Taglines: The word is Caprice. The game is excitement.
Caprice movie storyline. There is an on-going battle of industrial espionage between rival cosmetics companies, Femina, owned by Sir Jason Fox, and May Fortune, owned by Matthew Cutter. Caught in the middle between the two are among others top industrial designer Patricia Foster, who officially is on May Fortune’s payroll after being fired by Femina, and Christopher White, a suave Brit who also is officially on May Fortune’s payroll as Cutter’s right hand man.
On the surface, Patricia is still working for Femina trying to steal the new top secret formula for a water repellent hairspray developed by Dr. Stuart Clancy for May Fortune, that hairspray which would make all other hairsprays obsolete, while Christopher secretly tries to stop her. Below the surface, it is not clear whether either Patricia or Christopher truly are working for May Fortune, Femina or someone else. But as they progress through these on the surface missions, their true missions are eventually revealed as are their true allegiances, which place both Patricia and Christopher in mortal danger with regard to a recent story of an Interpol agent being killed in the Swiss Alps.
Caprice is a 1967 DeLuxe Color comedy-thriller film directed by Frank Tashlin starring Doris Day and Richard Harris. This film and In Like Flint (1967) were the last movies made in CinemaScope, with most studios moving to Panavision and other widescreen processes. The 20th Century Fox release was a box office bomb, failing to place in the top 20 movies for 1967. According to Fox records, the film needed to earn $7,200,000 in rentals to break even and made $4,580,000, meaning it lost money.
About the Story
In the Swiss Alps, a skier shoots and kills another skier down a mountain slope. Cut to a woman picking up a newspaper in Paris, the headline story telling of yet another Interpol agent killed in Switzerland. That woman is Patricia Foster (Doris Day), an industrial designer for Femina Cosmetics, owned by Sir Jason Fox (Edward Mulhare). She is caught trying to sell a secret Femina cosmetics formula to a rival company, May Fortune, owned by Matthew Cutter (Jack Kruschen).
After her arrest, her subsequent release, and her firing from Femina, Patricia is hired by Cutter, but she states she will not divulge any of Femina’s other secrets as part of this employment. However, this selling of secrets was a scheme devised by Sir Jason for Patricia to steal a secret formula for a new water-repellent hairspray from Cutter, the formula invented by Dr Stuart Clancy (Ray Walston), May Fortune’s head chemist.
Patricia is wooed by Cutter’s right-hand man, Christopher White (Richard Harris), who drugs her with truth serum to get her to divulge Femina’s other secrets to him. Patricia, however, was aware of what Christopher was trying to do; she only pretended to be drugged and passed along false information.
While she cannot get the formula from Cutter or Clancy, Patricia learns that the formula can be obtained through analysis of a lock of hair from the one person known to have used the hairspray, Clancy’s secretary, Su Ling (Irene Tsu). As Patricia goes to work trying to cut off a lock of Su Ling’s hair, Christopher spots her. Patricia is unable to get a lock of hair, but Christopher tells her that he too is truly working for Sir Jason, and has the proof to back up his claim.
Later, Christopher is seen setting up surveillance, which includes speaking to Cutter via hidden microphone, Cutter stating that it will be good to see an undercover agent of Sir Jason’s caught red-handed trying to steal his formula. Patricia sees what Christopher is doing, although she is assured by Sir Jason that Christopher indeed does work for him and not Cutter. Patricia still does not trust Christopher. She does whatever she can to thwart the surveillance that Christopher has set up, much to Christopher’s and Cutter’s chagrin.
At a date with one of his regulars named Miranda (Lisa Seagram) – a May Fortune model who Patricia earlier seemed to recognize – Christopher learns that Patricia Foster is not the real name of the woman whom May Fortune has just hired.
At The Times newspaper archives, Christopher is looking through old clippings of a story concerning a man named Robert Fowler being murdered in the Swiss Alps while skiing.
At Su’s apartment, Patricia finds her unconscious on the floor, seemingly drugged. She takes a small sample of a black powder lying on the coffee table, which she believes was used to drug Su and which she later gives to Sir Jason to have analyzed for her. Patricia finds a bottle of the hairspray, which she takes with her. Christopher catches her, blackmailing her that he will tell Sir Jason that her real name is Felippa Fowler. Dr Clancy arrives, but Patricia and Christopher manage to escape him and the police without being seen.
Caprice (1967)
Directed by: Frank Tashlin
Starring: Doris Day, Richard Harris, Ray Walston, Irene Tsu, Jack Kruschen, Edward Mulhare, Lilia Skala, Larry D. Mann, Maurice Marsac, Michael Romanoff, Lisa Seagram
Screenplay by: Jay Jayson, Frank Tashlin
Production Design by:
Cinematography by: Leon Shamroy
Film Editing by: Robert L. Simpson
Costume Design by: Ray Aghayan
Set Decoration by: Walter M. Scott, Jerry Wunderlich
Art Direction by: William J. Creber, Jack Martin Smith
Music by: Frank De Vol
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: 20th Century-Fox
Release Date: April 18, 1967
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