Movie “review”: Lover Come Back
There are areas of experience that people who know me expect me to have, that I don’t necessarily have. You’d expect me, for example, to know the New York City drag/cabaret scene. You’d expect me to have worked at least one summer at a Renaissance Faire. You’d expect me to have performed in a Rocky Horror cast (okay, that one I’ve done). And you’d expect me to be an old movie buff.
Nope.
So up until last week I’d seen neither a Rock Hudson nor a Doris Day film, and definitely not the combo pack.
Last weekend I watched Lover Come Back, which has been mentioned several times in here in the last week. I figured, 1961, set in the New York advertising world. I probably should see this one.
I don’t do reviews. Let’s just get that clear. In case you don’t believe me, here are some samples of my work: I Am Legend, Cop Land.
I make no apologies for the spoilers to follow. You have been warned.
The story, courtesy of IMDb:
Jerry Webster and Carol Templeton are both in the advertising business, but for different agencies. Annoyed by Jerry’s methods of using alcohol and women to ensure contracts for his agency, Carol tries to get him thrown out of his profession. To avoid this Jerry bribes the girl who’d testify against him, by starring her in a TV commercial for a product named VIP that he’s just made up. By accident these commercials are broadcasted and to keep his job, Jerry has to come up with VIP for which he enlists the help of Doctor Linus Tyler. Carol goes to see the Doctor to try and get the VIP account, but because she and Jerry have never met, she mistakes Jerry for the Doctor. Jerry then takes advantage of this situation to win her.
So, wow. I’m not gonna lie… this stuff is hard for me to take. The silliness of the premise, the celebration of the rigid sexual rules. Just… weird. Weiner talks about how Mad Men is not about the people that are in those movies, but the people who watch those movies. And by the same token, I am now accustomed to watching this time period through the Mad Men lens, not through the lens that those people were watching, and making, these films.
Doris Day is a high-level executive. She is a vision dressed to the nines by Irene. We’ve been discussing women’s workplace wardrobes quite a bit; this is clearly the movie version. A glamorous ensemble including a beaded white top? Today this is cocktail attire.
The portrayal of the advertising world is classic. As Basketcase jess mentioned, you gotta love the men being referred to as their initials. That is exactly the kind of cliché that Weiner does not use; that distinguishes MM’s reference point from that of the media of the time.
The romance is just… awful. Rock Hudson is playing her entirely; lying, manipulating, utterly messing with her. Despicably. And you never see him soften. I mean, you know they’re gonna end up together, but you never see it happen. She falls for a lie, and frankly, you can’t see anything redeeming about him, and you never see him fall. You remember You’ve Got Mail? You totally see it happen. This? It’s just stupid.
So wait, here’s how it ends. Kills me. They end up accidentally sleeping together, because they accidentally got drunk. They wake up in bed together. She panics, and he says, and I paraphrase… Don’t worry. We got married.
!
!
!
Because the worst thing possible would have been sex. So much worse than being bound for life to a horrid man!
Handsome though. There’s no getting around that.
But wait, there’s more. After the annulment, he leaves town. That’s when you see him soften. He leaves to make her life easier. Fair enough.
Next thing we see, Doris Day’s secretary is calling Rock Hudson, saying Come quick.
Because she’s in labor.
And after much cajoling (minutes worth, actually, while she’s being wheeled into the hospital room), Rock convinces her to marry him. And she does. Right there. Before their child is born. The end.
I can’t remember which it was, but I have to admit there was one scene where Rock Hudson, running a piece of the scam, had me laughing out loud. The performances were delightful, (Rock and Doris and Tony Randall and Edie Adams), and the writing was quick and clever.
But holy crap. Just so hard to take.
September 7th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
i agree, this genre of film can be very campy and tough to swallow by our standards. but then i see films like A Woman is a Woman and My life to live, same time period, by Godard and soooo vastly different.
September 7th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
Hey ladies, just so you know, Vanity Fair mentioned Mad Men in a huge article about how TV is better made made than movies nowadays. The article is called “Little Big Screen” by Jason Wolcott and unfortunately it is not online, but it is definitely an article worth reading. The entire issue is actually a must read, with a huge article on Marilyn Monroe as well – is it just me or is there a lot more Jackie by day, Marilyn by night fashion going around now that I notice it?
September 7th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
I’m gonna Netflix that one. I can’t believe I’ve never seen it. I can’t help it. I love Doris Day “fluff” movies. It all stems from when I was stuck home in the summer with a broken arm in 2nd grade and my aunt stuck a tape in the VCR (I’m a young-un, born in 1983, so VCRs were around at that time) and hit record on a movie channel. My cheap parents didn’t have cable. That’s how I first saw the movie Pillow Talk. I can’t help it, I like the cheesy fluff of it all.
Hmmm… I might just have to pick up that Vanity Fair.
September 7th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
I love sex comedies of the early ‘60s, and “Lover Come Back” is one of my favorites. I’m always a bit annoyed that Doris Day rarely gets her due. She was a terrific singer and impressive dramatic actress long before “Pillow Talk.” Yes, in comedy, too often she had to play the prude role (hence the famous line “I knew Doris Day before she was a virgin). But even so, she still attacked her comedic parts with an admirable zest.
And Day’s had the best body, I think, of any Hollywood star ever. Hers was a vavoom figure that also exuded incredible strength and athleticism.
I love, too, how in “Lover Come Back” and “Pillow Talk” she’s so excited about her career. As goofy as the movies are, Day’s characters are tough, determined, and totally passionate about their work. Rare traits in a romantic comedy heroine, even today.
I think the rushed let’s-get-her-married-and-pregnant ending is one “Lover Come Back”’s strengths. By the norms of the genre, at the time Day has to end up domesticated. I almost like how the moviemakers zip through the process. It’s pretty clear that’s not what they’re interested in. I suspect they knew the audience really wanted to see Day as the plucky career gal and Hudson as the conniving cad. The marriage-and-family thing—no one cared about that. I wonder if the filmmakers didn’t purposely make it all as absurd as possible just to have a little laugh at the conventions of the day.
I agree Hudson’s character has little to redeem him. But the part of the movie where Hudson is a gay actor playing a straight man pretending to be a possibly gay man is some good dumb fun. And I’m sure, even in 1961, at least a few people got the joke. (I’m looking at you, Sal.)
September 7th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
When you look back at Doris Day moves, a couple of things come to mind. First, she was gorgeous and so was the set decoration. Second, she did play professional women, to a degree that we’ve not yet seen in Mad Men. Yes we’ve had Bobbie and Rachel, but there is no one of equal stature at Sterling Cooper. Given that Teacher’s Pet, Pillow Talk and Lover Come Back had already come out, not to mention The Best of Everything and Executive Suite, there is already a precedent for women with power in 1960s offices. Third, she’s always smart in business and kind of dense when it comes to love. (You’ve Got Mail, indeed!)
September 7th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
I just love Doris Day, sweet and tough as nails…and they never miss a chance for her to sing.
The most interesting part of “Pillow Talk” and “Lover Come Back” is the fact that in both films, Rock Hudson-a gay man-plays a straight guy who very subtly pretends to be gay to get close to Doris. It makes me wonder what were Rock’s own views on the stereotypes he had to fulfill to play a character pretending to be homosexual? (close to his mother, shy around women, collects cooking recipes) Especially since in his public life as an actor he was pretending to be straight.
September 7th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
Her body was rockin’; there’s one shot of her right before she gets the call that outs him, and she is perfection.
Simone, that sounds so interesting… a friend and I have been discussing this for awhile. He’s been renting a lot of series, and watching a season at a time. They have the luxury of time and space to let things develop. Mad Men is a perfect example of that. No rush. He says now when he sees a movie, it is all too compact and he wants to know what else happens.
Neely, interesting thoughts about that ending.
Brenda, in You’ve Got Mail she was dense at everything. He is the one who taught her how to fight. I really love that movie, it’s just really too long.
September 7th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
I love those old Doris & Rock movies. They’re such ridiculous fun. Perfect Sunday afternoon nothing to do but kick back and watch a fluff movie kind of thing.
Unfortunately, you can’t watch a movie like that through the prism of Mad Men. That might induce some sort of apoplectic fit.
Cultural standards were different then. That we can even watch a show like Mad Men on TV speaks volumes about the differences. Back then, this show probably would have been “obscene.” Likewise, the standards for movies were equally stringent. So, while we can watch these people as they probably actually were in 1960, they wouldn’t have had the opportunity to see themselves reflected in the same way.
Poor Doris. She was totally played, in this movie, as she always was. You would think she would have figured it out at some point, but she never did. I suppose she always won in the end, though, because she always got the ring. And isn’t that what she was “supposed” to want after all was said and done?
September 7th, 2008 at 10:36 pm
Here’s the thing, I grew up watching Shirley Temple and Doris Day with my granny so I love them all dearly. You have to understand that the great thing about these “sex comedies” is that sex wasn’t involved really.
The Production code is one of my favorite parts of film history because the writers were so clever. (‘Just put your lips together and blow’ for instance is just one of many great lines these writers had to come up with in To Have and Have Not).
You also have to keep in mind that during this period of film the studio system was just beginning to crumble so Doris didn’t have a choice in her roles, it was about money.
Plus you can’t beat Thelma Ritter as her maid in Pillow Talk…
Dangerous Men and Complicated Women (both by Mick LaSalle) are great books dealing with pre-code film, my personal fave.
September 7th, 2008 at 11:03 pm
Ironically, Doris Day portraying a professional advertising exec is not exactly fantasy. Around the same time period as “Lover Come Back” and “Mad Men”, at least two of the best ad execs were women. One of them was Shirley Polykoff, who had created a famous Miss Clairol ad from that period.
“Poor Doris. She was totally played, in this movie, as she always was. You would think she would have figured it out at some point, but she never did. “
She did figure it out. Why do you think she left Rock Hudson stranded on the beach . . . naked? She also “figured it out” in “Pillow Talk”. Rock Hudson always got found out by her.
September 8th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Neely O’Hara- As for someone getting the Rock Hudson joke, it would have had to have been a Hollywood insider. Some people suspected in the 60’s that Rock Hudson was gay, but everyone outside of Hollywood thought he was straight. (Well at least until the 80’s when a certain group of Dynasty fans noticed changes in Hudson’s appearance, but that’s a seperate issue)
It would be interesting to see Kitty and Sal at a Doris Day/Rock Hudson movie, but it would more a sly wink to the audience, then something Sal would have known.
September 9th, 2008 at 9:46 am
I don’t believe anyone has mentioned a Doris Day fluff movie from 1963 called The Thrill of It All — this is my favorite of her films during this period. The movie is also related to the Mad Men theme of advertising. Doris is the wife of a doctor played by James Garner — she’s a typical housewife until the manufacturers of Happy Soap meet her — she becomes the TV spokeswoman for the soap and her entire life changes. The movie is a lot of fun even though Arlene Francis seems a bit long in the tooth to be having a baby(!) Doris is already married with children so the coy chases of the Rock Hudson movies are not part of the plot. Doris does have a terrific figure. I actually prefer her earlier film career and I adore her voice. Very underrated performer.
September 9th, 2008 at 10:33 am
I’m reading a Doris Day biography even as we speak. I love Pillow Talk even as I rail against the sexism.
There are two separate John Wayne/Maureen O’Hara movies where he shows he wears the pants in the family. In one I believe there’s a public spanking.
I sorta dig a good spanking scene which is why I own Secretary, but that’s me.
September 9th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
I love Secretary. Great movie. But spanking as a form of public humiliation in order to prove to a woman she shouldn’t talk back? Just pisses me off.
The two movies are The Quiet Man, a very acclaimed movie that I’m not all that crazy about, but the relationship is good. They are contentious with each other in a way that seems very human, and there’s an awful lot of social context given for the spanking. Which is still nasty, but whatever.
The other movie is McClintock! which I absolutely hated. O’Hara plays a caricature of a shrew, she is always screaming or shrieking or storming off in indignation or being a snob. She doesn’t have a single calm, human moment in the entire film. And the spanking was horrific.