Lover Come Back

[webmaster]

Thanks Alba - sure we all agree - and welcome to the forum!

Bryan

[Alba1985]

Thanks Alba - sure we all agree - and welcome to the forum!

Bryan

Thank you very much Bryan.

[webmaster]

Maybe you should introduce yourself, Alba - however briefly - in Off Topics? People often do that - it's easy to get lost in the topics! And there have been a number of new people joining recently. Doris is still pulling them in - aged 90 or something!

[Lauren Benjamin]

[webmaster]

Thanks Lauren - like the way you are getting around the forum in your little red car!

[Lauren Benjamin]

Thanks, Bry, but the traffic is a nightmare!!!!

Lauren

[Johnny]

Lover Come Back was billed in the press book as the, "Champaign Chaser" to Pillow Talk.

Bosley Crowther wrote in the New York Times about Lover Come Back:

"Pillow Talk was but a warm-up for this springy and spirited surprise which is one of the brightest, most delightful, satiric comedies since It Happened One Night
The script has some of the sharpest and funniest situations you could wish and some of the fastest, wittiest dialogue that was spewed out of a comedy."

The film made $440,000 in one week when it opened in February 1962 . That seems like a lot of money for that time period.

It holds up well as a very funny and witty film today and is one of Doris' best.

[Johnny]

There is a fun story in David Kaufman's book that describes a game that Doris and Rock Hudson played.

During Lover Come Back, Doris and Rock started sending each other letters under false signatures as if they had been written by anonymous fans. They had playful names for each other, among them were Zelda Murgatroyd and Ernie. They would pretend to be a couple on a bowling team or have taken a hayride the night before.
In one game they played for months they kept inventing ridiculous-sounding names of places where they were pretending they were building summer homes and they would give each other regular progress reports on their development.
This deep and meaningful friendship lasted until Rock Hudson's death in 1985.
I founds this story to be touching and heartfelt. It says so much about their good natures.

[webmaster]

That is a sweet story, Johnny. I don't remember reading it in the book but it's been a long time since I read it.

They must have had fun with that game - they both had a lot of fan mail to inspire them, no doubt from people with a variety of names! They were photographed holding hands and giggling a lot during the filming, weren't they? They also owed a lot to one another professionally. Pillow Talk put Doris back on top and opened up many new opportunities for Rock. So as well as being close friends. they had both become a hot box-office team, able to draw huge audiences and, consequently, bring in huge profits for the studio.

[webmaster]

Lauren must be caught in traffic!

[Jas1]

Bryan- I was just wondering about Lauren, hope all is good.

Re the letter exchange, a friend and I did this for years (although we lived close by) with each correspondence to and from a specific sender and recipient - connected to one another - through the years this has dwindled to Christmas cards - this year I sent "to Bruce [scored out]/ "sorry Caitlain" - "from Chris.

She [my friend] sent "to Bruce" [scored out- following my lead who sent the card first] replaced with "To Tess love Claud" - this will mean nothing to those across the Pond but is a reference to the presenters of Strictly Come Dancing [the UK version of Dancing with the stars].

[Johnny]

In David Kaufman's book it states that the promotional campaign for Lover Come Back was worthy of the Madison Avenue ad men the film was satirizing. Wonderful Day, a nee album featuring both songs from the movie, was promoted on "10,000,000 packages of Imperial Margarine on sale in every store and super-market". The $3.98 album could be "yours for only $1 and 2 large crowns from the fronts of 2 Imperial packages". Still another professional disc was prepared for radio stations, containing" personal interviews"with Hudson and Day including "interesting anecdotes about their lives and the making of Lover Come Back...in their own words".
All of the attention worked. As reported in Variety, Lover Come Back took in $440,000 in one week, when it opened in February 1962

[Johnny]

Looking at Lover Come Back recently, I was struck by the brilliant sparkle in scene after scene throughout the entire film.

Starting with the bright animation and crisp orchestration in the opening of the film, to the description of Madison Avenue concrete beehives with worker bees (Doris) and drones(Rock). It immediately engages the viewer.

Outstanding credit must go the screenplay that plays brilliantly with 1960's advertizing. The scenes describing how competing advertisers Doris and Rock are trying to secure the Miller wax account are gut-wrenchingly clever and hilarious.

One of my favorite scenes occurs early in Lover Come Back as Tony Randall as Peter Ramsey arrives at his firm driven by his chauffeur Harrison, a cab driver yells at Randall telling him he can't park there (in front of his firm). The cab driver then asks Randall if he wants a fat lip. Randall then instructs his chauffer to get out of the limo and give the cab driver fat lip.

The dialogue is fast, witty and funny in Lover Come Back. It holds up well until this day. It is an exceedingly enjoyable film to be seen on repeated occasions. Perhaps the best thing I can say about Lover Come Back the sense of happiness and good feelings it continues to give. It is a delicious experience.

Lover Come Back

[Musiclover]

Right you are, Johnny -- hard to beat the fine orchestration by Frank deVol and a great script by Stanley Shapiro.

[Jas1]

Agree Johnny.

Went to see a screening of the documentary "The Celluloid Closet" recently [showing how homosexuals were depicted in Hollywood through the ages]- Doris appeared more than i remembered and more than anyone else -

1.- Young man with a horn - the Lauren Bacall character was bisexual.
2. Calamity Jane- the implications of the song "secret love";
3. Pillow Talk - discussing a gay actor playing a straight man pretending to be gay [Rock as Brad - to get Jan]; and,
4. Lover come back - the scene with Leonard where Carol remarks about a lilac kitchen and asks who'd have a lilac kitchen - he replies "I do" - and Carol gets out of it stating "not everyone is as artistic as you...we have to sell this wax to everyday people...." and he replies "Oh them!"

[howard]

And the look she gives him is priceless!

[Jas1]

Yes Howard, pure genius.

[jmichael]

Bosley Crowther wrote in the New York Times about Lover Come Back:

"Pillow Talk was but a warm-up for this springy and spirited surprise which is one of the brightest, most delightful, satiric comedies since It Happened One Night
The script has some of the sharpest and funniest situations you could wish and some of the fastest, wittiest dialogue that was spewed out of a comedy."

It holds up well as a very funny and witty film today and is one of Doris' best.

I've always loved this film and B Crowther's rave review. Had LCB preceded Pillow Talk, it might have garnered Best Picture, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor nominations for the film, Doris and Tony Randall. The satire of 1961 Madison Avenue still has bite today - we are bombarded with sales attempts from Robo-calls, Google ad pop-ups, and Infomercials on television. LCB was a brilliant comedy and it never gets old to me.

I agree with everything Johnny said about this film.

Michael

[Musiclover]

At least Tony Randall and Doris got some recognition, even if not as prestigious as Oscars. He was nominated for a supporting actor Golden Globe award, and she won the Laurel award for top comedy performance. I loved Rock Hudson's portrayal of a smarmy ad man.

[Jas1]

Love this film too and Crowther's review is great- considering he was known to be a harsh critic. Glad DD won the Laurel award.

[Johnny]

In The Doris Day Scrapbook by Alan Gelb, there is an interesting review on Lover Come Back. It states in part;

After Midnight Lace...Doris was on firmer ground with her only movie of 1961, Lover Come Back. This smash hit reunited her with co-stars, Rock Hudson and Tony Randall and scenarist Stanley Shapiro, who produced in place of Ross Hunter.
The film was a witty comedy of great energy and vivacity, and it dominated the box office during the Christmas season when it was released. The plot had a more of a satirical bite than one was accustomed to finding in a Doris Day movie. Doris plays an account executive for a big New York advertising agency (another example of Doris as a career woman). Rock is a rival advertising executive whose methods Doris finds unscrupulous, and whom she calls up before the Advertising Council.
...Lover Comes Back as a jolly little sex comedy. It is closest in feeling to such satirical sex farces as Frank Tashlin's Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, Leo McCarey's Rally Round The Flag, Boys and Howard Hawks' Man's Favourite Sport, rather than it's antecedent, Pillow Talk. Although a lot of the action has to do with Rock trying to get Doris to bed, there is a lot more going on than mere seduction. The advertizing business is blithely sent up, and the action is a good deal more antic and screwball than it was in Pillow Talk. The focus is not on Doris' virginity, but on not letting Rock get the best of her.

Lover Come Back is a classic film filled with constant joy each time I watch it.

[Musiclover]

Just read a short account by one of Rock Hudson's friends, Tom Clark, in which he wrote that Doris was "no slouch at making Rock break up." He recalled a scene they were shooting in "Lover, Come Back." "It was a simple shot, theoretically, but with the two of them totally out of control, it took hours. Director [Delbert] Mann, normally the most even-tempered gentleman in the world, got madder and madder . . . and, of course, the madder he got, the funnier they thought it was." There was so many funny scenes in that film; I wonder which one that was.

[jmichael]

Just read a short account by one of Rock Hudson's friends, Tom Clark, in which he wrote that Doris was "no slouch at making Rock break up." He recalled a scene they were shooting in "Lover, Come Back." "It was a simple shot, theoretically, but with the two of them totally out of control, it took hours. Director [Delbert] Mann, normally the most even-tempered gentleman in the world, got madder and madder . . . and, of course, the madder he got, the funnier they thought it was." There was so many funny scenes in that film; I wonder which one that was.

Judy, Howard Green can probably confirm this but I believe it was the beach scene when they had to kiss each other. They both broke up and could not stop laughing. This part may be urban legend, but I think Rock had a wardrobe malfunction with his swimming trunks when he flipped her over, which made everyone hysterical. If you recall, David Hartman interviewed Doris and Rock on GMA in 1983 when they both talked about making each other laugh and Doris said she used to think about horrible things to keep from laughing, I suspect they were referring to this scene during that conversation.

Michael

[howard]

That's just what I thought, Mike.

[Johnny]

There is an interesting passage about Lover Come Back and Rock Hudson in David Kaufman's book on Doris Day.

"Billed in the Press Book as a "champagne chaser", to Pillow Talk, Lover Come Back did all it could to duplicate the formula of its' predecessor- in hopes of replicating its success. Not only did it pair Doris Day with Rock Hudson again, it also teamed them with Tony Randall as a sidekick once more. The story was even based on similar plot development with Hudson again pretending to be someone he's not.

One key person who rebelled against the formulaic nature of Lover Come Back was director Michael Gordon, who having directed Pillow Talk, chose to pass on its clone. "It seemed so similar, I thought people would think they' re just repeating themselves," explained Gordon, whose refusal of the assignment provided yeoman director Delbert Mann with his first opportunity to work with Day. Given the picture's huge success, Gordon would come to regret his decision. (While it cost approximately $2.5 million to produce, Lover grossed$8.5 million in domestic showing alone.)

Hudson's participation did not come cheap. Though Melcher has successfully blocked Hudson from receiving a producer credit on Pillow Talk, he now had to relent to win him back for the follow- up. Lover Come Back was co-produced by Universal and 7 Pictures Corporation, Hudson's recently formed an independent company, which had already produced Come September starring Hudson, Gina Lollobrigida, Sandra Dee and Bobby Darin.

Though Hudson continued to adore Day as much as she did him, like many others who worked with her, he grew to resent Melcher. While referring to Melcher as "Farty Belcher", Hudson's manager, Henry Wilson, won an important battle for his client, who ultimately received a million- dollar share of the profits on this particular picture."

The beach scene hilarity between Doris and Rock referred to in the above posts is partly explained by comments Tony Randall made saying that one of Rock's testicles popped out of his swimsuit and this cracked everyone up. Doris and Rock had difficulty controlling their outbursts of laughter much to the frustration of the director.