When the topic of classic screen couples arises, no one thinks of Doris Day and David Niven. Nonetheless, they became the leads for 1960’s Please Don’t Eat the Daisies.

When their small NYC apartment becomes too tiny for Professor Lawrence “Larry” Mackay (Niven), wife Kate (Day) and four rambunctious sons, they move to the more rural domain about 70 minutes away from the Big Apple. Unfortunately, they can only afford a ramshackle “fixer-upper”.

While they attempt to make their new home livable, the Mackays also adapt to life in a very different environment. Larry and Kate try to navigate these challenges along with those presented by the needs of four young kids.

Daisies adapts a 1957 book of the same title by Jean Kerr, but it appears to do so loosely. Kerr’s tome consisted of a collection of humorous essays and lacked an actual plot.

Because that would become more difficult to pull off in a feature, the cinematic Daisies creates more of an actual narrative structure. Still, one can sense the nature of the source, as a lot of the film seems episodic in nature.

Indeed, Daisies takes a good chunk of time to get to the main plot related to the family’s move to the boonies. The initial 45 minutes of the film deals mainly with Larry’s new career as a theater critic and its ramifications.

Only then does the flick shift toward housing issues and related concerns connected to the move. These occupy the remainder of the flick, though again, we don’t get a particularly concise narrative.

I don’t mind movies that can feel like a collection of linked sequences as long as those linked sequences entertain. Alas, that doesn’t really become the case here.

Not that Daisies seems like a chore to watch, primarily thanks to the actors. Although I don’t really buy Niven and Day as a romantic couple, both bring life to their roles, and the supporting actors bring kick.

Unfortunately, the “narrative” tends to drag, so those episodes rarely seem especially entertaining. Honestly, the whole thing feels oddly padded, as scenes stretch too long and superfluous themes – like the attempts of an actor (Janis Paige) seem pointless.

111 minutes simply feels too long for a light comedy such as this. As implied, Daisies takes forever to send the family to the country, and even then, it fails to capitalize on the expected hijinks.

Daisies also finds clumsy ways to get Day to sing, even though it’s not a musical. Heck, it even forces her to reprise her classic “Que Sera Sera!”

All of this leaves Daisies as a watchable experience but a pretty dull and forgettable one. Even the talents of Doris Day and David Niven can’t make the end product more than intermittently enjoyable.

Please Don’t Eat the Daisies appears in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The transfer consistently looked pretty positive.

Sharpness fared well. Some softness crept into a few wide shots, but these were minor, so the movie usually looked tight and concise.

No issues with jagged edges or shimmering occurred, and edge haloes were absent. Grain felt natural and the image lacked print flaws.

Colors worked fine. The film came with a fairly natural palette and the tones appeared well-rendered.

Blacks appeared dark and tight, while shadows showed good clarity. The movie came with a nice visual presentation.

As for the DTS-HD MA monaural soundtrack of Daisies, it worked just fine given its age and ambitions. Speech consistently appeared intelligible enough, even with some age-related reediness.

Music lacked much heft, but these components were acceptably lively and full. Effects also showed decent clarity.

Those elements didn’t pack much of a punch, but they were fairly accurate and tight. No issues with source noise occurred, so I thought the audio was good enough for a “B-“.

Along with the movie’s trailer, we get the pilot episode (25:30) from a Daisies sitcom that debuted in 1965. Pat Crowley took over for Doris Day and Mark Miller replaced David Niven, though the series renamed their characters “Joan and Jim”.

Titled “My Eldest Child”, the show looks at how Joan views Jim as an overgrown youngster. The TV Daisies plays up broad comedy – and the antics of the kids – much more than the movie did.

Which doesn’t seem like a terrible choice given how slow and dull the film could become. That said, “Child” relies on too many sitcom clichés to turn into anything memorable.

Thanks to its stars, Please Don’t Eat the Daisies musters some charm. However, it lacks much cleverness and feels like a fairly banal enterprise too much of the time. The Blu-ray delivers good picture and appropriate audio along with a TV episode. While not a bad experience, Daisies never becomes more than mediocre.