I remember going to the Neptune Theatre back in the early 60s to see the Doris Day/Rock Hudson comedies. First there was Pillow Talk. According to the newspaper archive the Neptune ran that as a special showing on Labor Day in 1960. I suspect that might have been a return engagement, but I can’t find its original showing.

In any case, I watched that again a year or so ago, and it’s ok. Doris gets upset because Rock is hogging the party line (remember party lines? Unless you’re of a certain age you probably don’t) to chat with all his girlfriends. They hate each other all through the movie but Doris doesn’t know what Rock looks like, so he pretends to be someone else and tries to seduce her; in the final few minutes they get together and kiss and make up. If you really love comedies of that era, and Doris and Rock in particular, you’ll probably enjoy watching it. Oh,Tony Randall is in it as well.

Actually, it was a big hit at the time. It was the first comedy that Rock Hudson had ever performed in, and he was hesitant to take the part, as he wasn’t sure he could do comedy. Plus, this was a sexcapade, rather suggestive for its time, and both he and Doris Day weren’t sure it was right for either of them as it contains dialog like “Mr. Allen, this may come as a shock to you but there are some men who don’t end every sentence with a proposition.” Yes, that was pretty hot for 1959. But they both let themselves be convinced and they discovered they had a great time doing it, and as I said, it was a smash at the box office.

So naturally the studio insisted on an encore, and the result was a new script where Doris and Rock hate each other through the entire movie but she doesn’t know what he looks like so, well, you get the idea. Oh, and Tony Randall reprised his part as well.

The main difference is that I think Lover Come Back holds up pretty well. Yes, it has all the same ingredients but somehow the stew tastes better this time around. When I watched it recently, there were no laugh out loud moments, but I found myself smiling pretty much all the way through it.

Yes, most of the gags are dated and you’ll pretty much be able to predict where it’s going, but it’s so clear that everyone is enjoying themselves that you might be swept along with the fun just as I was. Once again the script doesn’t give Rock’s character any redeeming qualities, he’s a complete cad until the final few minutes, and the only reason you might feel anything other than contempt for his character is that it’s Rock Hudson playing him.

And here I have to take exception to the way the movie is often described. In order to seduce Doris’s character, Rock acts very naïve, as if he’s never been with a woman before. In other words this is usually described as his character acting as if he’s gay. But I don’t get that gay vibe. To me he just looks like he’s pretending to be shy around women.

It’s Tony Randall’s character that I think comes across as gay. In fact I had always thought that Randall was gay because of the roles that he played and the way he played them, and it was a bit of a surprise when I found out years later that he was perfectly straight, but Hudson was gay. Coulda fooled me. Actually they did fool me.

The film is available on Amazon in blu-ray and DVD.

By the way, before I re-watched it, about the only thing I remembered about the movie was this scene: Doris waking up in a motel room wearing nothing but Rock’s pajama top.

Oh, and the final scene, of course. The movie actually gets its name from the final five minutes of the action; the title has nothing to do with the rest of the plot which concerns Doris and Rock vying for the same advertising accounts.

There are a bunch of supporting players who might be familiar from other more famous roles they did. Here are a few of them. See if you recognize them. I’m putting the answers at the bottom of this post. (I was going to turn this into a quiz but I realized that if I made it multiple choice it would be too easy, and if I made it a type in the answers, no one would take it.)

# 1: Don’t let the wig fool you. She’s more famous as a blonde.

#2: Number two seems the right position for her, as she’s more famous as a second banana, so to speak, in her two most famous roles.

#3: Do you recognize that guy?

#4: This ugly duckling was about to strike it rich.

#5: He’s a doctor here, but he’s about to become a brother-in-law?

#1 is Edie Adams. Cigars. Cigarettes. Tiparillos!

#2 Ann B. Davis is probably best known as Alice from The Brady Bunch, but she’ll always be Schultzy to me from The Bob Cummings Show.

 

#3 That guy is Ted Bessell who played Marlo Thomas’s boyfriend.

#4 Donna Douglas was about to become famous as part of the Clampett clan and head out to Beverly Hills as Elly May after appearing in one of the most famous Twilight Zone episodes, “Eye of the Beholder”, as an incurable plastic surgeon patient.

#5 Does Richard Deacon really need an introduction? Yes, he became famous as Alan Brady’s put-upon brother-in-law, but he did so many character roles like this one.

Quote of the day:

Film your murders like love scenes, and film your love scenes like murders.
—Alfred Hitchcock 

 

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