At the time of That Touch of Mink, Doris Day was the biggest box office star in the business, but she conceded the top billing to Cary Grant, out of respect for his long and distinguished career.

Grant returned the favor by conceding to Day in the only conflict that arose between them during filming. Both Day and Grant preferred their right profile for close-ups. Since it was impossible to accommodate both of them, Grant gave in on what Day later described as "our awkward impasse."

Gracious as she was about the billing, Day's status did earn her a higher salary: $750,000 as opposed to Grant's $600,000. He did, however, receive a percentage, which considering the film's ultimate success, did very well by the actor.

In her 1976 autobiography Doris Day: Her Own Story, the star wrote: "Of all the people I performed with, I got to know Cary Grant least of all. He is a completely private person, totally reserved, and there is no way into him. Our relationship on A Touch of Mink was amicable but devoid of give-and-take...Not that he wasn't friendly and polite – he certainly was. But distant. Very distant. But very professional - maybe the most professional, exacting actor I ever worked with. In the scenes we played, he concerned himself with every little detail: clothes, sets, production values, the works. Cary even got involved in helping to choose the kind of mink I was slated to wear in the film."

When Grant noticed an ad for a raincoat that he thought would be appropriate for Day to wear in the picture, he called the owner of the company who made it. After explaining who he was and what he wanted the coat for, he was given the brush-off by the manufacturer, Norman Zeiler, who later recalled that he didn't believe it was Cary Grant. "So I told him if he wanted to see our collection, he'd have to come up himself. And he did." The much-imitated Grant, who usually made all his own calls and answered his home phone himself, often had that problem. People just couldn't believe it was really Cary Grant they were talking to.

Grant involved himself in many details of the production. For a scene that took place in his character's library, he arrived to work with boxes of items from the library in his own house and placed them about the set. According to Day, this served not only to make the set more attractive but also made him feel more relaxed and at home, giving his performance "that peculiarly natural, suave quality that is the hallmark of his pictures."

That Touch of Mink was filmed on location in New York. Some sources claim it was also shot in Bermuda, but others state that the scenes of the Bermuda resort were actually shot at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica.

Audrey Meadows' housekeeper, Pat Scofield, desperately wanted to meet Grant. She would sit in Meadows' dressing room waiting for an opportunity, asking the actress's make-up man and hairdresser to fix her up in case Grant came her way. One day Meadows told Grant about Scofield, and he asked to meet her. According to Meadows, the housekeeper handled herself very well during the encounter but nearly collapsed when he left the room.

Grant reportedly urged Gig Young to make more of his role as the humorously unstable, psychiatry-obsessed financial adviser. He was generous and casual with Young, who in turn treated his idol Grant with deference.

by Rob Nixon

SOURCES:
Evenings With Cary Grant: Recollections in His Own Words and by Those Who Knew Him Best by Nancy Nelson
Cary Grant: A Biography by Marc Eliot
Doris Day - Her Own Story by A.E. Hotchner
Final Gig: The Man Behind the Murder by George Eells