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

Dawn's favorite Movie actors and their films of the "60's".

Clint Eastwood:
1964 A Fistful of Dollars
1965 For a Few Dollars More
1966 The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
1967 Le streghe
1968 Hang 'Em High
Coogan's Bluff
Where Eagles Dare

In 1963 Eastwood's co-star on Rawhide, Eric Fleming, rejected an offer to star in an Italian-made western, A Fistful of Dollars. Knowing that he could play a cowboy Harrison suggested Eastwood, who saw the film as a wonderful opportunity.

Eastwood later spoke about the transition from a television western to A Fistful of Dollars: "In Rawhide I did get awfully tired of playing the conventional white hat. The hero who kisses old ladies and dogs and was kind to everybody. I decided it was time to be an anti-hero." Eastwood, created the Man with No Name character, who smoked cigars.

The film was the beginning of spaghetti westerns and Eastwood became a major star in Italy and he also performed in, For a Few Dollars More (1965). Two months later Eastwood began work on the third Dollars film, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, in which he again played the, Man with No Name.

The Dollars trilogy was not shown in the United States until 1967 when A Fistful of Dollars opened in January, For a Few Dollars More in May, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly in December. All the films were successful and turned Eastwood into a major film star. Stardom brought more "tough guy" roles for Eastwood. Next, he signed up to perform in the western, Hang 'Em High (1968). Across between Rawhide and Leone's westerns. Using money earned from the Dollars trilogy Leonard helped establish Eastwood's production company, Malpaso Productions, named after the Malpaso Creek on Eastwood's property in Monterey County, California.

While Eastwood was working on his next film, Coogan's Bluff, Jennings Lang arranged for Eastwood to meet Don Siegel, a Universal contract director who later became one of Eastwood's close friends, that would last for more than ten years. Coogan's Bluff also became the first of many collaborations with Argentine composer Lalo Schifrin, who would later score the jazzy themes to Eastwood's films. Eastwood created the prototype for his role as a cop of the Dirty Harry films.

Next he went on to perform in, Where Eagles Dare(1968), about a World War II squad parachuting into the mountains.

Eastwood then performed in his only musical of his career, Paint Your Wagon (1969). Eastwood and fellow non-singer Lee Marvin play gold miners who share the same wife. It was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.

Rock Hudson:
Seconds (1966)
Lover Come Back (1961)
Ice Station Zebra (1968)
Send Me No Flowers (1964)

In the 60s Hudson, performed in many romantic comedies such as: Pillow Talk, the first of several co-starring with Doris Day. This was followed by Lover Come Back, Come September, Send Me No Flowers, Man's Favorite Sport?, The Spiral Road, and Strange Bedfellows. Along with Cary Grant was regarded as one of the best-dressed male stars in Hollywood. He also performed in the science-fiction thriller, Seconds (1966). The film flopped but it later gained cult status, and Hudson's performance is often regarded as one of his best. He also tried his hand in the action genre with Tobruk (1967), the lead in 1968's spy thriller Ice Station Zebra, a role which he said was his personal favorite, and the western, The Undefeated (1969).

Kirk Douglas:
Spartacus (1960)
Seven Days in May (1964)
War Wagon, The (1967)
Lonely Are the Brave (1962)

Douglas, was a major box office star in the 60s, performing in many westerns such as, In Lonely Are the Brave (1962), his own favorite of his performances, Douglas plays a cowboy trying to live by his own code, much as he did in real life.

Douglas played many military men like in the films: Town Without Pity (1961), The Hook (1963), Seven Days in May (1964), Heroes of Telemark (1965), In Harm's Way (1965), Cast a Giant Shadow (1966), Is Paris Burning (1966). Douglas played the lead with an all-star cast in, Spartacus (1960). He was also the executive producer. Douglas also performed in comedies, such as in the film, For Love or Money (1963).

Douglas made a couple of films in the 60s with Burt Lancaster: The List of Adrian Messenger(1963)and Seven Days in May (1964).



Douglas stated that the keys to acting success are determination and application, "You must know how to function and how to maintain yourself, and you must have a love of what you do. But an actor also needs great good luck. I have had that luck."Douglas had great vitality, "It takes a lot out of you to work in this business. Many people fall by the wayside because they don’t have the energy to sustain their talent.".

Cary Grant:
Charade (1963)
Father Goose (1964)
Walk Don't Run (1966)
That Touch of Mink (1962)

In the mid-1950s, Grant formed his own production company, Granart Productions, and produced a number of movies in the 60s such as: That Touch of Mink and Father Goose (1964).




In 1963, he also performed opposite Audrey Hepburn in the film, Charade (1963). His last feature film was Walk, Don't Run.

Grant was the first actor to "go independent" by not renewing his studio contract.  Because of this he decided which movies he was going to perform in, he also had the choice of the directors and his co-stars and at times even negotiated a share of the gross, something uncommon at the time.

Fred MacMurray :
Apartment, The (1960)
Absent Minded Professor, The (1961)
Son of Flubber (1963)
Follow Me, Boys! (1966)

In the 1960s, he starred in My Three Sons, which ran for 12 seasons, making it one of America's longest-running TV show. MacMurray, stared in 1961 as Professor Ned Brainerd in Disney's, The Absent-Minded Professor and in its sequel, Son of Flubber, in 1964.



MacMurray, had a provision in his "Sons" contract that all his scenes be shot first. This freed him to pursue his film work and golf . It's also interesting to note that two character names on "My Three Sons" were named after his real life children, Rob (as in Rob Douglas) and Katherine (Kate); he often referred to his TV son Robbie as 'Rob' and later TV daughter-in-law Katie Douglas as 'Kate.'

He was a staunch supporter of the Republican Party. He joined Bob Hope and James Stewart to campaign for Richard Nixon in 1968.

He was one of the wealthiest actors of the 60s and MacMurray usually brought a brown bag lunch to work. Friends and business associates referred to him as "the thrifty multimillionaire."

Jack Lemmon :
Apartment, The (1960)
Odd Couple, The (1968)
Great Race, The (1965)
Days of Wine and Roses (1962)

Lemmon, was a favorite actor of director Billy Wilder, who felt Lemmon had a natural tendency toward overacting. In the Wilder biography Nobody's Perfect quotes the director as saying, "Lemmon, I would describe him as a ham, a fine ham, and with ham you have to trim a little fat". The biography also quotes Jack Lemmon as saying, "I am particularly susceptible to the parts I play... If my character was having a nervous breakdown, I started to have one".

He also had a longtime working relationship with director Blake Edwards, starring in in the 60s films: Days of Wine and Roses (1962), The Great Race (1965) and That's Life! (1986).

Days of Wine and Roses (1962) was one of his favorite roles. He portrayed Joe Clay, a young, fun-loving alcoholic businessman. In that film, Lemmon delivered the line, "My name is Joe Clay ... I'm an alcoholic." Three and a half decades later, he admitted on the television program, Inside the Actors Studio, that he was not acting when he delivered that line, that he really was a recovering alcoholic at the end of his life.


Lemmon's production company JML produced Cool Hand Luke in 1967. Paul Newman was grateful to Lemmon for his support and offered him the role later made famous by Robert Redford in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid but Lemmon turned it down. He did not like riding horses and he also felt he'd already played too many aspects of the Sundance Kid's character before.

Lemmon often performed in films with Walter Matthau. Among their pairings was 1968's The Odd Couple, as Felix Ungar (Lemmon) and Oscar Madison (Matthau).

William Holden:
Wild Bunch, The (1969)
Paris - When It Sizzles (1964)
Casino Royale (1967)
Devil's Brigade, The (1968)

Holden was forced by studio contracts to perform in films such as, Paris When It Sizzles (1964), also co-starring Audrey Hepburn. By the mid-1960s, his career was beginning to fade.

Robert Redford:
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
This Property Is Condemned (1966)
Barefoot in the Park (1967)
Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here (1969)

Redford, made his screen debut in the film, War Hunt (1962). Later he was cast in larger roles in movies such as, In Inside Daisy Clover (1965) with Natalie Wood, they also performed together in the film, This Property Is Condemned (1966). The same year saw his first teaming with Jane Fonda in, The Chase. Fonda and Redford were paired again in the film, Barefoot in the Park (1967) also the film, The Electric Horseman (1979).

Redford was cast in the film, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), scripted by William Goldman, in which he was paired for the first time with Paul Newman. The film cemented his screen image as an intelligent, reliable, good guy.




Redford did have a few box office flops, Downhill Racer (1969) and Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here (1969).

Anthony Quinn:
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Guns of Navarone, The (1961)
Barabbas (1962)
Alexis Zorbas (1964)

By the 60s Quinn, was beginning to show his age and began his transformation into a major character actor. He played a Greek resistance fighter in the film, The Guns of Navarone (1961), a ex-boxer in the film, Requiem for a Heavyweight, and Auda abu Tayi in the film, Lawrence of Arabia (both 1962). He also played the title role in Barabbas. The success of the film, Zorba the Greek (1964) which won him another Oscar nomination for Best Actor. Other films include: The 25th Hour (1967), The Magus (1968), Guns for San Sebastian with Charles Bronson and The Shoes of the Fisherman, where he played a Ukrainian pope. In 1969, he starred in the film, The Secret of Santa Vittoria .

Henry Fonda:
Once Upon A Time In The West (1968)
Longest Day, The (1962)
Battle of the Bulge (1965)
Boston Strangler, The (1968)

In the 60s Fonda, was still performing in the western television series The Deputy (1959–1961), in which he starred as Marshal Simon Fry. The 1960s also saw Fonda perform in many war and western epics, including 1962's The Longest Day and How the West Was Won, 1965's In Harm's Way and Battle of the Bulge. In the Cold War suspense film Fail-Safe (1964), Fonda played the President of the United States who tries to prevent a nuclear holocaust through tense negotiations with the Soviets after American bombers are mistakenly ordered to attack the USSR. He also performed in the light-hearted film, Spencer's Mountain (1963), which was the inspiration for the TV series, The Waltons.

Fonda , performed against type as the villain 'Frank' in, 1968's Once Upon a Time in the West.

Fonda's was good friends with Jimmy Stewart and they teamed up to work on the film, Firecreek(1968), where Fonda once again played the bad guy.

Epic: Giant(1956).

Giant(1956). Directed by George Stevens from a screenplay adapted by Fred Guiol and Ivan Moffat from the novel by Edna Ferber. The film stars Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and James Dean and features Carroll Baker, Jane Withers, Chill Wills, Mercedes McCambridge, Dennis Hopper, Sal Mineo, Rod Taylor and Earl Holliman. Giant, was the last of James Dean's three films as a leading actor, and earned him his second and last Academy Award nomination.

The epic begins when, Jordan "Bick" Benedict, travels from Texas to Maryland, to buy a stud horse, named War Winds. There he meets and marries southern belle, Leslie Lynnton. They return to the Texas family ranch, Reata, which is run by Luz, Bick's sister, who does not care much for Leslie. Jett Rink, works for Luz and he also falls in love with Leslie from a far.

Luz takes out her hate for Leslie, by digging her spurs into Leslie's beloved horse, War Winds, while riding him home one afternoon. Luz, dies after War Winds bucks her off and as part of her will, Jett is given some land on the Benedict ranch. Bick tries to buy back the land, but Jett refuses.

Later Leslie, gives birth to twins, Jordan Benedict III and Judy Benedict, named after his sister.

Jett discovers oil in a footprint left by Leslie. He drives to the Benedict home promising to the family, that he will be richer than the Benedicts. After which Jett makes sexual advances towards Leslie, Bick and Jett get into a fight.

The trouble really begins, when Bick, insists that Jordy must grow up to run the ranch, but Jordy wants to become a doctor. Leslie, wants Judy to attend school in Switzerland, but Judy loves the ranch and wants to stay in Texas. After war breaks out, Jett visits the Benedicts and tries to convince Bick to allow oil production to help the war effort. Bick realizes that there is nobody to take over the ranch after him, agrees.

The Benedict/Rink feud comes to a head when the Benedicts learn that Luz Jr. and the much older Jett Rink have been dating. At a huge dinner party that Jett is holding in his own honor, an angry Jordy goes gunning for him, after his Mexican American wife, Juana, was turned away at the beauty parlor.

Bick, steps in and is about to fight him, but .. soon realizes that Jett is a drunk. He tells him, "You're not even worth hitting...You're all through," and leaves, but not before pushing over many shelves of wine. The party ends when Jett, slumps down in front of everyone before his big speech. Luz Jr. sees him and does not like what she sees..

I loved the beautiful Texas landscapes, which couldn't have been more dramatic. The Benedict mansion, is a beautiful Victorian home that changes with the times.. This heartwarming epic covers two generations of family and many issues: marriage, family life and racism. Elizabeth Taylor, gives a wonderful performance playing a Southern belle, in this drama that almost everyone in the film loves her,  because she is smart and caring. It makes me sad to know we lost another great actress of Hollywood's golden age.




Fun Facts:

The hat that Mercedes McCambridge wore in her exterior scenes was given to her by the wardrobe department. It was then "aged" by actor Gary Cooper so that it would look authentic. Mercedes McCambridge wrote in her memoirs that James Dean threatened to steal it.

Before Elizabeth Taylor accepted it, the role of Leslie was offered to Grace Kelly.

The start date of the film was delayed a few months so that Elizabeth Taylor could give birth to a son. Link

Elizabeth Taylor was said to be so upset the day after James Dean was killed in a road accident that she was excused from working on the picture for the day.

Audrey Hepburn was one of first choices for the part later played by Elizabeth Taylor, while John Wayne was considered for the Rock Hudson part. William Holden, Forrest Tucker and Sterling Hayden were also considered for the part of Bick Benedict.

Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor went for get-to-know-you drinks one night at the very start of the production. They both got exceedingly drunk, finishing the evening at 3:00 am. Their call-time was 5:30 am. Fortunately the scene being shot that morning was a wedding scene with no dialog, so instead of talking, all they had to do was look lovingly at each other. The two actors were concentrating so hard on not being sick that they were quite surprised when some of the people on-set started to cry, so convinced were they of their supposed looks of adoration at each other.

Carroll Baker, who plays Elizabeth Taylor's daughter, was older in real life than Taylor.

When Rock Hudson was cast, director George Stevens asked him whom he preferred as his leading lady, 'Grace Kelly' or Elizabeth Taylor. Hudson picked Elizabeth Taylor, who was cast in the film and ended up becoming lifelong friends with Hudson.


Carroll Baker (born May 28, 1931). Baker began her film career in 1953, with a small part in the film, Easy to Love. While she was performing in the role of the Broadway production, All Summer Long. That roll caught the attention of director Elia Kazan, who cast her in the film, Baby Doll. Baby Doll would remain the film for which she is best remembered she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role. Two months prior to Baby Doll's release, she performed in the supporting role of Luz Benedict II in the film, Giant.

She would go on to work in films throughout the late fifties and early sixties, performing in a many films: The Miracle, But Not for Me (both 1959),The Big Country (1958), How the West Was Won (1962), Something Wild (1961), directed by her then-husband Jack Garfein, and Station Six-Sahara (1962). While Baker was on location in Africa for the 1965 movie Mister Moses, story has it that a Maasai chief offered 150 cows, 200 goats, sheep, and $750 for her hand in marriage. She then appeared with Masai warriors on the cover of Life's 1964 issue.

Based on her Carpetbaggers performance, Levine began to develop Baker as a movie sex symbol, casting her in the title roles of two 1965 films, Sylvia and Harlow.

Following a legal battle with Paramount Pictures and divorce from her second husband, Jack Garfein, Baker moved to Europe. Settling in Italy, performing in the films: Her Harem (1967), The Sweet Body of Deborah (1968), Paranoia (1969), and Baba Yaga (1973). A lead role in Andy Warhol's Bad (1977) brought her back to America.

By the eighties, Baker moved into character work, playing the mother of Dorothy Stratten in the film, Star 80 (1983) and Jack Nicholson's wife in, Ironweed (1987). In 1990, she played a villainess in the Arnold Schwarzenegger film, Kindergarten Cop.

Baker has also been featured in documentaries on several of her co-stars, including Clark Gable, Roger Moore, Sal Mineo, and James Dean, including the 1975 James Dean: The First American Teenager. Also, she appeared in the documentary, Cinerama Adventure released along with How the West was Won (2008).

Dorothy Malone.

Dorothy Malone (born January 30, 1925). Much of Malone's early career was in "B" movies, or in Westerns, although she did she have the opportunity to play small roll in the film, The Big Sleep (1946) with Humphrey Bogart, and the love interest of Dean Martin in the musical-comedy, Artists and Models (1955).

By 1956, Malone had transformed herself into a platinum blonde when she co-starred with Rock Hudson, Lauren Bacall, and Robert Stack in, Written on the Wind (1956). Directed by Douglas Sirk. Based on Robert Wilder's 1945 novel of the same name,  of the real-life scandal involving singer, Libby Holman and her husband.

The troubles begin after Kyle's impulsive marriage to Lucy Moore. He turns against his childhood friend, Mitch Wayne, a geologist for the oil company. Kyle goes into a deep depression after the death of his father, who thinks highly of Mitch but does not think much of his own children.

Mitch is secretly in love with Lucy. He keeps these feelings private until Kyle, having been diagnosed with a low sperm count, assaults Lucy when she announces her pregnancy, wrongly assuming it to be the result of adultery with Mitch. Mitch plans to leave town with her as soon as she's well enough to travel. A drunken Kyle grabs a gun with plans to shoot Mitch. Marylee, tries to grab the gun from him, but it accidentally fires, killing him. Will Marylee be punished for the crime,or will she be left alone to run the company .

She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. As a result, she was offered more substantial roles in, Too Much, Too Soon, where she portrayed Diana Barrymore, Man of a Thousand Faces (with James Cagney), and Warlock (with Henry Fonda and Richard Widmark). Other films include: The Tarnished Angels, The Last Voyage and The Last Sunset.

In the 1963-1964 season, Malone guest starred on, The Greatest Show on Earth. She performed in the lead role of, Constance MacKenzie on the ABC prime time serial Peyton Place, in which she starred from 1964 to 1968. She had a featured role in the miniseries, Rich Man, Poor Man (1976). In her last screen performance, she played a mother convicted of murdering her family in, Basic Instinct (1992).

Filmography:
Night and Day (1946)
The Big Sleep (1946)
Flaxy Martin (1949)
Colorado Territory (1949)
The Nevadan (1950)
Convicted (1950)
Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone (1950)
The Bushwackers (1952)
Scared Stiff (1953)
Young at Heart (1954)
Battle Cry (1955)
The Fast and the Furious (1955)
Sincerely Yours (1955)
Written on the Wind (1956)
The Last Sunset(1961)

Beach Party (1963)
Fate Is the Hunter (1964)
Good Luck, Miss Wyckoff (1979)
Winter Kills (1979)
Basic Instinct (1992)

Happy Birthday: Rock Hudson!

Rock Hudson( November 17, 1925 – October 2, 1985).  In 1959 playboy, Rock Hudson and girl next door Doris Day, were first paired for their trilogy of movies: Pillow Talk(1959), Lover Come Back(1961) and Send me No Flowers(1964). Perfect comedies with great performances by Hudson and Day.

The 6ft 5in tall actor was one of the most popular and well-known movie stars of his time. He completed nearly 70 films and starred in several television shows during a career that spanned over four decades. One of his first on screen successes was in the film: Magnificent Obsession(1954). Cast: Rock Hudson and Jane Wyman. Playboy Robert Merrick loses control of his speed boat and has a terrible accident. Rescuers send for the nearest resuscitator, located at Dr. Phillips's house on the lake. Unfortunately, Dr. Phillips has a fatal heart attack and dies. Merrick becomes a patient at Dr. Phillips's clinic, where the doctors and nurses all blame Merrick for Dr. Phillips's death.

Merrick finally learns why everyone dislikes him. He tries to run away, but .. faints,  in front of Helen's car and ends up back at the hospital. Fully recovered Merrick, tries to go back to his wild life style and leaves the party, drunk. After running off the road, Merrick ends up at the home of Edward Randolph, who recognizes him. Randolph shares with him how he and Dr. Phillips became so successful. As fate would have it, Helen steps into the path of a car while trying to run away from Merrick. She is blinded by accident and Merrick vows to become a doctor. He falls love with Helen and helps her adjust to her blindness under the name, Robby.

After many extensive tests, surgeons tell Helen there is no hope for recovery. Later, Robby confesses to being Merrick. Helen has already guessed this. Merrick asks Helen to marry him. Later that night, Helen realizes she will be a burden to him, disappears. Will Merrick ever find Helen and will she ever be cured. Also in the cast, Agnes Moorehead, who has some great moments in the film.

Hudson's popularity soared in the film, Giant, based on Edna Ferber's novel and co-starring Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean. Hudson and Dean both were nominated for Oscars in the Best Actor category.

Following the film, Something of Value (1957) was a moving performance in, A Farewell to Arms, which he turned down Marlon Brando's role in Sayonara, William Holden's role in, The Bridge on the River Kwai, and Charlton Heston's role in, Ben-Hur. Those films went on to become successful while, A Farewell to Arms was a huge flop.

He performed in the thriller, Seconds (1966). The film flopped but it later gained cult status, and Hudson's performance is often called one of his best. He also worked on the action film, Tobruk (1967), the lead in 1968's spy thriller, Ice Station Zebra, a role was his  favorite film, he also performed in the western, The Undefeated (1969) opposite John Wayne.

He starred in one of my favorite TV shows, McMillan and Wife opposite Susan Saint James from 1971 to 1977.  Hudson played police commissioner Stewart "Mac" McMillan with Saint James as his wife Sally.



He was in ill health while filming, The Ambassador. From December 1984 to April 1985, Hudson landed a recurring role on the ABC prime time soap opera Dynasty as Daniel Reece, the love interest for Krystle Carrington (played by Linda Evans) and biological father of the character Sammy Jo Carrington (Heather Locklear).