Amore, ritorna!

This Doris Day/Rock Hudson comedy is a vast improvement over their previous one, "Pillow Talk". At least, both stars seem to be having a relaxed time with one another, under the direction of Delbert Mann. It helps a lot that the tremendously talented writing team of Stanley Shapiro and Paul Henning are around to give the movie lots of laughs with what they created.

The idea of warring advertising executives works well. Doris Day plays the uptight Carol Templeton, a girl from the provinces that manages to land a plum job in a Madison Avenue firm and lives in a fantastic Manhattan apartment that was only to be found in the movies. Carol dresses with style, but one wonders whose idea was to have her wear those hideous hats she constantly sports.

Carol's enemy turns out to be Jerry Webster, the playboy adman who steals everything from Carol's reach. As played by Rock Hudson, this is one of his best roles in comedy. Somehow he made us believe he was that man who has a knack to get what he wants, especially from the adoring women he charms.

The basic premise of the film is the constant battle between Carol and Jerry. Both stars do some of their best work as they clash over the new product that suddenly appears in ads all over the place. VIP is something nobody knows about, yet Carol wants to get the account. VIP turns out to be a product that gives its user a great feeling for only 10 cents. Sampling the product at the Ad Council, where Carol takes Jerry to be tried for his unprofessional conduct, turns out to be one of the best things that ever happened to Carol and Jerry and all the ones that have a taste of the product.

Doris Day was a beautiful comedienne. Her wholesome figure and natural charm is one of the best things this film has going for it. Rock Hudson also is excellent with his take of the lecherous Jerry. Tony Randall plays another of his neurotic characters. Edie Adams is only seen shortly, but in her few scenes, she is wonderful. Jack Oakie makes a great appearance as the Virginian with a taste for girls and booze on a business trip in Manhattan.

This is a comedy for Doris Day and Rock Hudson fans.

Classic Day/Hudson sex comedy, with the two playing battling ad execs. This one is very funny and well paced, with the usual battles and confusion between Day's gullible virgin and Hudson's charming cad.

What struck me most about this movie was exactly what an awful, awful person Hudson plays. An interesting aspect of movies of this time is how many of them feature male characters who have no morals or scruples, but even by the standards of the time Jerry Webster seems particularly odious. And for me this is what makes this movie 7-star instead of 8-star. Because the movie insists that you have some sympathy for his character. If he were not played by a charming handsome guy no one would have sympathy for him. He deserves a horse-whipping. He doesn't get one, alas, but the movie is quite funny.

and with a lavender floor joke!... among an avalanche of gay jokes, a marijuana joke, and plenty of virgin cracking gags. ...LOVER COME BACK is - in widescreen - an hilarious all star advertising comedy with a gorgeous Doris Day (in a million spectacular outfits) and a very he-man Hudson poking fun at his image. If you have seen the 1957 sex farce WILL SUCCESS SPOIL ROCK HUNTER also with Tony Randall and also spoofing the advertising industry, this sparkling 1961 comedy is a worthy chaser.. as well as fleshing out the PILLOW TALK imagery and settings. I found this film to be really funny, and in superb colour art direction and photography that just made it a treat to watch. it does not matter that it is dated by our clever new standards, or that Hudson really did turn out to be gay, because this film is already having fun with itself... and recalls how witty and delightful these pix were designed to be. The recent DOWN WITH LOVE attempt with Ewan Macgregor and Renee Zellweger miscast completely only shows how these 60s pix got it right the first time and should be left alone and not 'spoofed' as they already were satires and ideal as they prove in this DVD. Randall as usual is hilarious.

Of the three Rock Hudson-Doris Day films my absolute favorite is Lover Come Back. It's not only a good sex comedy for Doris and Rock, but it's also a very funny satire on the advertising business of Madison Avenue.

In Pillow Talk Doris was an interior decorator and Rock a songwriter. They haven't changed their characters at all, but now are both in the advertising business.

Through an incredible combination of circumstances I couldn't possibly write Rock has created commercials for a product that doesn't exist and the doofus son of the agency he works for, Tony Randall, has ordered them given full blown airing. With Doris nipping at his heels for unethical practices, Rock and Tony hire a nutty scientist played by Jack Kruschen to come up with some kind of product for the commercials.

In the meantime Doris mistakes Rock for the scientist and now we're back to the plot of Pillow Talk as Rock decides to make some time with Doris. It gets pretty wild and wacky, especially after Kruschen invents something that has some very unforeseen consequences.

All the cast members do just fine in this very bright comedy that has me splitting a gut with laughter every time I see it. In addition to the cast members mentioned, I should also single out Edie Adams as the southern model who Hudson makes the commercials with.

Also to be singled out in what turned out to be his farewell screen performance is Jack Oakie who plays the southern client who Rock steals from Doris and gets all the wacky nonsense started.

Even given the changing mores, Lover Come Back holds up quite well and today's audience will love it as I do.

In New York's Fifth Avenue 'hive' of advertising agencies, the executives are either 'workers' or 'drones'. The former are industrious and diligent (and female), and the latter (the men) get by on wining and dining their clients. Carol Templeton is very much a worker, and she resents losing an account to Jerry Webster, the drone of all drones. One of Jerry's schemes (should that be 'scams'?) is the invention of "Vip", a non-existent commodity. He markets the new product so successfully that Vip becomes an overnight sensation. Throw in a severe case of mistaken identity, a nutty professor and a bungled seduction, and you have all the ingredients for a pleasant and well-constructed romantic comedy.

This was the second of the three Day-Hudson movies, and probably the best. Tony Randall is consistently funny as Peter Ramsey, the ineffectual company boss. Day does the humour very well, even if the main part of her duties is to pull a series of exasperated faces. There's a good split-screen graphic and a funny moose joke. Rock's woollen suit is amusing, and I liked the witty conclusion to the aquarium scene. Just one thought - why is Doris's hair so resiliently bouffant immediately after she steps out of the sea?

Everybody knows now that Rock Hudson was gay, but it goes without saying that this was far from universally acknowledged back in 1961. Is it my imagination, or does the film contain a vein of subtle "Rock-is-one-of-those" drollery? He makes a tongue in cheek speech to Doris, telling her that he can never be a real man to her. When the effeminate co-worker informs Doris that he has a lilac carpet in his apartment, she does a highly significant double-take. Rock keeps saying things like "I am not undersexed!" He tells Doris that he's taking her in - is he doing the same to the movie audience?

Finally, given that no lovers part, and indeed there ARE no lovers in the entire film, one wonders about the choice of title ...