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Lover Come Back

Lover Come Back

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "Lover Come Back" Keeps Coming Back
Review: I've liked this movie ever since I saw it on TV as a kid and if that makes me socially retrograde, well then I'm guilty. I don't buy the line that the plot is all about Doris Day protecting her virginity from Rock Hudson; it's really about Doris protecting her autonomy from Rock, which makes her an early feminist as some feminist film critics have noted. (So there!)

There will never be a period like the early sixties again. The delightfully silly plot revolves around a sleazy adman (Rock) who advertises a nonexistent product just to feature his girlfriend in TV ads, then actually has to invent something to stay out of trouble with his professional rival (Doris). Oh, and just like in "Pillow Talk," the two meet but Doris thinks he is someone else.

This film gets better over time as the ironies of time and history stick to it (said of Rock after he covers his nudity with a borrowed women's full-length mink: "He's the last guy on earth I would'a figured.") "Lover Come Back" is good fun and the level of sophistication is such that the whole family can enjoy it.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Charming romantic comedy
Review: Lover Come Back hasn't aged quite as well as its predecessor, Pillow Talk. The main characters aren't as sympathetic, and the pace isn't quite as tight.

Nevertheless, who could resist the brilliant trio of stars in Rock Hudson, Doris Day and Tony Randall? They are given some really excellent material to work with in Stanley Shapiro and Paul Henning's witty script. The sex-angle is a step up from Pillow Talk, and must have been quite shocking to audiences at the time! The innuendo is smartly handled, however.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Doris Day & Rock Hudson
Review: Need I say more?
To fans of both these talented and very attractive stars this is a definite must see! They work oh so well together in this dated but very funny romantic comedy.
Day is playing that character she is so well known for--the simple, elegant, and very innocent type. Hudson is playing well, everyone that wears a skirt. He is charming playboy who hasn't found the one woman that can tame yet. Does Day do it? Watch to find out.
Watching this for a second time after so many years it is just as good, just as funny and sweet as ever. They are both playing ad execs' that are also playing for each other. Although, Carol Templeton, Day's character, doesn't realize who Hudson is through half the movie. She half wittedly thinks he is the doctor that is the inventor of a new highly advertised yet nonexistent product called VIP. She falls in love with him. Jerry Webster, Hudson's charming yet woman chasing character, falls for Carol hard. He keeps the ruse that he is someone else because Carol has no respect for and can't stand Jerry Webster.
Of course, chaos ensues as the couple get to know each other and accidently get married after sampling the new product VIP, which is basically an alcoholic beverage in the form of a candy.
Always funny Tony Randall costars, and he is a master of comedy, a true genius as the sidekick to Hudson. Ann B. Davis, "Alice" in the "Brady Bunch" plays Carol's secretary. Also, another t.v. name you may recognize, Donna Douglas, plays a secretary too.
This is frothy 60's comedic fun that has a great cast. It's two big stars are very likable, charasmatic, and beautiful people.

Highly recommend this for some romantic comedic fun via the 1960's!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Doris Day & Rock Hudson
Review: Need I say more?
To fans of both these talented and very attractive stars this is a definite must see! They work oh so well together in this dated but very funny romantic comedy.
Day is playing that character she is so well known for--the simple, elegant, and very innocent type. Hudson is playing well, everyone that wears a skirt. He is charming playboy who hasn't found the one woman that can tame yet. Does Day do it? Watch to find out.
Watching this for a second time after so many years it is just as good, just as funny and sweet as ever. They are both playing ad execs' that are also playing for each other. Although, Carol Templeton, Day's character, doesn't realize who Hudson is through half the movie. She half wittedly thinks he is the doctor that is the inventor of a new highly advertised yet nonexistent product called VIP. She falls in love with him. Jerry Webster, Hudson's charming yet woman chasing character, falls for Carol hard. He keeps the ruse that he is someone else because Carol has no respect for and can't stand Jerry Webster.
Of course, chaos ensues as the couple get to know each other and accidently get married after sampling the new product VIP, which is basically an alcoholic beverage in the form of a candy.
Always funny Tony Randall costars, and he is a master of comedy, a true genius as the sidekick to Hudson. Ann B. Davis, "Alice" in the "Brady Bunch" plays Carol's secretary. Also, another t.v. name you may recognize, Donna Douglas, plays a secretary too.
This is frothy 60's comedic fun that has a great cast. It's two big stars are very likable, charasmatic, and beautiful people.

Highly recommend this for some romantic comedic fun via the 1960's!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Boy, have things changed!
Review: Oh. My. Gawd. I mean, for years and years and years, we've all heard the feminist critiques of how Doris Day was an example of the retrograde sexism of her times -- the Eisenhower era and the early, pre-feminist Sixties, blah blah blah -- but in movie after movie, I've seen her portray a capable, cheerfully assertive participant in the battle of the sexes -- no doormat here! The Doris Day-as-antifeminist icon thing seemed like a bum rap to me. This film, however, is the first one of the classic Doris Day-Rock Hudson bouts I've seen in which Day is, pure and simple, a victim and a sap. Hudson co-stars as a rival advertising executive, who uses tacky boy's club tactics to steal Doris's clients out from under her. Rock takes a guy out drinking, provides a few call girls and --zingo!!-- he lands the MagnaSoap contract. Doris stammers and clenches her fists, struggles to give him a piece of her mind, while he in turn jeers at her, calls her frigid, and flaunts his sexual mastery at all possible junctures... Of course, their first battle is fought, as in "Party Line," over the phone, so she hasn't had a chance yet to see what a hunk he is. In Round Two, Doris assertively hauls him in front of the review board of the chamber of commerce, a decisive act that boomerangs when, with a nudge and a wink, Rock makes a fool out of her in front of the all-male panel and walks away unscathed. From that moment on, he's got Doris under his thumb, besting her at every turn, and, finally, gets her so drunk that she beds him, winds up pregnant and is forced to marry him and live, um, happily ever after.

The script is peppered with the most aggressively sexist dialogue of any of their films -- it's as though, after having set the formula and worked through it in several previous films, the Hudson-Day producers felt they had to one-up themselves and make it more extreme, punchier, harder. The humor has an underlying mean-spiritedness and misogyny, a lack of balance that's exemplified by the Hudson character's near-complete lack of growth. You assume, early on, that during his seduction of this hapless female, that he will unwittingly fall in love with her and become a better person, but througout the course of the film, the only moderation in his behavior comes at the very end, when he realizes he would rather stay married to her than not. Nonetheless, he's never actually contrite or abashed, Hudson's still pretty much a jerk when the curtain closes and it's up to Day to recognize that her physical attraction to him trumps their past history. Plus, she's all knocked up: what's a good girl to do? As a result, the film isn't as enjoyable or as pleasant and frothy as other Doris Day films, in fact, I found it a bit jarring, although the glimpse back at old-school male chauvinism can be pretty instructive.

On a more entertaining note, this has some of the most delectable and blatant homoerotic/demi-gay undertones of any of Hudson's films. The scene in which Hudson cradles Tony Randall's head in his hand (to help swab some dye off his face) is charged with erotic power; in the next scene, we find that Randall has spent the night at Rock's apartment, and not long after that, Hudson announces that he's giving up New York and is going to move to San Francisco(!) It's all semi-coincidental, of course, but pretty rife with campy thrills, given the later disclosures about Hudson's private life. In sum, this film is super-retro and Neanderthal, not as much fun as early versions of the same material, but it does have considerable camp value, if that sort of irony-laden anti-notalgia is your kinda thing.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: An incredibly sexist film...Disappointing for Doris Day fans
Review: Oh. My. Gawd. I mean, for years and years and years, we've all heard the feminist critiques of how Doris Day was an example of the retrograde sexism of her times -- the Eisenhower era and the early, pre-feminist Sixties, blah blah blah -- but in movie after movie, I've seen her portray a capable, cheerfully assertive participant in the battle of the sexes -- no doormat here! The Doris Day-as-antifeminist icon thing seemed like a bum rap to me. This film, however, is the first one of the classic Doris Day-Rock Hudson bouts I've seen in which Day is, pure and simple, a victim and a sap. Hudson co-stars as a rival advertising executive, who uses tacky boy's club tactics to steal Doris's clients out from under her. Rock takes a guy out drinking, provides a few call girls and --zingo!!-- he lands the MagnaSoap contract. Doris stammers and clenches her fists, struggles to give him a piece of her mind, while he in turn jeers at her, calls her frigid, and flaunts his sexual mastery at all possible junctures... Of course, their first battle is fought, as in "Party Line," over the phone, so she hasn't had a chance yet to see what a hunk he is. In Round Two, Doris assertively hauls him in front of the review board of the chamber of commerce, a decisive act that boomerangs when, with a nudge and a wink, Rock makes a fool out of her in front of the all-male panel and walks away unscathed. From that moment on, he's got Doris under his thumb, besting her at every turn, and, finally, gets her so drunk that she beds him, winds up pregnant and is forced to marry him and live, um, happily ever after.

The script is peppered with the most aggressively sexist dialogue of any of their films -- it's as though, after having set the formula and worked through it in several previous films, the Hudson-Day producers felt they had to one-up themselves and make it more extreme, punchier, harder. The humor has an underlying mean-spiritedness and misogyny, a lack of balance that's exemplified by the Hudson character's near-complete lack of growth. You assume, early on, that during his seduction of this hapless female, that he will unwittingly fall in love with her and become a better person, but througout the course of the film, the only moderation in his behavior comes at the very end, when he realizes he would rather stay married to her than not. Nonetheless, he's never actually contrite or abashed, Hudson's still pretty much a jerk when the curtain closes and it's up to Day to recognize that her physical attraction to him trumps their past history. Plus, she's all knocked up: what's a good girl to do? As a result, the film isn't as enjoyable or as pleasant and frothy as other Doris Day films, in fact, I found it a bit jarring, although the glimpse back at old-school male chauvinism can be pretty instructive.

On a more entertaining note, this has some of the most delectable and blatant homoerotic/demi-gay undertones of any of Hudson's films. The scene in which Hudson cradles Tony Randall's head in his hand (to help swab some dye off his face) is charged with erotic power; in the next scene, we find that Randall has spent the night at Rock's apartment, and not long after that, Hudson announces that he's giving up New York and is going to move to San Francisco(!) It's all semi-coincidental, of course, but pretty rife with campy thrills, given the later disclosures about Hudson's private life. In sum, this film is super-retro and Neanderthal, not as much fun as early versions of the same material, but it does have considerable camp value, if that sort of irony-laden anti-notalgia is your kinda thing.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I Enjoyed Watching This DVD!
Review: Okay, I know I reviewed this movie before but that was before I got the DVD and I thought I should review it again. I bought the new boxset that contains all three of Doris and Rock's movies in amamorphic widescreen and Lover Come Back is a very good movie and my second favorite with my #1 favorite being Pillow Talk and while the new anamorphic widescreen DVD for Pillow Talk was botched with misframing flaws the Lover Come Back DVD seems to be fine. Yes the picture quality could be a little better but it's a vast improvement over my video tape which was defective from the moment I opened the plastic wrap and found that the tape was damaged and wrinkled which made it difficult to watch so I really enjoyed watching the DVD and I just wish I had bought the Lover Come Back DVD seperately instead of the boxset with the botched Pillow Talk DVD!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Great Film - Mediocre DVD
Review: Once again the teamwork of Doris Day, Rock Hudson and Tony Randall are cast together again after the success in the comedy film, PILLOW TALK (1959). This time it's rock that needs the tomato juice after being out all night, still in his tuxedo, he was driven right to work. Rock has an agency's account to nab, so of course a little nightclub dinner and party is in order. Meanwhile, Doris Day is trying to get the same agency's account with true professionalism. When she finds out she's to late for the account because of Rock's presentation of a "Roman orgy", she is appauld. Here is where Tony Randall comes in. He gives Rock a talking to about his methods and to apologize to Doris. Phone bantering goes on between the two. Rock doesn't apologize but insults her purity. The war is on. Rock invents a fictional product called "Vip" and uses Edie Adams as a "vip" girl for fake commercials. When Doris finds out about "Vip" thruogh Edie's "good medal of conduct" at the executive meeting, she tries to get that account too, with the help of Ann B. Davis (Bob Cummings Show, Brady Bunch). Isn't that a beautiful top Doris Day is wearing just before the shocker? Nice fur coat Rock Hudson is wearing. Cast also includes: Jack Albertson (Willy Wonka..., Chico and the Man) , Donna Douglas (Beverly Hillbillies) and Ted Bessel (That Girl) as an Elevator Boy. Doris day, Rock Hudson and Tony randall reteamed once again in SEND ME NO FLOWERS (1964).

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Doris and Rock are at it again. Can "Vip" save them?
Review: Once again the teamwork of Doris Day, Rock Hudson and Tony Randall are cast together again after the success in the comedy film, PILLOW TALK (1959). This time it's rock that needs the tomato juice after being out all night, still in his tuxedo, he was driven right to work. Rock has an agency's account to nab, so of course a little nightclub dinner and party is in order. Meanwhile, Doris Day is trying to get the same agency's account with true professionalism. When she finds out she's to late for the account because of Rock's presentation of a "Roman orgy", she is appauld. Here is where Tony Randall comes in. He gives Rock a talking to about his methods and to apologize to Doris. Phone bantering goes on between the two. Rock doesn't apologize but insults her purity. The war is on. Rock invents a fictional product called "Vip" and uses Edie Adams as a "vip" girl for fake commercials. When Doris finds out about "Vip" thruogh Edie's "good medal of conduct" at the executive meeting, she tries to get that account too, with the help of Ann B. Davis (Bob Cummings Show, Brady Bunch). Isn't that a beautiful top Doris Day is wearing just before the shocker? Nice fur coat Rock Hudson is wearing. Cast also includes: Jack Albertson (Willy Wonka..., Chico and the Man) , Donna Douglas (Beverly Hillbillies) and Ted Bessel (That Girl) as an Elevator Boy. Doris day, Rock Hudson and Tony randall reteamed once again in SEND ME NO FLOWERS (1964).

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: My favorite DorisDay,RockHudson,Tony Randall Movie
Review: Out of the Three films Doris,Rock,and Tony made together,this is my favorite. I love all three movies,but this one's the best. The ending has got to be the funniest finals of any movie ever made."That's what I call cutting it close." I don't know how they got away with this in 1961. Doris Day has always been my favorite movie star,and I wrote to her when I was a kid,and she sent me a beutifull letter back,signed in Ink. I can still here my grandmother laugh when Doris left Rock at the beach with no clothes on. I also love Tony Randall's performace. He really makes the movie that much special. Donna Douglas has a small part in the movie,along with Edie Adams. Do you beleive that Doris was suppose to do The Graduate,playing Mrs Robinson?What a great change this would have been for the actress. At least we have all of her fantastic musicals and comedies to look at forever.There will never be another Doris Day.


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