CMBA Guilty Pleasures Movie Blogathon: Lover Come Back (1961)

This was my guilty pleasures choice. This isn't my favourite Doris Day/Rock Hudson film, but the other two, Pillow Talk (1959) and Send Me No Flowers (1964) - in my opinion - are actually really fantastic films. This one... not so fantastic but great fun to watch and I do get that great, guilty, "I shouldn't be laughing at this.. But I am and I will," feeling. Love.

Now, Doris Day and Rock Hudson are two of my very favourites. You probably know, as I'm always protesting that Doris Day is just as good dramatically as she is comically and this film just seemed like a good idea. I came across it in the Doris Day collection that we have and it was the last of the Day/Hudson ones for us to watch. Lover Come Back was directed by Delbert Mann. If you don't know the plot, here is a brief summary.

Madison avenue advertising executives Jerry Webster and Carol Templeton have very different attitudes to their work. At least that's one way to put it. Jerry gains accounts by wining (and other slightly stronger spirits) and dining and partying with his guests so that they love him so much that they sign. Carol, on the other hand, likes to work the morally and intellectually correct way. She gains the clients by working hard.

But when Jerry steals one too many accounts from her firm, she decides to take drastic action. She takes a case accusing him of immoral conduct to the advertising council. Carol sends one of Jerry's "chorus girls" to the council to testify that he is a rat, but at the same time, he has just bribed her to tell them he is amazing by putting her in a commercial advertising 'VIP', a product that doesn't exist.

Everything seems to be going fine when suddenly - while on holiday in the mountains with his neurotic boss, Peter Ramsay - he finds out that Ramsay gave leave for the company to start showing the commercials. And suddenly everyone wants VIP! And of course it doesn't exist. So pooling their brian power (and funds...) they hire a genius chemist to create a miracle product to be VIP. But in the meantime, Carol Templeton has heard about the fact that they have the account of a product everyone wants, so she hires a private detective to find out what is afoot. She goes to the chemist's house/laboratory to find out what's going on. And having never seen Jerry Webster before, she mistakes him for the chemist, who happens to be out looking for something! She ends up taking the "innocent genius" under her wing and falling in love with him... What will happen when she finds out that he is Jerry Webster? And what will happen when they find out - after consuming many - that VIP is actually a sweet that turns into pure alcohol when it hits the bloodstream?

This is actually a crazy film. There aren't many other ways to describe it. It couldn't be called emotionally deep, or culturally significant or anything. And I love it. I think that the film is fantastic in its own little funky ways now and again. My personal favourite scene is the oner where Jerry and Pete go up to the mountains to stay in Pete's lodge and they go canoeing on a lake and Pete keeps blowing a horn which he says is, "the mating call of the moose!". He intends to attract the moose and then take its picture, but the plan goes a little awry when the moose starts stalking them across the lake...

Now my spin (hopefully the general spin taken...) to this blogathon was that we should blog not only about why the film is good or bad, but about why we in particular love the film ourselves.

I love this film for several reasons. One of them being its sheer velocity. It just keeps going at a fast pace that keeps the slightly strange plot seeming reasonable. This mainly being because you don't have time to question anything or go, "Wait... A moose just chased them through a lake... Why are they suddenly back on Madison Avenue with beards..."

It's pretty risque for the early sixties. I thought this insane kind of film only started being made during the mid-late sixties. The main scenes like this are one scene where Doris Day and Rock Hudson go to a strip club and another where Rock Hudson is trying to make her follow him into his room by stating his insecurities and making her comfort him. At one point during this scene he exclaims, "A kiss? What does that prove? It's like finding out you can light a stove. It doesn't make you a cook!" But throughout the film there are little remarks and comments which do make you think a little. The ending is also quite out there. After waking up in a motel room married, Rock Hudson and Doris Day have a big fight and she states that she is going to get an annulment. But 9 months later her secretary calls him to a hospital to re-marry her because she is about to give birth. As they and the vicar enter the maternity ward, a passing doctor says, "Now that's what I call close!"

Now, I will just have to dedicate a little section here to Tony Randall.

I don't think I've ever expressed it before on my blog, but I adore Tony Randall. I will watch anything with him in. And every time I watch Send Me No flowers a little piece of me dies inside because he is Rock Hudson's next door neighbour. Not mine. Life has never been so unfair. He is just spot on all the time. His timing is spot on. His facial expressions are also spot on (in this, his face actually becomes purple and blue). There is this bit where they are in the canoe rowing back to shore and Jerry tells him that there is no VIP and he just goes, "HNGAHH!" And it sounds like a moose call! LOL! Super amazing. I also love where he comes down atop the elevator after becoming highly intoxicated by mint candies and yells "I'M KING OF THE ELEVATOR!" A phrase that my sister and I seem to have strangely coined as a joint catchphrase... Don't ask. I don't know.

{Sorry for the bad GIF quality!}

And the chemistry between Rock Hudson and Doris Day is great as always. Plus, this time Rock Hudson has a beard and is generally pretty cool, until you realize his character is an idiot. But you know, it's Rock Hudson, so it's all good.

Just as a last note, Doris Day's outfits and entire wardrobe in Lover Come Back are pretty beautiful (and if you have seen this film. Yes. We are ignoring the tasseled cone beach hat).

There are some great 60s dresses and coats and things for her. This and Bewitched (obviously along with other films) are the main basis for the Mad Men costume designers, I swear. I actually haven't seen the series, but even if they weren't very good, at least they brought 50s styles back into fashion!  They were designed by "Irene". One of those costume design companies which has only a first name... No second... Like "Adrian". Who are these people?

Overall it is a very silly film. If you have a low nonsense tolerance don't put yourself through it. But if you love Doris Day and Rock Hudson and Tony Randall and will watch almost anything for these three actors (*Cough* My family *cough*. Who said that?) then definitely give it a try. It's a total laugh a minute flick!

This is my contribution to the Classic Movie Blog Association Guilty Pleasures Movie Blogathon. Head over to their site to read some of the other great reviews!

~Bette

CMBA Films of 1939 Blogathon: Wuthering Heights

Hello all, time has come for me to post my review for the great Films of 1939 blogathon held by Page and Becky! My review is on William Wyler's production of Wuthering Heights.

Wuthering Heights

Directed By: William Wyler (based on Emily Bronte's famed classic)

Starring: Lawrence Olivier, Merle Oberon, David Niven, Donald Crisp, Flora Robson and Geraldine Fitzgerald.

Now, I'm sure that many of you are familiar with the plot of Wuthering Heights, but just in case you aren't, her is a summary that won't probably won't ruin too much of the story.

Catharine and Hindley Earnshaw have lived in peace with their father at their home, Wuthering Heights, in the middle of the beautiful Yorkshire moors all their lives, until one day, when their father brings them back a surprise from London. He had found a homeless boy on the streets of London and had taken pity on him and brought him home. As soon as the boy arrives he and Cathy (as Catharine was nicknamed) gell well together and spend a great deal of their time playing King and Queen on the moors, pretending that their castle was a special tall rocky slope called Penistone Crag. But Hindley treats Heathcliff like a stable boy, being violent and horrible to him.

Years later, and even after their father's death, Hindley is still treating Heathcliff like filth, but Cathy and Heathcliff still have a very affectionate relationship. But when they are caught spying on a party at the wealthy Lintons' nearby house, The Grange, their friendship changes. Cathy is caught by a guard dog and bitten badly on the ankle. After staying for a while at The Grange to recover from her injuries, Cathy comes back to the Heights a much changed person. She also starts to treat Heathcliff badly until she realises that she does love him.

But that night she receives Edgar Linton, who she had come to know very well while she was staying at his family's house, and he asks her to marry him. Heathcliff is concerned about Cathy's feelings for him and overhears her talking to the housekeeper (and narrator of the story), Ellen, about her situation. When he hears her say that it would degrade her to marry Heathcliff he leaves on his horse not to return for years. What he didn't hear was that she said that she loves Heathcliff more than she loves anyone.

Some years later, after the wedding of Edgar and Cathy, Heathcliff returns a new man. Quite the gentleman, he starts to go after Edgar's sister Isabella, in order to try and make Cathy jealous...

One of the first things that I noticed about this film was the change from the book (that I read recently). Only half of the book is used at all! The film completely cuts off after *serious spoiler!* Cathy dies and tells nothing of the next generation of Lintons and Earnshaws which takes up about 14 of the 34 chapters in the book.

Watching this film again reminded me about how much I love the costume design. I was seriously coveting the beautiful outfit of flowing skirt, stripy shirt and scarf worn by Cathy before she becomes "Linton-ified". All of everyones outfits throughout the movie were beautiful, though the whole film is set when the novel was published, rather than the earlier period the book is actually set in.

All performances were great and Merle Oberon is good as Cathy. I always really enjoy Geraldine Fitzgerald's performance as Isabella Linton, and, surprisingly, I like David Niven! Don't get me wrong, I can appreciate his talent and all, but I find that he is a little dodgy or strange in many movies - though I really like his performances in both this and A Matter Of Life And Death (1946, Powell and Pressburger of The Red Shoes fame). Flora Robson and Donald Crisp are both very good too.

And now on to Lawrence Olivier who I feel deserves a paragraph of his own. I just love him as Heathcliff and sympathise so much more with him in the film than I do with Heathcliff in the book! I don't know if this is just because I seriously like him, but every time I see him in a book-movie production, I like his character so much better than I do in the book. Take "Rebecca".

In the book: Maxim - Obviously a very romantic figure but sounds like a bit of a psycho murderer towards the end; The New Mrs De Winter - Poor girl who marries a murderer (even if this murderer is of Maxim amazingness, it's not that great a choice.) and is tormented by his deceased wife.

In the film: Maxim - *swoon* Handsome man who was treated seriously badly by his dead wife and is just looking for happiness; The New Mrs. De Winter - Annoying. Does love Maxim. More annoying. (nothing to do with Joan Fontaine's performance...)

Yes. He is a great Heathcliff :-) He makes me so upset whenever Cathy rejects him!

The whole picture is directed excellently. My love for William Wyler movies knows no bounds. Just think about it. Mrs. Miniver, The Letter, Ben Hur, Jezebel, Roman Holiday, Funny Girl, is there anything this man can't do? The interesting way that he choses to close up on Heathcliff's hands and other features which are a main part of the description of him in the book is very effective. Producer of the film, Samuel Goldwyn was quoted as saying "I made Wuthering Heights, Wyler only directed it." THIS MAKES ME SOOOOO MAD!!!!!!! It is so obvious that William Wyler made the film what it is - and if there had been any other things added the film may have been quite different.

See. Geraldine Fitzgerald is also angry :-)

The script is also great - maintaining some of the lines from the book. Cathy's scene with Ellen when she tells her she loves Heathcliff is written very well... "Ellen, I am Heathcliff!" And the line that Cathy says to Ellen while preparing for Edgar Linton, "There's nothing to be gained by just looking pretty, like Isabella. Every beauty mark must conceal a thought, and every curl be full of humour," is also very cool.

I also just have to say, doesn't Merle Oberon look so much like Meryl Streep? I think so!

I would honestly recommend this film to anyone. If you have read the book and not seen this film (my parents don't think so highly of the newest ones...) do go and watch it now! One other thing that I have to say is that it isn't nearly as "gothic" as the book. The most gothic it gets is at the end (which Wyler hated and was a suggestion from Goldwyn) and at the begging where Heathcliff runs into the storm and is all crying: "CATHY!!! CATHY!!!"

I hope you enjoyed my review, and you can see the list of all participants here!

~Bette

CMBA Hitchcock Blogathon: North By Northwest (1959)

I have recently been accepted by the Classic Movie Blog Association, and this will be the first event I have taken part in! Here it is, an in depth post dedicated to the legendary Hitchcock classic, North By Northwest. This is a serious review, you may be glad to hear - not as much rambling. Hopefully more thought (?!?!)...

North By Northwest

Lots of people remember Alfred Hitchcock for the classic scene in North By Northwest where Cary Grant's character is being chased by a crop duster sent to kill him, in the middle of a desolate field.

Hitchcock made many classics in his time, and is generally known as the man who captured and mastered the thriller. He thrilled us all with his earlier films such as Rebecca (1940) and Notorious (1946), and scared the daylights out of us with his gruesome later films like The Birds (1963), Vertigo (1958), Rear Window (1954). And Psycho (1960) - so I am told. Because of the film's age limit and my fear of gruesome horror films, I will be avoiding this film for as long as possible. These films were all made at similar times and seem to be part of the same genre. North By Northwest seems to have gotten accidentally caught up in this period with a load of films that seem to be of a different theme. Is this why this films sticks in our mind when thinking of Hitchcock?

North By Northwest is about an advertising man named Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) who is mistakenly identified as George Kaplan when a coincidence in a hotel luncheon room leads Kaplan's kidnappers to believe that he is Kaplan. They take him back to a Mr. Townsend's house and forcibly make him drink a large bottle of Bourbon. This "Mr. Townsend" is actually Phillip Vandamm (James Mason). Drunk and confused Thornhill (Cary Grant) is put in a car to drive home on a rocky cliff road. He manages to control the car and survive far enough to be seen by a police car. After he is bailed out of jail by his mother, a group of detectives take a look at the house and into the men who supposedly kidnapped him. They find nothing. When Roger stupidly takes a look in Kaplan's hotel room he is mistaken for him again, and he finds out that no one ever seems to have seen this man. We see the CIA talking about the situation after the murder of the real Mr. Townsend is framed on Roger Thornhill, who they know is now known as George Kaplan. They discuss how George Kaplan is a fictional character created to trap criminal, Phillip Vandamm - the now exhausted audience finally finding out who Kaplan is. Thornhill sneaks onto a train to Chicago and meets beautiful lady, Eve Kendall (Eve Marie Saint). 

They fall in love and she agrees to hide him in her compartment on the train as he hasn't got a ticket. When they get to Chicago, she dresses him as a bellboy and tells him where to go. Subsequently he arrives at a bus stop in the middle of nowhere and is pursued by a crop duster (hence the legendary scene). He finds out that Eve is a spy for Vandamm who has been lying to him and reporting back to Phillip. When a CIA agent tells him the truth, that she is a double agent working for them, he realises that he has to go and save her from a fate worse that death. Said saving includes climbing down Mount Rushmore in an attempt to escape from Vandamm and his henchmen. 

The final scene shows Roger pulling her up onto a bunk on a train, and the final shot is the view of the tunnel the train goes into.

One of the first things that strikes you when you watch this film (other than the genius directing, which I am saving till last), is the exquisite way that the colours have been coordinated. The main five colours in the film are red, grey, dark green, yellow and navy blue. All colours that are not part of this scheme are either shown discretely, or worn or used in a way so that it bonds with the main five colours. I have had the amazing experience to see North By Northwest on a large projector screen, making me appreciate the effort that evidently went into the art direction of this picture even more.

You can't review North By Northwest without a mention of Bernard Herman who composed the amazing score with the legendary theme making it's debut in the opening credits - which is said to be the first opening credits to use kinetic typography - and is used throughout the film as the main piece of music. When Eve and Roger are on the train Herman uses echos of music more from the romantic period (so my Dad tells me) to convey the mood.

I also really love the shot that looks like a painting, used for the scene outside The United Nations. It is so lovely, another great touch to the look of the picture.

Eve Marie Saint is really lovely as Eve Kendall. I have only seen her in one other film, The Sandpiper which I thought she was also lovely in. Her clothes! I need them. The beautiful dark blue suit she wears on the train and then later (not pictured) the stunning red dress! First I would also need her hair, but that can be arranged... My darling Cary Grant is gorgeous as always (how could one expect anything else?) and he is playing his forte, the mistaken guy who always gets blamed for things he didn't do. He apparently quarreled with Hitchcock about the wandering plot of the script, but was convinced by Hitchcock's air of wisdom.

What can I say about Hitchcock?! He is just amazing. Every tiny thing has been covered with him. The way he shoots the films is so unique to him, that my family have ended up playing a "Spot the Hitch shot" game whenever we watch one of his films. He even thought to make the house at the end look like a Frank Lloyd Wright house, as he was the most popular architect in America at the time. Without a doubt one of the best directors who ever lived. That is after all, the reason for this blogathon!

Read the 17 other great Hitchcock posts at http://clamba.blogspot.com/.

I leave you with one of my favourite moments in the movie.

If you can't read the subtitles that small, it says:

Ticket Guy: "Something wrong with your eyes?"
Roger Thornhill: "Yes, they're sensitive to questions."

~Bette