The Thrill of It All

The story centers around suburban housewife Beverly Boyer (Doris Day) and her husband, a successful obstetrician and devoted family man, Gerald (James Garner). Beverly is offered the opportunity to star in a television commercial advertising Happy Soap. After a shaky start, she gets a contract for nearly $80,000 per year (about $820,000 in 2024) to appear in weekly TV commercials. Soon the soap company places greater and greater demands on the unlikely TV star. Gerald resents the fact that the appearances are taking up an increasing amount of her time, and that his position as breadwinner of the family is becoming threatened by Beverly's wealth. He also becomes jealous of the level of attention that Beverly's new-found stardom has brought her. Their relationship slowly deteriorates, but Gerald's patience finally snaps when the soap company gifts Beverly a swimming pool which is secretly built on the site of the family garage, and he accidentally drives and sinks his car into it later that evening. After an angry confrontation between the pair, he walks out with an ultimatum that she must choose either her career or their marriage. Gerald later returns, employing psychological warfare to make Beverly jealous by pretending that he is drinking and carousing with multiple women. While in labor in a traffic jam late at night en route to the hospital, Beverly accompanies an expectant mother and her husband with whom the Boyers have become friendly. Her husband Gerald is their obstetrician; he joins them via a helpful mounted police officer on the parkway and their daughter is born in the Rolls Royce backseat just as they arrive at the hospital. Reunited, Beverly decides to give up her lucrative career and return to her "philandering" husband and her life as a housewife and mother.