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

Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957).

Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957). Cast:Jayne Mansfield, Tony Randall, Betsy Drake, Joan Blondell, John Williams, Henry Jones, Lili Gentle, Mickey Hargitay, and a cameo by Groucho Marx. It was produced and directed by Frank Tashlin, who also wrote the original screenplay. The Broadway play ran from 1955–1956 and also starred Jayne Mansfield as Rita.

The film has many references to several of Jayne Mansfield's other roles: The Girl Can't Help It, Kiss Them for Me, and The Wayward Bus. The book Mansfield reads in the bathtub scene is, Peyton Place by Grace Metalious, which became a movie and a popular TV series, that is one of the first prime time soap operas.

The story begins when, a advertising agency is about to lose a very important account, Stay Put Lipstick. Rock comes up with the idea to get the most famous actress with the "oh so kissable lips", Rita Marlowe. But... to get Rita to endorse the lipstick, Rock has to pretend to be her new boyfriend to make her real boyfriend, Bobo Branigansky , the star of a TV Tarzan show, jealous. Bobo leaks the news of Rita's new romance to the tabloids and Rock Hunter, now becomes known as Marlowe's, "Lover Doll".

It does not take long before Marlowe, thinks she is falling in love with Hunter, but.. her true love is, George Schmidlap. Not being able to find Schmidlap, she goes after Hunter, even though her Secretary Vi, warns her that she is playing a dangerous game.

After Rock, becomes the company president, he quickly finds it is not what he really wants and goes back to his fiancee.

As Rita Marlowe opens her television spot for Stay Put Lipstick, she is surprised by the shows "surprise" guest star, George Schmidlap. Hunter, now free decides to become a chicken farmer, living happily ever after.

Tony Randall, was wonderful playing the everyman. Mansfield, is hilarious with her little high-pitched squeal, it's very cute and always funny. The supporting cast is also wonderful, especially Joan Blondell, who.. I absolutely love.

Fun Facts:

The name of Jayne Mansfield's character, "Rita Marlowe", is a combination of  Rita Hayworth, Jean Harlow, and Marilyn Monroe.

Rita Marlowe's screen credits - "The Girl Can't Help It", "Kiss Them For Me" and "The Wayward Bus" - have the same titles as three of Jayne Mansfield's films - The Girl Can't Help It, Kiss Them for Me and The Wayward Bus.

Rita's poodle is named "Shamroy," a reference to long-time Fox cinematographer Leon Shamroy - who, ironically, did NOT photograph this picture!

Adapted from a Broadway play that also starred Jayne Mansfield. "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?" opened on Oct. 13, 1955 at the Belasco Theatre in New York and ran for 444 performances. The original Broadway cast included Orson Bean, Walter Matthau and Jayne Mansfield. Tina Louise and Tom Poston were replacement cast members.

Mamie Van Doren turned down the role of Rita Marlowe.

Jayne Mansfield (April 19, 1933 – June 29, 1967) . One of the leading blond sex symbols of the 1950s, Mansfield starred in several popular Hollywood films that emphasized her platinum-blond hair and figure.

While Mansfield's film career was short-lived, she had several box office successes. She won the Theatre World Award, a Golden Globe and a Golden Laurel. She's well-known for her starring roles in, The Girl Can't Help It (1956) and Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957).

As the demand for blond bombshells declined in the 1960s, Mansfield performed in low-budget film dramas and comedies, but remained a popular celebrity. She is best known for the romantic-comedy, Promises! Promises!(1963), in which she appeared nude.

In her later career she continued to attract large crowds in foreign countries and in nightclubs. Mansfield had been a Playboy Playmate of the Month and appeared in the magazine several times.