Love Me Or Leave Me (1955)

Doris Day and James Cagney as torch singer Ruth Etting and her gangster husband are nothing short of electric in Love Me Or Leave Me, the artistically and commercially successful biography film from 1955. Cagney is pathetically empathetic in a role he's played before but it is Day who leaps out of her ingenue comfort zone and slinks her way to the heart of the woman. The musical numbers - covers of Etting's hits of the 20s along with the Oscar-nominated original I'll Never Stop Loving You - are bright and vivacious in a film that's fascinating from Day's first appearance accepting 10 cents for a dance to her final performance of the title tune.

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With Six You Get Eggroll (1968)

A surprisingly robust drama is molded to fit the fabric of a Doris Day comedy in With Six You Get Eggroll. Set in the real swinging sixties (with an appearance from The Grass Roots), it tells a relatively honest tale of two people who marry quickly and must then merge their respective families (including a teenaged Barbara Hershey in her film debut). The story moves along despite the circumstances that always stop short of an onscreen shtup between Ms. Day and her co-star, Brian Keith but it's a sweet film that is a fitting cap to Ms. Day's illustrious career (to date, this is her last film).

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