Doris Day Documentary In The Works From C.J. Wallis And Jim Dunlap

EXCLUSIVE: Production is underway on a documentary about entertainer Doris Day, one of the greatest stars in Hollywood history.

With Love, Doris!, from director-producer C.J. Wallis (Stu’s Show, Perfect Bid, Mad Mac: The Memory of Jim McMahon) and producer Jim Dunlap, is built around never-before-heard audio tapes of Day responding to letters from fans. Day dictated her responses over the phone to her longtime assistant, Judy Ruby (who lived far from Day’s home in Carmel, CA); Ruby then transcribed the tapes and sent them back to the star for revision and signature before the letters were mailed to fans. Ruby shared the recordings with Dunlap after Doris Day’s passing in 2019 at the age of 97.

“What an honor to be the keeper of this precious piece of Hollywood history,” said Dunlap. “I’m thrilled to finally get to share a side of Doris that few people knew, and to do so in her own words, with the help of the fans she loved so dearly… The film is in the brilliant hands of documentary filmmaker C.J. Wallis.”

Among Day’s correspondents was a young Dunlap, who began writing to her when he was 10. Other fans with whom she corresponded include a 93-year-old superfan in Australia and Rosalind Joel, the late mother of singer Billy Joel.

“She didn’t say a cynical word at any point in over 24 hours of these tapes,” Wallis tells Deadline. “Anybody would’ve just made at least one smart ass comment or something. She didn’t… There’s just nobody like her anymore and it doesn’t seem like anybody’s trying to be her anymore. And that’s sort of criminal.”

Wallis says Dunlap brought him onto the project after seeing his documentary Stu’s Show, about a man who became a personal assistant to Lucille Ball. “He called me up and he said he had these tapes with Doris and that she was responding to these fan letters and no one had heard them,” Wallis recalls. “And that was enough for me. That’s the excuse to live in that era… There was no way to pass that up. So the last year or so, I’ve been deep-diving into Doris while cutting a couple other projects and it’s been a lot of fun to end every night with a Doris movie and get a little bit of that magic back.”

Day, born Doris Mary Kappelhoff in Cincinnati, OH in 1922, began her career as a singer. She made her first movie appearance in 1948, eventually becoming an audience magnet: by some measures, Day is the top-ranking female box office draw of all time. Her films include the Hitchcock classic The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), in which she co-starred with James Stewart; the 1953 musical Calamity Jane in which she played the title role; romantic comedies with Rock Hudson, including 1959’s Pillow Talk; romantic comedies with James Garner including Move Over, Darling; That Touch of Mink with Cary Grant (1962); Please Don’t Eat the Daisies (1960), and many more.

In her film roles she embodied a distinctly American sunniness of personality and a rare combination of grit and femininity. The grit may have come from her own experience: when she was 14 years old, she severely injured her leg in an automobile accident, derailing her dream of becoming a professional dancer. She segued to singing instead. Three of her marriages ended in divorce; her husband Martin Melcher died in 1968 and after his passing she discovered he and a business partner had allegedly ruined her finances. She also found out Melcher had signed her up to do a television series without her knowledge, but the success of The Doris Day Show (1968-1973) helped restore her balance sheet.

Among those interviewed for the film are George Schlatter, the legendary television producer, and Nick Clooney, journalist (father of George Clooney) and a longtime Day friend. Dunlap tells Deadline the production has arranged an interview with Ed Begley Jr., another Day friend, for next week. He said he expects production to wrap by Labor Day.

In her later years, Day withdrew from Hollywood and devoted herself to animal welfare. She was famously private and did not often appear in public, making the audio tapes all the more illuminating.

“With Love, Doris! is being crafted in collaboration with those closest to Day and presents a side of her the public has rarely glimpsed — one that’s candid, reflective, and endearingly funny,” notes a release. “Through these intimate recordings, along with rare, never before heard archival footage and touching conversations with friends, colleagues, and fans, With Love, Doris! becomes more than a career-retrospective. It rediscovers an American cinematic treasure — whose voice, spirit, and legacy remain as luminous as ever – all in her own words.”