her career that her husband Marty Melcher put her in to recoup monies he had made bad investments with, her money.

Where Were You When The Lights Went Out has not worn well over the years. Doris was carrying a heavy load here.

There was a time when you could send $25 to Doris Day's animal foundation, and she'd send you an autographed picture. Well, my dog was a cute shelter terrier that I named Griffin, and since this was one of my favorite films, I asked and she agreed to sign her picture "Where Were You and Griffin When the Lights Went Out?"

I like this movie. I even found the movie poster for this film at an antique shop in Myrtle Beach. It's rather cool with Ms. Day posing as if she is the Statue of Liberty.

I paid only $8 for it. It's the only thing I remember from that specific beach trip. I also own the video. I don't think the film can air right now due to legal stuff.

I have watched it a dozen times. It's a feel good movie. It has a lot of nice, fun people in it, even in the minor roles. This includes Steve Allen, Pat Paulson, Jim Backus, Ben Blue, Robert Emhardt and Morgan Freeman in an uncredited role.

About Doris Day.....she was gifted, versatile, and very underrated. Groucho Marx once said he knew Doris before she was a virgin. He was referring to her sunny, innocent girl next door image--which gets the one-two punch in this film, to great effect. Day plays a Broadway actress starring in the Constant Virgin, and most of the film discusses whether she sullied her marriage and herself by sleeping with Robert Morse during the NYC blackout from 1965.

This movie isn't Shakespeare. Just relax and enjoy the goings on. Turn back your mental clock to 1968. It's a well remembered time when people drove big Chrysler convertibles. Plus, Lola Albright wears a dark wig and seduces Patrick O Neal with the line "I like big buildings." The Letterman sing the catchy title tune, I wish they would have put it on their LPs from that period. Terry-Thomas and Robert Morse comment on the space between their teeth. Discussing failed dental work between these two actors was entirely unexpected.

Some of the reviews in this group suggest the movie is terrible and Day's star was in decline. They are not being fair. I believe people stay away from terrible movies and terrible movies lose money. This movie was actually a big earner in 1968. Yes, It's true that this is Day's next to last film before she went to TV. However, her last film "With Six You Get Eggroll" was released later in the same year AND was more profitable than this one.

In defense of Ms. Day's star power, the business did not leave Day. She left the business. All good things eventually end. The world is now less bright without Day.

Only the most ardent DORIS DAY fan could find this one even bearable to watch. When one thinks of the wealth of material available for a story about New York City's most famous blackout, a film that could have dealt with numerous real-life stories of what people had to cope with, this scrapes the bottom of the barrel for lack of story-telling originality.

Once again Doris is indignant because she suspects she may have been compromised on the night of the blackout when she returned to her Connecticut lodgings, took a sleeping potion and woke up in the morning with a man who had done the same, wandering into the house by mistake.

Nobody is able to salvage this mess--not Doris, not ROBERT MORSE, TERRY-THOMAS, PATRICK O'NEAL or LOLA ALBRIGHT. As directed by Hy Averback, it's the weakest vehicle Day found herself in, committed to do the film because of her husband's machinations and unable to get out of it. Too bad.