A sparkly Day blends in well with the slapstick and large comedic cast. The 110- minutes amounts to a hectic pace full of gags and skits. I liked the first part best where all the space-age gadgetry goes bonkers. I was thinking afterwards the movie should be called "Lift Off". The second part shifts toward a sketchy spy plot: at the same time, the screenplay suddenly can't seem to decide who's who. Spy stories were popular at the time, probably from the movies' James Bond and TV's Get Smart. Here it's mainly a rack to hang the parade of comedy bits on.From McGiver to Godfrey to Lynde to the others, all get comedy time under the kinetic hand of director Tashlin, known for his cartoonish style. At the same time, the cameos do a lot to extend movie runtime. Taylor and Day blend well as a couple, while the husky actor manages his tongue-in-cheek role surprisingly well for a serious actor. And what about that floor-cleaning robot. Who could have guessed it would be the stuff of silly nightmares. Note too the abundant innuendo, especially the gay aspects, as Hollywood's 30-year Production Code is increasingly ignored. If the film has a down side, it's probably the relentless flow of comedic bits-- no extended conversations here. Of course, some skits do better than others; still, there's not much chance to savor the better ones before they're replaced by a new bit. Nonetheless, it's a bouncy slice of entertainment and further tribute to Day's sunny uplift even on cloudy nights like mine. Now if I can just get lucky my next fishing trip, maybe I too can hook a gorgeous mermaid.

I loved this movie when I saw it as a 13 year old. But seeing it as an adult, I was disappointed at how lame it is. The supporting cast is terrific - Lynde, Martin, DeLuise, McGiver and the great Alice Pearce - but the story and main characters just don't have anything to offer to someone beyond adolescence. And so little of the story actually happens aboard the titular Boat! It seems like more of an excuse to sell a hit song. I always enjoyed Doris Day movies as a kid, also. But now I realize how mediocre they were. I guess Pillow Talk was the best and actually in a class by itself. It would have been interesting to see The Graduate with her as Mrs. Robinson, but she was too protective of her virginal image to appear in such a racy role.

This picture wasn't thought to be much when it was released. Most people thought it was a silly sitcom style comedy not up to Day's earlier romantic comedies. Arthur Godfrey gave it some air play on his daytime radio show, with Day and Taylor as guests, but there wasn't much else as I remember. By this point in his career Godfrey had lost his star lustre of just ten years before and his network radio show on CBS was just about all that was left, so his appearance in a major Hollywood movie was a big deal for him.The picture did get a Music Hall premiere run in New York, but as I say, most people just yawned.Seen forty years later it has a lot going for it, especially compared to today's cinema "comedies": good writing, expert direction, good pacing and editing, colorful location shots of Catalina and vicinity, good playing by the leads, who look to be having fun, and really good support from that amazing cast of 60s character actors.There is a surprising amount of frank sexuality in this picture for the time, without nudity or profanity (Doris' character is a widow so she plays her as sexually mature and sophisticated), Godfrey's character has a wife/girlfriend about whom he's absolutely crazy and shows it, often (!), and there's even a surprising gay subplot that's played for laughs of course, but not offensively so. There's even Paul Lynde in drag...priceless! Forty years later, it still makes me laugh. You will too.

It's NOT! Instead this badly edited, terribly scored, loosely plotted dreck is only of value as a mindless mid-60's time-capsule w/ a large roster of recognizable TV-land faces in supporting roles: there's gay Uncle Arthur from "Bewitched" as a nosy, gay NASA security guard who dresses in drag to follow Ms. Day into a women's restroom; also from "Bewitched" there's Gladys and "Abner, come quickly!" as nosy neighbors (DUH!) of Ms. Day (I was half-expecting Endora to show up floating); there's a cameo from "The Man from U.N.C.L.E."; there's not-terribly-suave Martin (one half of "Martin and Rowan's Laugh-In) as a secondary love interest for Day, and he has a truly dead-on silly line when mistakenly caught in bed w/ an Air Force General "You want to meet early and pick out the furniture?"; there's even Godfrey as Day's father (more like slightly-older brother as Day and him are close in age); and there's even Grandma Walton as a senior citizen Girl Friday battling a wayward robot vacuum cleaner!The slightly better acted supporting roles belong to DeLuise as a bumbling pseudo-foreign agent who has some silly funny scenes w/ Day (the early foot caught in waste basket scene and the latter water gun scene); and Taylor as a stud-scientist who battles and romances Day in the workplace. Speaking of workplace, Ms. Day works at NASA which happens to be based in Cape Kennedy, Florida, but yet she commutes (by car no less!) to a home in Los Angeles, California!!!!! This implausibility results in unintended laughs when after a long day at work in Florida Ms. Day makes plans to boat over to Catalina. BTW: is there any simple task that Day can take on that doesn't turn into disaster? It's not that she plays dumb-blonde, but that her character is accident-prone (ie.- the heel caught in the grate, the Banana Crème pie fiasco, the unpiloted speed boats debacles, the fish hook/mermaid suit accident, the pie baking kitchen scene, etc.) and even worse she's middle-age but playing a role twenty years younger!There's one unintended telling moment in the movie (towards the very end) when terribly under-used actor McGiver (who if you blinked earlier on you would have missed his earlier scene) reappears in the middle of chaos (DUH!) and asks the other actors "What's going on?" Truly telling commentary on this fiasco of a movie.